Sharepoint Search Results
Are you having trouble with Sharepoint search results? The following article provides guidance on how to get the results you want from a search.
Common problems with Sharepoint searches
Have you checked the box to “Allow items from this document library to appear in search results” in the library’s Advanced Settings?
Does your library have major and minor versioning enabled? If so, only documents which have a major version will show up in search results.
Does your library have the inbuilt document approval process switched on? If so, only documents which have been approved at some point in their history will show up in search results.
Do you get different search results to other people? Search results are dependent on your permissions. If you don’t have access to some libraries or some documents they won’t appear in search results.
The document I see is different to the document other people see. If you only have basic permissions you will not necessarily see the same version of documents as an Editor for instance who will see draft version of any resulting documents returned from a search, whereas you will only see the major version or the approved version, depending on the library settings.
Are you searching for a whole word? By default, and unlike File Explorer, Sharepoint won’t return results for searches of partial words.
Sharepoint Search Syntax
What about getting more than you want when you search for a word? If you search for a word, Sharepoint will return documents with that word in the title, the filename, in any readable text within the document. This means you may be getting more than you want. If you are looking for something more specific use the following search syntax with your required search term:
- filename:search_term
- title:search_term
- Use asterisk wildcards for partial search terms such as search_t*
- Use quotes for exact term searches such as “search term”
- Use a combinations of the above filename:”search term” or title:search_t*
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