Windows 10: Fixing the "Index is not running" issue

The purpose of this post is to suggest another method of fixing the "Indexing is not running" problem. Please bear with me; I am not a Windows expert, but I felt the need to write this post simply because all of the other solutions "out there" did not fix my problem. The following however worked for me, so I considered sharing this with the rest of you. Please comment/criticise/improve this solution through comments below. Also, if this "fix" works for you, please let the community know through comments or upvotes below!


Computer System

This fix worked on my Windows 10 Home computer, version 1803, OS build 17134.706, although it is likely to work on any Windows 10 system.


Problems (I was encountering)

• When searching using the Start menu, windows claimed that "Search indexing was turned off"
• When trying to "Rebuild" the index, nothing happens and the issue was not fixed
• When checking with the "Windows Search Service" using the services.msc command, the Index was stopped. Yet when trying to start it, it returned Error 1067: The process terminated unexpectedly.
• When attempting any fixes using the "Registry Editor" (regedit), such as bringing the SetupCompletedSuccessfully value to 0, did not work (value was already at 0 for me).
• Installation of Microsoft Office 365 worked, yet starting the Microsoft Office 365 suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.) all failed. Similarly, I was able to install LibreOffice, yet unable to open any of the LibreOffice applications.

Solution

At the end (after many days of searching), what was causing the issues above was that "Compact OS" had been enabled on my system without me knowing this. Why? See below. For now, there is a quick way to figure out if this is also the case for you.


Open Command Prompt as an administrator, and type in the following in the command line: Compact.exe /CompactOS:query

If the query returns, "The system is in Compact state. It will remain in this state unless an administrator changes it.", then it means that Compact OS has been enabled. When I then disabled it, it fixed all of my problems above when I then re-started my computer.

NOTE: Before disabling Compact OS, ENSURE that you have AT LEAST 5GB of memory on your hard-drive. If you do not, you may end-up facing all kinds of issues later on. I am dead serious on this point.​

To disable Compact OS, simply type (copy paste) the following line into the command prompt as an administrator: Compact.exe /CompactOS:never


Disabling Compact OS will take some time (5-10 minutes), yet when it is complete, it will inform you of its completion. If you then check with Compact.exe /CompactOS:query again, it should now return "The system is not in the Compact state. It will remain in this state unless an administrator changes it.".


Restart your computer, and hopefully your index works again. In my case, it ended up solving all of the "Problems" I listed above.


Please comment below if this solved your issue! (This will help others find this post more easily).



Causes (why does this issue exist)

I have some idea what may be causing this issue. Please take what I am about to write with a grain of salt (and comment if you can improve my answer).


Compact OS is one of those hidden features in Windows 10 that is normally automatically enabled when your hard-drive is running low on disk. This may be because:

• You installed a large application and exceed your hard-drive space.
• You were saving a very large file and exceeded your hard-drive space.
• You upgraded from a previous version of windows with little space on your hard-drive (in which case, Windows would have enabled Compact OS automatically to have the space to install the update).

In any case, visually, this would have resulted in two "blue arrows" on all of your icon files, as discussed here, for example.


This would in most cases be fine, however Compact OS unfortunately also stops indexing from working, and even meant I was unable to install any new applications; in other words, Compact OS, a feature from Windows 10, actually ended up corrupting some fundamental aspects of Windows 10. Why? Well, I actually don't know at this point; hopefully someone from Microsoft will be able to answer this for us. In any case, if you directly tell Windows 10 to disable Compact OS using the steps above, it then ends up solving all of the problems from before, AND removes the blue arrows visible on all icons.



I hope this has helped you. Please let the rest of community know if this solved your indexing issue or not; maybe someone more experienced and technical than me will be able to lend a hand. Cheers!

:)

 

indexing is not running aftervrepairto office 365

Hi Michael,

Thank you for being part of Microsoft Community.

Run the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter.

Windows 10 has a built-in troubleshooter to check and fix issues with search and indexing of files and folders. I would suggest you to run this troubleshooter to check the status of the issue. Refer these steps:

• 
  Press Windows key + X, select
  Control panel.
  
• 
  Change the view by option on the top right to
  Large icons.
  
• 
  Click on troubleshooting and click on the
  view all option on the left panel.
  
• 
  Run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter.
  
• 
  Restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.
  

Please revert if you face any issues with Windows in future.

 

indexing is not running aftervrepairto office 365

Jessen,

The trouble shooter did not fix the problem.

The same problem occurred when I installed office 365, 3 or 4 months ago.

Eventually it disappeared as a matter of course. However waiting for that to happen again is not ideal.

Mike

 

Search - Indexing not running

Hello,

One of the possible reasons why you're having issues when using search is because of a corrupted user profile. For us to assist you, we suggest that you create another account with administrator privileges and try to use the search feature again. Here's an
article that you can visit to see how to do it:
Create a local user or administrator account in Windows 10.

If the issue persists, we suggest that you perform the steps listed below to correct the settings of your Indexed folder:

• Press the Start button.
• Type %LocalAppData%.
• Select Packages.
• Click on windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy.
• Choose LocalState.
• Right-click the Indexed folder.
• Click Properties.
• Click Advanced.
• Click the checkbox beside Allow files in this folder to have contents indexed in addition to file properties so that a check mark appears.
• Click OK.
• Click Apply.
• Click OK. A window with a progress bar will pop up as the folder is indexed.
• Click OK when the indexing progress is finished.

After doing the steps provided, kindly try to use the search feature again.

Kindly update us with the results and if you need further assistance, feel free to post back.