Windows 10: Search Index Not Consistently Indexing Contents

Hello, I think I have hit the limit of my knowledge with an issue I'm hitting and figured I would share in case anyone has any insights! I'm currently running Windows 10.0.19042 on this machine. I am using the Windows Search Index in a powershell script in order to help with some work that requires searching for guid references in a variety of plain text (YAML) files. I have used indexing options to set folders to index, exclude subfolders I don't want indexed, and set up plain text indexing for the target filetypes I want to search. I've noticed consistently inconsistent results for a while. I've tried re-indexing but the results are still consistently inconsistent. What I mean is, certain search terms always return all expected files while will always exclude files that should have been found. It seems that some filetypes that contain search text work with all search terms (meta files in the example below) while others do not (prefab). To confirm this is not just poor scripting on my part, I've tried using the explorer search and the results are identical to what I see returned from my powershell query. This is a case of the index working as expected, with two results, a meta file and a prefab file. Apologies for all the marking out of files, just trying to keep some work somewhat private. In this other case, the meta shows up but the expected prefab file does not And, for thoroughness, the file contents that contain the same GUID in plain text that isn't appearing Any help would be greatly appreciated! The inconsistency is what is throwing me off more than anything else and my lack of knowledge on how exactly files get indexes has me at a loss for how to continue. Feel free to request any additional information that would be helpful, I'm happy to follow up with more details. Thanks!

:)

 

Search indexer

Is there a tool in Windows to check search indexer contents? I would like to know what each indexer has actually indexed for each file. For example click on file and get not only properties but list of strings for this file. For email messages it works
ok but when searching in file contents on disk it mostly doesn't find what should be there.

 

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.

 

Windows 10 indexing / search

Hi Erik,

System conflict is one of the possible reasons why the index built will not function properly. We suggest running the Search and Indexing troubleshooter by following these steps to resolve your issue:

• Open Control Panel.
• In the search box, type troubleshooting.
• Click on Troubleshooting.
• Click on View all.
• Select Search and Indexing and select the proper scenario that you are experiencing on indexing and click
  Next for the troubleshooting to begin.

Update us with the outcome so we can provide you further assistance.