Windows 10: Win10 search: “These results may be incomplete”, won't find files

Hello. Windows 10 bugs are driving me insane, I hope some of you can help me. I'm using a 3 months old hp Spectre x360 (early 2016 model) which came preinstalled with Windows 10. It currently has the Anniversary Edition installed. When I try to search based on the files contents from the search menu, I get the known “These results may be incomplete” message on top. In Windows Explorer, the search box on the top right only searches for filenames, but not file content, and it takes a lot of time to process (as if it worked with the search index disabled). Outlook 2016 / 365 search doesn't work either, at all (it doesn't even search on the mails' subjects).

• The locale is en-US.
• I've uninstalled and reinstalled the search component using dism.
• I've rebuilt the index several times.
• I've restarted the Windows Search index many times, too.
• I've run the search and indexing troubleshooter.
• I didn't install an AV other than using the built-in Windows Defender.
• This is most likely another Windows 10 bug, because I haven't thinkered with this computer at all.

I don't know what else to do. Normally I'd pave over with a fresh install, but I'm not sure every driver will be readily available, and I don't have as much time as I used to for playing with the computer. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Btw,
Code: C:\WINDOWS\system32> dism /online /get-intlDeployment Image Servicing and Management toolVersion: 10.0.14393.0Image Version: 10.0.14393.0Reporting online international settings.Default system UI language : en-USSystem locale : en-USActive keyboard(s) : 0409:00000409, 0409:0000080a, 2c0a:0000080aKeyboard layered driver : PC/AT Enhanced Keyboard (101/102-Key)Installed language(s): en-US Type : Fully localized language.The operation completed successfully.[/quote]

:)

 

These results may be incomplete..

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused. I will assist you with this.

I suggest you to follow these steps to check for updates.

• 
  Press Windows logo key
  
  +R, enter
  ms-settings:, and then press OK. This opens
  Settings.
  
• 
  In Settings, go to Update & security > Windows Update, and then select
  Check for updates. Install any available updates and
  restart your PC if required.
  

Also I suggest you to run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter
and check.

• Type troubleshooting in the search bar and open it.
• Click on "view all" on the left pane
• Run the "Search and Indexing troubleshooter" troubleshooter and follow the on-screen instructions.
  

Then try to re-build the indexing.

• Right-click on Start Menu. Click on
  Control Panel.
• Click on Indexing options.
• Click on Advanced. Click on Rebuild.
• Click/tap on OK
• You will notice the index being rebuilt. Click/tap on Close.

Hope this information was helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.

 

These results may be incomplete...

If you follow Sangeeta's instructions and post in the Enterprise support.

Could you bring any answers back here?

On every similar issue I found the Microsoft Support stopped helping after telling people to rebuild the index and run the troubleshooter, this never fixes the problem.

Maybe the Enterprise support personal are trained better and have a real answer.

 

Hi, whether search searches content or not depends on a couple of settings e.g. folder and file:






& this in Indexing Options.




Clearly in file explorer search you need to be searching something which has been indexed.
(See control panel, Indexing Options).

"These results may be incomplete"
- often associated with an incomplete language change- but you say you haven't done that?

Please post a screenshot of your Indexing Options. Thanks.

Have you run the search indexing troubleshooter?

 

Hi! Thanks for helping me. Yes, I've run the troubleshooter; it says "Troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem". :/

Every relevant folder has the "Allow this files in this folder to have contents indexed checkbox". I didn't change it from the default, and I re-checked: the Users folder has that setting on.

>> "- often associated with an incomplete language change- but you say you haven't done that?" I haven't changed the language of the UI. My country or region is from Latin America, and I have English-US as the Windows display language, and then a variant of Spanish as a secondary language. That secondary language has a Spanish keyboard layout set so I can quickly switch between English and Spanish with alt+shift.

In the indexing options cmdlet, all the relevant filetypes (.docx, .pdf, etc) are set to "properties and content" indexing.


Windows 10 is gonna make me spontaneously combust.

 

Hi, As you have made language changes, what I suggest you do is to set everything back to English-US (except you don't need to bother about the input language).

See:
Issue with Windows 10 Search Indexing and Display Languages Resulting in "These results may be incomplete".

E.g. here:







and here:




I asked this previously:
Please post a screenshot of your Indexing Options. Thanks.

It isn't that you're facing bugs exactly, but a conceptual design weakness (i my opinion). I.e.the difficulty MS has created for users to get a number of settings to be consistent. In my opinion, changing language settings should be wizard based, so you are pretty much guaranteed to get a meaningful result. As it is, we're left fumbling around. This is NOT a consumer product. Yet.

When you've made these changes, launch Cortana, and look carefully for any helpful messages about language.

If language settings are mismatched, you will also find searching Settings doesn't work properly.

 

I've run lpksetup /u in an elevated command prompt and I only see a single language pack.
I've set everything you've suggested to en-US and restarted.
Here's the requested screenshot:




Here's something weird. If I restart and immediately search something I know is in some pdf's contents and not on any filename (an author citation) I see the results and I don't get the "These results may be incomplete". A few seconds later I search exactly the same and I don't get any results (!!). I don't have many startup programs, all of them well known (I'm trying to isolate them to see if any causes this, with no luck yet).

So.... *sarc*Think*Mad*Confused

 

Please post a screenshot of your Indexing Options. Thanks. - Like this:




Also one showing Cortana like this:



(You can't use snip for that, do print screen then crop as you like in e.g. Paint).

What you've observed is interesting- and suggests something related to startup being applied. I can't think what it might be.

Have you changed anything related to so-called privacy?

Also try searching in Settings and check if that works.

 

I don't index anything and use Wise Jetsearch. Extremely fast.

 

Unfortunately that doesn't help solve the question. I use Locate32 - which, like Ultrasearch, Everything, gives 'instant' results for all files and disks. But it is handy at times to have Windows search working.

None of the above 3rd party tools index text file content.

By the way: if you use the search box and find things in the start menu, or search Settings, and get quick results, you are using indexing.

 

I agree but personally I have never had the need to search for text inside files. And I believe that Windows indexing takes a lot of time and slows your PC considerably. Certainly the 3rd party apps use some index, but I never noticed an effect of building such index. Results on file names are immediate.

 

Not true. Windows indexing is done when there's little activity on your PC. It backs off (stops) when you're using your PC.

Once the indexing is done, unless you change or add files in regions indexed, rebuild the index, or change indexed folders, there's very little for it to do. I suspect your comment goes back to XP days when it was common to disable it. Doing that now is to do yourself a disservice in respect of searching the start menu and Settings.

Please can we not further deviate from the objective of this thread as originally posted. Thanks.

 

Many things to reply to. Yes, I use Everything most of the time. Yet content search is vital for me and I use it often too. Settings search works, and rather fast (not instantaneous). And I'm trying to keep untrustworthy thirdparty software to a minimum.

Privacy settings: I've set to share everyting with M$FT and didn't change a thing since first boot. And I haven't used any "tweaking" program that might've changed anyting (other than maybe HP preinstalled software, but that's bare too).

Indexing with a modern SSD is unnoticeable. Yet it brings big productivity gains when it works.















Everything I might search for is under \Users

 

That all looks ok. Have you tried a clean boot? you mentioned search seemed to work ok initially after logging in.

Check if the Windows search service is running. (E.g. Windows key + R, services.msc). (But it does appear to start again automatically if stopped- see below for significance)

** Look what I get if I
a. Stop Windows search service
b. Try to find something I didn't try to find before I disabled the search



N.B. finding sthg successfully, then disabling the search, then finding the same thing succeeds, so don't do that.

I also found that having disabled windows search, even restarting it and restarting left me with the same problem. So now I'm rebuilding the index.

That could be a good clue.

 

I don't think that rebuilding the index once more will help. After all, for a brief few seconds after start I see the results, so the index is ok.

The service is up and running. Restarting it brings back the results for a few seconds (<5s).

I've disabled every startup item and the problem persists, so it's Windows.

I do get three of the following errors in the Event log.

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {8D8F4F83-3594-4F07-8369-FC3C3CAE4919} and APPID {F72671A9-012C-4725-9D2F-2A4D32D65169} to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

A quick search for the first GUID on Google points to it being Cortana (and thus search) related, but I haven't had yet the time to investigate it fully. Just wanted to let you know.

Thanks!