Windows Search Function doesn't work in Shared folders with SMB from mac OS

Question

Hello all,

I have an issue with the SMB shared folders by MAC OS, I'm able to access them in my home network from a PC running Windows 10 pro, but the search function doesn't work.

I have a home network with 2 MACs and a PC with the following configuration:
MacBook Pro 15: version 2018, mac OS 11.01 Big Sur
MacBook Pro 16: version 2019, mac OS 10.15.7 Catalina
PC: Windows 10 Pro, Build 18363.1198
NAS: QNAP TS-212, OS version: 4.3.3

In Both MAC Netbios is active, and I have shared some folders using SMB protocol only.

I’m able to access each folder from the Windows PC and I’m also able to modify each file stored, but If I try to use the windows search function in the shared folders, the search gives no results without even starting, it only gives me no match found result.

If I use the Windows search function in the whole MAC the search functions works and gives correct results, but of course is very slow since it has to search the whole MAC, here below I have attached some screenshots hoping they could be helpful to understand the issue.

As note if i try to search from a Mac an SMB folder shared by the other Mac the search funtions works properly.

I tried to search on internet, but I was not successful in finding any hints on how to solve it, without success, any hints is welcome.

Thanks all in advance for any advice.

Supporting screenshots link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nY-guKw0y7rIcCl_AxON6AqjA2QCWv79?usp=sharing

Answer 1

Hello,

I faced this issue for some months too... but I just solved it yesterday.

Windows 11 seems to be unable to index shared folder, so I turned it completely off.

On File Explorer, go to View / Options / Modify directory and searching options

Then on the search tab, turn off indexing, and select the needed options below, like that:

(the third option is not needed if you are only searching for file names)

After that, everything is working for me... hope for you all too!

Answer 2

Hi,

Thanks for posting in Q&A platform.

Based on your description, my understanding is you cannot use search function in the shared folder from Mac on Windows 10 pro. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

Please understand, due to the environmental limitation, we have no such Mac device to test in our lab. It is hard for us to reproduce and analyze this issue from Q&A platform support level.

I found a similar thread discussed before which also had the same issue on Windows 10 pro, please kindly check if the method in the following thread was helpful to you.

Windows 10, searching for files on mapped drives, doesn't always work

Best Regards,
Sunny

----------

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.