Indexing not working

Hello TerryReagan, welcome to the Microsoft community, I'll be happy to help you today;

I understand that you are having issues with Search and Indexing on Windows 11;

Initially I recommend that you try the following;

Press Windows key + R and type: services.msc press Enter;

Locate the Windows Search service and double-click on it;

In Startup type, change it to Automatic;

Under Service Status, click Stop and then click Start;

Click Apply and then OK;

Now try rebuilding the index again;

Access the Control Panel;

Click View by: and change to small icons;

Click Indexing Options;

Click Advanced;

Click Recreate;

Restart your PC and check if the problem still persists;;

Hope this helps, see you soon!

The joys of Windows Indexing lol.

You shouldn't have to do anything else really as it should just work. They should develop it so it stays working. But, you could always disable it and just use your computer differently. It should be possible to search file contents otherwise, etc. such as from command line or maybe 3rd party applications you trust. You probably won't want to I'm sure though you did change to Windows 11 so there's hope :-)

However, you can possibly glean more info of what might fix it and how it works for trying to fix it from here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/shell-experience/windows-search-performance-issues

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/shell-experience/fix-problems-in-windows-search#more-information

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/search/-search-3x-wds-overview

ie The Search service is designed to protect the user experience and system performance when indexing. The following conditions cause the service to throttle back or pause indexing:

• High CPU usage by non-search-related processes.
• High system I/O rate including file reads and writes, page file and file cache I/O, and mapped file I/O.
• Low memory availability.
• Low battery life.
• Low disk space on the drive that stores the index.

So as you can see it can be quite complicated for a question on here and getting a specific answer.

Dear TerryReagan,in this case I recommend that you check if you are updated with the latest version of Windows 11;

Press Windows key + i and go to Windows Update;

Click Check for updates and do ALL pending updates;

run a disk cleanup;

Press Windows key + R and type: cleanmgr press Enter;

Click on clean system files and wait for the files to load;

Select all files and click ok to delete them;

Perform a clean boot;

Press together the keys: Ctrl + Shift + Esc to access the task manager;

Click on start and disable all programs that start with Windows;

Run the system file checker;

Click on Windows search bar and search for: CMD

The result of the search by CMD (Command Prompt) will be displayed. Click Run as administrator;

Copy and paste the commands below by pressing Enter after typing each command line;

Sfc /ScanNow

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

Wait for the process to finish and restart the pc;

Check if search and indexing works normally again;

I hope I helped, even more!

Thanks for the reply. None of this worked. As I mentioned in a previous reply, this is a very basic function, and it should work as it's supposed to. I can't believe I'm going to have to look into 3rd party programs. I use search extensively, and when it works it's just wonderful. So frustrated right now. I can't believe I'll have to look into 3rd party programs.

No help here that worked, but thanks for the input. I use search throughout the day. I need it to work. Problems like this with Windows are absolutely inexcusable. This is a very basic function, and it should work as it's supposed to. Extremely frustrated. I guess I'll have to look into 3rd party programs which is just ridiculous. Thanks again for the reply.