Sharepoint People Search Core Results web part missing

Question

Sharepoint People Search Core Results web part missing

Don Price 6

A few years ago we successfully created a Sharepoint employee directory page using the People Search Core Results web part. It continues to function just fine however I was asked to filter out a service account that was showing up in the list and discovered we get an error when we edit the web part and try and change the query. Error: Not able to connect to search service to retrieve valid settings.
When we try to edit the Refiner web part it gives us this error: Sorry, something went wrong An unexpected error has occurred. It does give us a correlation ID that I used to lookup in the logs, but I was unable to identify the problem.
When we try and create a new page, under Page Layout, there is no option to choose (Welcome Page) Search People. Under Site Setting and Page Layout and Site Template Settings and then under Page Layouts, the (Welcome Page) Search People layout is not in the list. It like somehow it has been removed. How can this be added back in to correct our problem?

This is a 2016 Sharepoint on-prem server

Answer 1

ChelseaWu-MSFT 6,281

Hi @Don Price , thank you for posting in the Q&A forum.

The Page Layout (Welcome Page) Search People is only available in the site template Enterprise Search Center in SharePoint Sever 2016.
The People Search Core Results web part is not available to be manually added via Web Part Categories either.

Please navigate to the Enterprise Search Center in your farm (create it first if you do not have one yet), go to Settings > Site settings > Page layouts and site templates and then add (Welcome Page) Search People to "Pages in this site can only use the following layouts" list under Page Layouts.
After that, you can navigate to the Pages Library and create a page using this template.

Here is a related post on creating employee directory in case you need it: How to: Create a Simple SharePoint 2013 People Directory.

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Don Price 6 Reputation points

2020-12-31T12:37:54.203+00:00

Thank you for reaching out. The search site was originally set up with the Enterprise Search Center site template. However when I go to Settings > Site settings > Page layouts and site templates and then try and add the (Welcome Page) Search People to "Pages in this site can only use the following layouts" list under Page Layouts,
ChelseaWu-MSFT 6,281 Reputation points

2021-01-01T01:38:25.013+00:00

Do you see other Page Layouts in this list for Welcome Page content type?

The allowed Page Layout in Enterprise Search Center should be set only with (Welcome Page) Search results by default.
If you do not see the search related Page Layouts in this list, consider create a new site collection using the Enterprise Search Center site template and see if it works properly in the new site collection.
Don Price 6 Reputation points

2021-01-04T14:17:57.44+00:00

I created a new Enterprise Search Center site collection as suggested without any errors. Under Page Layout and Site Template Settings, I do now have the option to add the (Welcome Page) Search People page layout. However, when I try and edit the peopleresults.aspx web parts or create a new page, I continue to receive the same errors.
ChelseaWu-MSFT 6,281 Reputation points

2021-01-05T07:40:24.997+00:00
Please check as following:

Is the Search Service Application and the (people) search function in good status?

Do not modify the default peopleresults.aspx. Test with a new page and make sure you have created a new page using Search People Page Layout.

What action are you performing while running into this error? Can you see the People Search Box and the People Search Core Results web parts displayed on the new page?
Please do not create new Result source while editing the page since the account you are using to access the Query Builder is not authorized to do this.

Sharepoint People Search Core Results web part missing

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