Why SharePoint search is not working?

Question

Search function in SharePoint seems to be working previously. Threshold was not more than 5000 but when using Search in the list, no item were displayed even if the item is still in the list when you manually look for it.

Answer 1

Dear Abi,

Some type of the columns may be needed to be mapped with the managed properties to be searchable.

If the same columns which worked before and now doesn't work without mapping the managed properties, they should be searchable configured by SharePoint Online by default.

Have you tried Reindex List at your side? If you haven't tried it, I suggest you go to List Settings>Advanced Settings>Reindex List>wait some time and then do a test again to see and let us know the result.

How do you search the list? Could you upload some related screenshots for our reference? Meanwhile, could you also upload a screenshot showing the search setting in Advanced Settings in List Settings for our confirmation?

Note: Remove any private information before uploading the screenshots.

Welcome to share any updates when you have time.

Thank you for your time and effort.

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Hello,

I am searching the item like this (Datasheet), were it is previously working even on standard view:

Here's the search settings in Advance Settings.

Also, what would be the effect when we do "Reindex List"?

Answer 3

Dear Abi,

Thanks for your updates and kindness.

May I know whether you just type the Title column value as the keyword in the search box in the list? If yes, the Title column should be indexed by default and searchable. I did a test in our environment with the Title column and I can't reproduce the issue.

As you are using the classic SharePoint UI, may I know whether the search works in the modern SharePoint UI and whether the issue only happens in the specific list? If you do a test in other lists in the site, what's the result? Does the issue only happen in the specific site? If yes, it may be a tenant issue or that a custom result source is configured.

Manage result sources - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

Reindex List is just to manually request crawling and full reindexing of a list. If some updates or changes are in the list, it will reindex the list and make the updated items searchable. It will not delete any item in the list. So it is safe to perform it.

May I know whether you configure some search settings such as the result source before the issue happened?

If it is convenient, I suggest you set the Title column as the indexed column and then reindex the list again and wait some time to see whether the issue goes away at your side.

The last way can be tried may be to reindex the whole site if reindexing the list doesn't work in your environment. It may take some more time to reindex the whole site.

Manually request crawling and reindexing of a site, a library or a list - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn

If you haven't configured the custom search setting like the search result source and the issue only happens in a specific site, it should be a site crawl issue in your tenant which may need to be fixed by the related team from their side directly. Sorry for that our category may have no enough resources on fixing the issue at our side in that situation.

Given that situation, if you are the administrator, I suggest you follow the steps in Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn to open a support ticket to our related team as soon as possible.

About admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

The administrator should be able to open the support ticket from Help & support in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Then you can select the Phone support or the Email support as follows.

Your effort and understanding is highly appreciated!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator