Sharepoint online i365 inconsistent searches for users which don't have owners rights

Question

Hello,

for any user which don't have site owner rights the search is not consistent.

Symptoms: if a search text is something like this: *contenttype:folder title:7709
**it produces initial search result below but as soon as user hits "enter" the result disappear.

For some searches it does not produce even initial search results (even before user hits "enter" key),

User can find this folder manually and can access documents in it without any problems.

So looks like the problem is limited just to searches.

If the access level for that user is changed to "owner" the search starts working without any issues.

Actions taken:

Verified that library does not have broken rights hierarchy and search is allowed.

Reindexed library more than 48 hours before.

Any advise how to fix the issue?

Answer 1

Dear @Al2020s,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on your description, SharePoint Online search results are inconsistent for users without Site Owner rights, your query (e.g., contenttype:folder title:7709) briefly shows results, but they disappear after you press Enter, even though the folders can be accessed manually; once the user is granted Owner permissions, search works normally

Based on your description, since the content is accessible when you browse manually but behaves inconsistently only in Search, this may require deeper investigation on the service/backend side (indexing, security trimming, or search processing). As this is a community forum, moderators here don’t have the required permissions, tools, or access to your tenant’s backend environment to validate logs or reproduce the issue from Microsoft’s side.

To get the most accurate and efficient assistance, I strongly recommend that you submit a support ticket to Microsoft Support (via the Microsoft 365 Admin Center). The Support agents can remotely gather diagnostics (logs, correlation details, search/index signals) and perform a deeper root-cause investigation in your tenant to determine why the issue occurs and provide the right fix/workaround.

If you are user, you can contact to your IT/admin of your organization, they can help you submit ticket via phone number for your region here: Customer service phone numbers - Microsoft Support    

In case you are global admin, you can submit ticket via in the Microsoft 365 admin center>support>help & support. You can create a support ticket: https://admin.microsoft.com/#/support/requests     

Note: Please understand that as forum moderator, my primary goal is to provide helpful guidance and support through general troubleshooting steps. While I don’t have access to internal systems or test devices required to resolve backend issues, I truly appreciate your understanding of these limitations. I genuinely hope the information I share helps guide you in the right direction, and I'm always here to assist as much as I can within my scope.   

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out. I'm glad to support you again.

Answer 2

User is not "owner of the group"