Windows 8 File search doesn't work

Hi everyone, I've had this problem for the better part of a month now, I was hoping the update from 8 to 8.1 would fix it but no luck.In a nutshell: Windows search for Files stopped working out of nowhere, searching for Apps/Settings works fine, but searching for Files yield no results, not only that, when I enter a file to search for it just sits there without any info on whether it is searching or not (Just says "Files" and nothing more where it usually would also say "Searching...").
I've been troubleshooting this but no one has had this exact problem, here are the solutions I've tried:
- Going to Indexing Options and manually adding the drives I wish to index to "Index these locations" and allowing for a full index. No results, no "Searching" phrase comes up either.
- Using Microsofts Windows Search Troubleshooter which essentially is supposed to fix problems like database corruption and crashes. Part of the fix is it resets the index (so my drives I added aren't in the list anymore), and it says it has Fixed the issues, but upon trying search: I do get the "searching" phrase, but I get very slow (about 25 seconds) and half-assed results (and only when I hit enter or click the magnifying glass icon), it's no longer a list of files in the search pane that starts to list file suggestions in the search pane. It also doesn't find folders.


Finally what I discovered today was in the Windows Features dialog box there is no Windows Search option (which I know should be there, it's on my laptop running Windows 8). I think this may be the key to all of this.


Any ideas on how I can fix this? I would really not like to have to reinstall Windows 8.
Thank you!

Additional note: Windows search works fine through Explorer

When Searching For Files Using The Modern Interface in Windows 8.1 ,Make Sure You Set To Search Files Only , And See if it Works
if No Luck Try Re-installing Windows

alihomsi20 said:

When Searching For Files Using The Modern Interface in Windows 8.1 ,Make Sure You Set To Search Files Only , And See if it Works
if No Luck Try Re-installing Windows

View attachment 29746

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I am already searching for Files only.
Update: I installed Classic Shell and added certain folders to the Index and they are coming up in the Classic Shell search, the modern UI on the other hand returns no results :/

OK I'm Glad You Found Another solution For That

Monizzle said:

alihomsi20 said:

When Searching For Files Using The Modern Interface in Windows 8.1 ,Make Sure You Set To Search Files Only , And See if it Works
if No Luck Try Re-installing Windows

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I am already searching for Files only.
Update: I installed Classic Shell and added certain folders to the Index and they are coming up in the Classic Shell search, the modern UI on the other hand returns no results :/

Click to expand...

Hi,

i did some digging in the search yesterday i i can tell you some hints:

make sure the search service is runnig here:


the more you add to index, the more hours you'll need to wait, many many hours
(i learned my lesson, see my post about windows 8.1 search issue)

classic shell is nice, but if the file/s is/are not indexed they will not come up anyway

hope this heps,

Roy

roy said:

the more you add to index, the more hours you'll need to wait, many many hours
(i learned my lesson, see my post about windows 8.1 search issue)

classic shell is nice, but if the file/s is/are not indexed they will not come up anyway

hope this heps,

Roy

Click to expand...

Good point. My Windows.edb (the index) is 1.3 GB. This is for about 8GB of indexed files (around 110k files). I have a lot of very small text files and index the contents so there is a lot of processing of these files to be done and it takes time. Once finished though it is very fast.

As well as checking the service is running as mentioned it may be worth taking a look at the size of your index (to see if has been created) and if it is growing. By default it is in
C:\Program Data\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows

Anyone know if Everything Search works for W8? I have the same issue. Files search is totally inert. Also it throws me as this laptop has no disk activity LED. The HD is silent. Tough to tell if anything is happening.

MilesAhead said:

Anyone know if Everything Search works for W8? I have the same issue. Files search is totally inert. Also it throws me as this laptop has no disk activity LED. The HD is silent. Tough to tell if anything is happening.

Click to expand...

Hi there. The "Search Everywhere" is a feature of 8.1, not 8.

Does your "Search" in All Apps not work at all?

Thanks for the suggestions guys, Roy Wsearch is there on my machine as well. As far as indexing goes, I've noticed that on my laptop my main drive isn't indexed in the "Indexing Options" yet search works just fine. I've never had to mess with Indexing options and adding drives to it until this issue arose on my desktop randomly, which unfortunately hasn't fixed the Metro UI search.
Also, any idea how to get "Windows Search" back in this dialog box? I'm almost certain that the fact that it's not here is the culprit. Once again, reinstalling Windows is a last resort, too many programs installed and would rather not spend a day on it.

Search is not a windows feature you have to add or remove. If your service is running as Roy mentioned then that is OK. Can you send a screen print of indexing options. After the first screen click on Modify to see locations. This is "INEDEXED" locations (not "INDEXING options")

Your C:/ Drive should not be ticked (as you don't want to index everything) but if you expand it and then go to Users/You you should see that documents/pictures etc are. This is the default.

Here is an example - sorry can't get the screen prints in the correct order.

Thanks Adam, my Indexing options are fine, I've added and excluded the folders I want. The only reason I bring up the "Windows Search" check box that is no longer there is because I'm sure if you check your "Windows Features" dialog box, it'll be in yours. I'm pretty sure it was there for me as well until it disappeared. I'm thinking that is the key to the fact that the Metro UI doesn't work specifically for Files anymore - it comes back immediately with the white screen and "No File Results found for your search", the apps and settings search work fine, though.

I did check and it isn't a feature for me. Perhaps it was in the past (I really can't remember) but it isn't on 8.1. I'm afraid I'm out of ideas now though. If your indexing is complete (you checked the windows.edb?) and modern UI isn't seeing it then I can't think what else to do except re-install. I couldn't live without it certainly.

Oh wow, okay maybe it was just in Windows 8 (shows up on my laptop still running 8). Hmmm, I will see what I can do. For now Classic Shell is a life saver, it has the functionality of the Modern UI mixed with the speed/ease of the Windows 7 start button search.
As far as the windows.edb file goes, it's in the folder you said, file size is 2.4gb, I can't open it though. Is there info in there I should know about?

HippsieGypsie said:

MilesAhead said:

Anyone know if Everything Search works for W8? I have the same issue. Files search is totally inert. Also it throws me as this laptop has no disk activity LED. The HD is silent. Tough to tell if anything is happening.

Click to expand...

Hi there. The "Search Everywhere" is a feature of 8.1, not 8.

Does your "Search" in All Apps not work at all?

Click to expand...

All Apps shows results. Files shows nothing. Generally I turn indexing off . I just havedn't gotten to it yet. I've only had this about 10 day.

Monizzle said:

As far as the windows.edb file goes, it's in the folder you said, file size is 2.4gb, I can't open it though. Is there info in there I should know about?

Click to expand...

No - if it is there (and not growing) then the indexing has worked. Why Modern UI doesn't want to use it I don't know.

Seems Everything has a 1.33x beta. They list W8 as supported and there's a native 64 bit available. Guess I'll kill indexing and try it.