File Explorer find not working in some directories

I'm trying to use File Explorer to search for files in a particular directory, and it's not working. It can't even find a file when I enter the complete name and the file is in the current directory, which is as simple as it gets. In other directories it's flaky, but when it lets me search at all, it finds the right files.

I haven't investigated enough to be sure about this, but it seems unable to find anything that's in a Git or GitLab repository, and it works correctly elsewhere. If I split the difference -- search for files that exist under the current directory both in a repository and not in one -- it finds only the files that are not in the repository.

By "flaky" I mean that about half the time it lets me enter a filename or wildcard expression to search for, then it does nothing -- it doesn't even say that it found no files. If I enter the same string again, it works. This seems to be repeatable; I sometimes have to enter every search string twice to make it search. And sometimes the search string I'm entering disappears while I'm typing it, and I have to start again from the beginning.

How can I make the file finding feature behave itself? None of this nonsense happened in Windows 10.

Welcome to the forum. You speak as though it's an explorer problem. Let me make sure I read this right. Are you saying SEARCH is not working correctly? That be so. MS has a brand new article about issues with search and things you can try.

glasskuter said:

Welcome to the forum. You speak as though it's an explorer problem. Let me make sure I read this right. Are you saying SEARCH is not working correctly? That be so. MS has a brand new article about issues with search and things you can try.

Fix problems in Windows Search - Windows Client

Provides troubleshooting options for problems that affect the search results for the Windows Search feature in Windows 11 and Windows 10.

learn.microsoft.com

Click to expand...

I think the OP is asking about issues using the Explorer search box, not the Windows search in the taskbar.

LesFerch said:

I think the OP is asking about issues using the Explorer search box,

Click to expand...

I do believe you're right.
Here's are things I would try. Hopefully one will work for you.

Restart Windows Search Service
In windows search type services.msc . Select Services (system)from search results.
In Services, Scroll down and find 'Windows Search'.
Right-click on it, select properties, Make sure it's set to automatic.
Restart the service

While in services also check that Background Task Infrastructure Service and RPC Services are set to automatic and running. If they are not started, start them.


Run the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter
Open Command Prompt as Administrator
Then paste in this command and press Enter:
msdt.exe -ep WindowsHelp id SearchDiagnostic

That will open the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter. Follow the prompts.

Reset Windows Search

Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem.
Open a command prompt as administrator and type
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
(let it do it's thing)
Restart computer
I always follow up with this command
sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair.


Rebuild the Search Index
As a last resort, if the issue persists, try rebuilding the search index. This can be time-consuming if you have a lot of data but often solves the problem.

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Go to 'Indexing Options'.
3. Click 'Advanced' and 'Rebuild' under the 'Troubleshooting' section.
This method also takes a LONG time as the search index file can be very large.

If everything that @glasskuter suggested doesn't work you can try a in-place upgrade.Follow this guide and you won't lose anything. Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

LesFerch said:

I think the OP is asking about issues using the Explorer search box, not the Windows search in the taskbar.

Click to expand...

Doesn’t Windows Search indexer operate for both the Windows and File Explorer search?

Not sure if relevant or not, not sure if instigated in a release or not:

For our developers, we also made a change where the indexer no longer covers popular source repositories, like Git. This was partly because of the sheer size of these repositories, and also because the tools developers use to interact with their repos usually have their own search tools.
We introduced these changes to Insiders in 0ur Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18945. Again, we deployed our pop-ups whenever an Insider turned off the indexer. This time, we wanted to see if the changes we’d made had impact on the issues you’d shared before.

Click to expand...

Although the OP said they had no problems in Windows 10


Hi, jhsachs, welcome to the forum

Turn on Enhanced mode and see if it’s helpful.

For W11, you can switch to Enhanced Indexing in Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Searching Windows . You might be able to see "Advanced indexing options" under the related settings here also, it's relatively the same as clicking on "Customize search locations"

Your belief that I'm asking about the File Explorer search box is correct.

Your quotation from "For our developers..." nails the problem I've got, and explains that it's not a bug, it's a feature. The reason they gave for it makes no sense whatever to me, but clearly it was intentional.

I turned on enhanced indexing as you suggested. The Settings description of it implies that it will make Windows index the repos, although there's nothing there which, taken on its own, would imply that standard indexing doesn't index them. Yay, Microsoft, shooting me in the foot again.

I understand that Windows may take quite a while to reindex the disk, so I'm not going to try the search again for a few hours.

I returned to this (about 30 hours later) and tried a search again. Windows Explorer still can't find files in repos.

The problem of Explorer erasing the search string while I'm entering it is still there, too; based on the results of a single test, I would say that it is worse than it was.

I may experiment with glasskuter's long list of things to try, but now that the problem is identified, I'm not sure whether any of them are relevant. Comment?

Worth trying everything I would think?

You may want to create a post on Stack Overflow?