SharePoint Online Modern Experience Search || Custom Site Column to Crawled Properties Issue

Copper Contributor

Hello All,

 I am facing elementary issue i.e.  Custom Site Column is not appearing  as Crawled or Managed Properties in SharePoint Online Modern Experience i.e. Communication and Team Site.

 

Steps Followed:-

  1. Created Communication or Team Site in SharePoint Online
  2. Created one site column.
  3. Created custom list and added custom site column.
  4. Activated all search related feature at Site & Web Level.
  5. Applied Re-Index entire site as well as custom list and wait for couple of hours.

 

As I navigate to Search Schema -> Search for custom site column under Managed & Crawled Property.  It doesn’t appear, even I tried with prefix ows_ also.

 

Developer Site (Classic Experience)

Newly created site column appears within a minutes timeframe as Crawled & Managed Property.

 

Request you, If any one faced any such issue with modern experience. Please share your views.

13 Replies

Manoj...a couple things to validate:

 

  1. When creating the site column and using it in the custom list, ensure that there is content in the column so the indexer picks it up.
  2. Is the site column being created at the root level site?  Shouldn't matter but that's where I generally create mine.

After 15-30 minutes it will appear.  I just repro it in my E3 tenant and it appears.

Dear Manoj,

 

I read your contribution with great interest because I'm experiencing the same issue.
No matter what I do, SharePoint Online doesn't seem to create crawled/managed properties of my sitecolumns and taxonomy fields...

 

Since your contribution is about 2 months old, I was wondering if you have solved this issue already?

I would love to hear from you.

 

Regards,

Ernst Wolthaus

Hello Ernst Wolthaus,

 

Yup, below mention issue has been resolved. I tried all scenario and finally raised a query to tenant admin to look into SSA.

What i heard back -> There was some issue due to patches updates. They re-applied the patches and did the configuration again at tenant level. After that i checked it start working.

 

I am really sorry, I don't have complete update of steps -> what Admin took. I shall try to reach to those guy and keep you post if possible.

 

Regards.

Hi @Manoj Mittal, I am having the same issue right now in my tenant. May I ask for additional background info what you are meaning with " [...] finally raised a query to tenant admin"? Did you open a MS Support Ticket, or did your internal company IT admin fix that issue? 

Thanks in advance

Hi Oliver,

 

The issue that I had regarding no crawled properties was a general Search issue in Office365/SharePoint online. Microsoft has recently fixed the issue, so it should work. (and it works for me now..)

As was already mentioned, make sure you have all contenttypes & sitecolumns provisioned in the right way. Your crawled/managed properties should appear within an hour.

 

Make sure that you reindex the list/library/site after you change your schema. This will force a full crawl.

Good luck!

 

Hi Ernst, Thanks a lot for your quick and helpfull answer! Unfortunately it is not working in my tenant.

I have setup a new website column, added it to a newly created content type, added that content type to the Document Lib, created an item which belongs to the newly creatd content type and added a value to the new field. Did the reindex library task and ... nothing apperas in SPO SearchCenter. I have checked it with the Search Query Tool (V2.8.2) and was able to see the automatic created managed property on the returned search result.

Any thoughts what I am missing?

Sorry to hear that.

 

Quick thoughts:

- In the Search Query Tool: is the property filled with a value? 

- Is the item already crawled? Can you find it by plain text search for content? 

- Important: Can you see a matching crawled and/or managed property in Central Admin? 
- Remember that a lookup field doesn't get a managed property automatically

- Hidden fields are not crawled

Hi Ernst, Thanks for your thoughts!

- The property is filled with the expected value in the Search Query Tool

- This (managed) property is NOT visible in the SPO SearchCenter

- The item must be crawled, since i can find it using the modern plain text search

- It is a simple text field which is not hidden

- I have also created it manually and with PNP-Powershell - Both ways are not successfull (by that i mean no crawled property is shown in the SPO SearchCenter).

I think these properties are available, but hidden, since they are coming from a modern teamsite which only uses the modern search experience.

I'm currently working with Modern Pages, inherited from Site Pages and I added extra sitecolumns to that contenttype. Works for me, so it all should work in Modern Sites / Pages.

My custom fields show up in the Managed Properties / Crawled Properties in the Search section of the SharePoint Admin Center (<tenant>-admin.sharepoint.com).

This is not the same as SearchCenter...

 

Hi Ernst, Thanks for beeing specific. Of course I was refering to the SearchAdminCenter in the SPO Central Admin. I think the huge difference in our approaches is, that I create a new site column, add this to a new content type - BUT this one inherits it´s settings from DOCUMENTS not from PAGES (like you have it configured). Maybe thats the breaking point. I will try with a content type inherited from the pages content type and try it again. Maybe it only works for this specific content type in the modern world. (P.S.: Writing the words with huge letters does not mean to sream, it´s only for highlighting purpose).

Dear OIiver,

 

My solution: create a sitecolumn, then create a contenttype, inherited from SitePage, then add that custom contenttype to Site Pages library and finally added content on those new pages.

This works for me.

I hope you figure it out. Good luck! :)

 

Hi Ernst, Thanks for your recommendation. Unfortunately it does not work for me. Neither with the regular Document Library and my custom content type, nor with the Site Pages Library and my custom content type. Even if i have waited over 24h, the crawled property did not show up in the SharePoint Online Search Admin Center. I think I will open a support request.