Nov 06 2021 05:39 PM
Yesterday I updated my 3 day old laptop to Windows 11. Today I moved some files into the My Documents folder, then I went to the upper right corner of File Explorer and entered the word I wanted to find in the files. The search options included file contents, The search returned no results.
The same search on my old laptop, which uses Windows 10, found numerous matches.
Nov 15 2021 02:15 AM
Jan 12 2022 02:39 PM
Jan 18 2022 04:22 AM
Jan 19 2022 08:32 AM
Same problem here! Any solutions yet? @DBP-User
Jan 19 2022 10:25 AM
Same issue, I upgraded to Windows 11 on 2 home computers which I use often to search for content in a WORD file, looking for a city name or job name. Had no issues for years. After upgrading both computers to Windows 11 the search no longer works in File Explorer or in WORD. I have repeatedly confirmed "search content" is checked, I have rebooted, I have checked for and installed Windows updates, I have rebuilt my index on both systems, I have checked for errors on Search, etc. Nothing works. I am ready to downgrade back to Windows 10 if I can't figure this out this week. Does anyone have any useful info, my google searches turn up a bunch of non-starters.
Jan 22 2022 02:56 AM
Jan 25 2022 01:18 AM
@DBP-User am facing the same issue after updating to Windows 11. Somehow PDF files is being searched and being indexed but I have seen Excel and Word files missing from any and all indexed searches. It used to work like a breeze in Windows 10.
Kindly let us know if a solution is found.
Jan 25 2022 03:58 PM
Jan 30 2022 11:46 AM
In my case I have problem with doc files only but docx searching content works.
Jan 30 2022 10:09 PM
@DBP-User I was having a similar issue with several new computers, all with windows 11 installed. They would not return search results when searching content within our excel files. I tried all the usual tricks like rebuilding the index (Multiple times) and reparing search etc.
Nothing worked until I realised that most of the excel files being searched were the old format .xls. I upgraded them all to .xlsx and now search is reading the contents again no problem and returning the correct search results. Might be worth trying on a couple of your files to test? I upgraded around 5000 files to .xlsx and all is good again.
Seems very strange that windows search doesn't seem able to read the contents of .xls files.
Jan 31 2022 12:02 AM
Feb 01 2022 01:08 AM
@SteveMC181 5000 files are you manually converted or maybe do you have any files series solutions ?
Feb 01 2022 01:13 AM
Feb 01 2022 01:26 AM
Feb 01 2022 01:31 AM
Feb 01 2022 01:36 AM
Feb 01 2022 01:40 AM - edited Feb 01 2022 01:41 AM
I’ve no idea if this will work for doc files, I didn’t convert any. Have you tried converting a few files manually and then seeing if the search function finds them?
Step by step for KUTools for word is here. https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/word/5601-word-batch-convert-doc-to-docx.html#a2
Feb 04 2022 08:12 AM
I have the same problem with Windows 11. It won't search contents of XLS, DOC or PDF files. It will search in DOCX and XLSX files. I've done all the suggested fixes including rebuilding the Index twice.
Anyone know if Microsoft has acknowledged this bug and committed to a fix?
Thanks.
Feb 08 2022 03:03 PM - edited Feb 08 2022 11:24 PM
Same issue here. In my case, it does not find content in docx either.