Searching text or Keyword in Attachment in SharePoint Online

[Akhilesh Nirapure]

Hi,

I'm experiencing a weird issue with search, not sure if i have to configure something additional to search content within attachment in list item.

Here is the setup

1. fresh new SPO developer tenant, with new site collection based on publishing template.

2. created a custom list.

3. added item with single attachment .txt document not more than 200 words.

4. added item with single attachment .pdf document not more than 200 words.

re-indexed the list.

Now if i search by some keyword present in either of attachment i expect the item to be surfaced in search result and keyword shown in hilightedsummary.

This i remember use to work but not working anymore.

Am i missing something, any pointers appreciated.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Search-limits-for-SharePoint-Online-7c06e9ed-98b6-4304-a900...

[#2]

Weird, I'm getting same results in my dev tenant. Did you try the same in a non-dev tenant? (I'll try it later).

[#3]

I tried on atleast 3 different dev tenant  and one Production tenant, it doesn't work anywhere. It works on On-Premise 2013 however.

@Luis Mañez same result means you get the keyword/text appear in search or not?

[#4]

Tested in a non-developer Tenant with the same results 😞
that's pretty weird. I've also tested the same with a Word document (just in case is related with the file type), but wasn't indexed either.
I'd suggest that you open a support case with MS. As far as I know, it should crawl the attachments too.

[#5]

Sorry, clarifying: The attachment document to the list item is not indexed and not appearing in the search results if you search by a keyword inside the document

[#6]

Indeed opened support case with MS, looking forward what they have to say, it works for on-premise for sure. Looks like its global impact. Searching in attachment is not something people really do often and hence i think no body complained.

[#7]

Hi,

We have encountered similar issue and I can't seem to find any obvious explanation.

We have a simple list(SharePoint Online) with items that have a few attachments(txt, docx, pdf files). For some reason only content within the txt file can be searched.

I'm curious to know if your support ticket with MS Support have revealed any explanation to your issue which might help me in my further troubleshooting?

[#8]

Hi

Any answer ? i have same problem in all my tenants : can't find file attachment content.

Thanks for your help

[#9]

Hi - did you get a resolution to this? Are attachments indexed and searchable in SharePoint online?

Many thanks

Graham

[#10]

@Graham yes we had to open ticket with MS and they did something 😛 and it was fixed in our environment

[#11]

MS didn't revealed any thing AFAIK (from our admins Admins') but opening ticket resolved the issue.