Item search properties
Every property the index holds
Paste the address of one file, page or list item. The page reads the item itself, asks the search index for it, and reads the crawl log, then says whether search returns it to this account and, if not, every cause it found: the site or list set to stay out of search, a draft nobody else can see, an index older than the item, or crawl errors. It also lists every property the index holds for it.
What it tells you
- Why does a migrated document not show up in search?
- Is the index out of date for this item, and by how much?
- Is the site, a parent site or the library set not to appear in search results?
- What value does the index hold for a column, a content type or a date?
How it runs
- Paste an address. A file or page path, a list item's DispForm.aspx?ID= address, or Office's copy link address. Sharing links are refused: they name a permission, not an item.
- Check. The item, its list and every parent site are read live, then the index, then the crawl log.
- Read the verdict. Green when search returns the item to this account, amber when it does not, with each cause found as a checked fact.
- Look at the properties. Every managed property the index holds, with a filter box and copy buttons. Export to Excel keeps the verdict and the properties together.
How it works
Three reads, each allowed to fail without stopping the others: the item and its list, read live from SharePoint; the search index, asked for that one item with your sign-in; and the crawl log's most recent entries for its exact address. If this account may not read the crawl log, that part shows as not available, and no second sign-in is asked for.
From the live read it checks, as facts: whether the item's site, or any parent site up to the site collection's root, is set not to appear in search, where a parent's setting keeps every site below it out too; whether the list is set not to appear; whether the file is checked out and has never been checked in; and whether it has only draft versions in a library whose draft security hides drafts from readers. If a parent site could not be opened, the page says the check stopped there rather than assuming that site is allowed.
When the index returns the item, any exclusion setting is shown as a note, not a cause, because the item only drops out at the next crawl. When the index's copy is more than a minute older than the item's last change, the index is called stale. Errors and warnings among the crawl log entries are counted, and the latest is quoted. When search does not return the item and no check finds a cause, the page says it is either not crawled yet or in the index and hidden from this account by permissions, because from outside search the two look the same. Nothing here changes SharePoint.
What you need
- Read access to the item. The crawl log strip also needs SharePoint administrator or crawl log access; without it the strip says it is not available and everything else still works.
What it will not do
- An item that search does not return to this account may be in the index and trimmed by its permissions, or not crawled yet. From outside search the two look the same, so the page never says "not indexed" as a fact.
- SharePoint lists at most 600 managed properties for an item; the page says when an item reaches that.
- Nothing here changes SharePoint. To request a re-crawl, use Reindex on the Search & Indexing menu.
Read next
- Search query: Run the queries this page runs, and any other.
- Crawl log: More than the last ten entries for an address.