File Explorer search not working in Windows 10 1909

Windows search is very much broken.

I have a few instances of file explorer open. In a few of them I can search any file and text string in any folder, local c drive, my local data drive as well as mapped drives on other systems on the lan.

This works with OR without indexing enabled or windows search service running.

If I open a new instance of file explorer, that instance will NOT search any thing any where.

I have tried all the "normal" listed fixes that are nothing but a waste of time.

sfc

troubleshooter

ending cortana

stopping and starting search service

enabling and or disabling indexing

verifying none of the drives or folders in question are excluded from indexing for times it is enabled

enabling or disabling of the open files in new window folder property

enabling or disabling of including filenames or content of non indexed folders

Notice I stated clearly, in some file explorer instances I CAN search and some I can not, same folders etc. In the instances that do not work, the search box shows, just does not allow imput

A bug relating to the Search box does not yet appear on Microsoft's official list of known v.1909 bugs. This means one of two things:

1- Microsoft has not yet received enough reports from users or, at least, enough reports with sufficiently similar characteristics to identify a bug; or

2- Microsoft is aware that a bug might exist, but has not yet been able to identify exactly what is going wrong and what needs to be fixed.

Windows Updates go through extensive testing by millions of Windows Insiders, but that number is only a tiny fraction of the 800+ million devices that run Windows 10. There's no way that Microsoft can determine with certainty how an update will affect 800+ million users.

Furthermore, it is inevitable that a huge and complex project like Windows will have bugs. This should come as no surprise. If anything, it's surprising that there aren't more bugs.

From this experience there are two lessons to be learned:

1- It's very important to report potential bugs via the established bug reporting mechanism, since that's the only way for Microsoft to hear about them. Moaning in a community forum, and posting threats and vile insults accomplishes nothing.

2- The vast majority of users should follow the conventional wisdom that has been around since before Windows came into existence: Don't jump on a major update when it's first released.  Knowledgeable users have been following this advice since forever.

Most users should wait 3 or 4 months, at least, before installing major updates. This gives corporate IT departments and other professional testers an opportunity to discover early bugs and report them to Microsoft; and gives Microsoft an opportunity to fix them.

For Windows 10 users in particular, there is a third lesson:

3- Let Windows Update install updates, instead of going to Microsoft's website and installing them yourself. Windows Update incorporates the latest information from Microsoft on the success of updates - or the lack of success - and can save us much heartache by preventing updates that might harm a computer. It is by no means a perfect process, but it's a heck of a lot better than installing without it.

Finally, it's important to understand that Windows 10 is a continuous series of updates. That's how it was designed from the very beginning. Microsoft was careful to publicize this while Windows 10 was in development and it was widely discussed in the media at the time. Updates are not going away, so for those of us who have yet to come up to speed with how to deal with them, now would be a very good time to do that.

That seems to be working for me now. Do you by any chance no how to search by date like today's date?  I know I should be happy that I have one solution but I am greedy. Thank you.

I too have experienced this exact same issue on two different computers, one of which is literally only a day old.

I cannot speak for the long-term reliability of this method, but here's a way I found to (at least temporarily) fix the broken search bar without having to kill explorer.exe in Task Manager or having to use PowerShell commands on my own computer:

1. Open a folder, any folder (doesn't matter which)
2. In the Ribbon, click on View and then Options
3. When the Folder Options window appears, click the View tab
4. Scroll the "Advanced settings" list about halfway down
5. Look for the setting "Launch folder windows in a separate process".

      a. If it is NOT checked, then click the box to check it

      b. If it IS checked, then uncheck it, click Apply, and finally re-check it

6. Click Apply, and then OK.

This seems to have worked for me, but like I said only time will tell if the problem comes back or not.