File Explorer search not working in Windows 10 1909

Hi

I had this problem...

My opinion this is a premission/corruption problem.

Solution for me was:

Open indexing option from Control Panel

Open Advanced

Move the index location to something like c:\temp

close

Open advanced again

Move the index location back to c:\programdata\microsoft

Restart the computer.

Tested this on a lot of computers :)

Regards

Gudjon

I have stated previously that i have had none of the issues with the search bar in explorer. well I just had it occur. it occured after i used Laplink PCMover Pro (latest version)  to transfer all the apps and data from my mom's old laptop running win10 pro 1803. prior to the transfer, the system which is the same model and specs as my system, had no issues with the explorer search bar. i rolled back the data transfer, and the issue went away. the only difference at this point between my system and hers, is I never did any data transfer from my old laptop to my new laptop. how many of you that are having issues with explorer search, have at any point done any sort of data transfer from an old system to the one you are currently using? the sort of data i am referring too, is user profiles, windows settings, and desktop apps. I highly doubt documents being transferred would cause this issue.

when M$ decided to not include Microsoft Windows Easy Transfer with windows 10, like they had with previous versions dating back to windows XP, the redirected the windows userbase too laplink's pc mover software (which unlike windows easy transfer was not free or included with windows).  I don't know about other software that might exist, but using those might to transfer data might cause the issue too.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026265/windows-windows-easy-transfer-is-not-available-in-windows-10

https://web.laplink.com/

on my PC, explorer search continues to be error free

Presumably you received an update to Windows 10 on the computer to which you transferred information. This problem (search in File Explorer not working) began with update 1909. It has nothing to do with LapLink. Are you on 1909?

After opening File Explorer try clicking on the View tab>Options>Change Folder and Search Options. Under the General tab>Open File Explorer to:, select Quick access then click Applyand OK and see if this allows you to use the Search Box. See image below, Click on, tap or activate image to enlarge it.

Also you may want to look at this.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/94452-search-file-explorer-windows-10-a.html

This helped on my computer, but not my colleagues. So weird.

Actually.. I'm not entirely sure that this problem is caused by the November Windows 10 update.

Perhaps that aggravates a problem which really goes back some way in Windows 7. I have to continue using Windows 7 sometimes, as we have customers still using it, and, today, I was reminded that Explorer would often hide the Search box in that OS, too - it completely disappears, not just disabled, but each Explorer window is [un]affected individually. I have Explorer running 'separate processes' on both OSs. Closing the faulty one on Windows 7, and opening a new one suffices there. For a while.

I have also seen the Windows 10 Search box get grayed as I tabbed to that window (files had just been added to the folder), and then un-gray itself a few seconds later.

I had to back-out the most recent update, as, on restart, it had cleared my desktop of everything except the Recycle bin and Edge, and failed to reopen the folders or run the startup apps. No way I was going to continue with a version that buggy, even if it does actually fix Search.