Windows 11 Windows Search not searching or Indexing PDFs

Anonymous
2022-03-08T18:08:05+00:00

Brand new Dell XPS laptop with Windows 11. It will not search text within PDF files. From looking on the internet seems like there are lots of problems Windows Search in Windows 11 which did not exist in Windows 10. Including not searching/indexing contents of PDF files, which is critical for me.

Has ANYONE been able to search within PDF files on Windows 11?

Please don't suggest re-indexing, have done 6 or 7 times. And, yes indexing settings are set to index contents of PDF files.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2022-12-29T09:22:06+00:00

PDF Indexing is working on Windows 11 (even with the standard PDF indexer), however, you can only search for file contents via File Explorer and not via Search / Taskbar Search.

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-03-16T14:45:14+00:00

    Enormously frustrating that Microsoft does not even recognize this critical defect as an issue.

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    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2022-03-09T02:45:34+00:00

    Thanks. Have tried all that. Does not help. My os build is win 11. 21H2. Build 22000.527. Am up to date.

    To be clear, on your system can you search for text within pdf files? I can find files by name. But cannot search text within any pdf file, as I can with windows search in windows 10.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-05-12T22:37:00+00:00

    I upgraded last week and have just discovered this problem. More than just annoying.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-03-12T03:41:25+00:00

    Hi MattBK,

    Sorry I misunderstood you.

    You can open the relevant settings in the Search Options, as shown below (if your explorer does not have "Search options", you can try any search, and the option will appear above the search results).

    I wish the above will be helpful to you. Please feel free to let me know how it goes, and I will do my best to help you.

    Best Regards,

    Mosken - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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