Windows 11 Windows Search not searching or Indexing PDFs

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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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Anonymous

2022-03-09T02:02:55+00:00
Hi MattBK,

Thanks for your post in Microsoft Community.

I'm Mosken, I do apologize for the inconvenience that you're experiencing right now, let me help you sort things out.

According to your description, I knew that you cannot search PDF files using Windows search function in win11, even if you have reindexed. If my understanding is wrong, please correct me in the reply.

I tried to search the PDF file on my win11 PC, it is normal and my system version is 21H2(OS Build version 22000.376).

Please try the following steps, If the solutions are not feasible, please check the system version (you can display it by pressing the win key + R key, and entering "winver", then press Enter) , and only send the relevant information to me in the next reply, so as to solve the problem faster and better.

1. Restart the Windows search service

Please run command prompt as an administrator ("Win" logo key + "Q", enter "cmd", select "Run as administrator"), and enter the following commands one by one.
```
net start wsearch & net stop wsearch & net start wsearch
```
2. Run the troubleshooter

Please enter the system settings as shown below and run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter.

3. Check for system updates.

Because many system problems will be fixed in system updates, it is recommended that you check the latest update.

On the desktop click "Start" > "Settings" > "Update & Security" > "Windows Update" >"Check for updates".

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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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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Anonymous

2022-03-09T03:50:27+00:00

Hi MattBK,

Sorry I misunderstood you.

Windows search does not support searching the contents of a file, but I found relevant information, some applications used to open PDF files support such a function, you can try to search about it(sorry, due to security reasons, I cannot provide specific software or Link).

If you have a strong demand for the function you describe, you can give feedback in the "Feedback" application(launched by "Win" + "F") which win10 built in, and the developers will consider and try their best to help solve the problem.

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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Anonymous

2022-03-10T04:59:21+00:00

Respectfully, this is spectacularly, incredibly wrong Microsoft windows search and its predecessors have supported searching within files, including PDFs, for years. It certainly did (and does) in windows 10. Indeed, in windows 10 and 11 one of the options is to have Windows Search search within the file. The default windows search setting for PDF is "index file properties and content." And search does in Win 11 (at least for me) search fine within .docx and xlsx docs and I assume many other files.

But PDF searching is broken in Windows 11. Unbelievable that MS would do this. MS needs to fix this. First step is to acknowledge that this is a bug and a severe one in the OS.
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