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I frequently use File Explorer to search for local files. Until recently, it would remember my past file searches, but beginning two days ago, without warning, File Explorer no longer remembers those searches; the search bar is empty. How do I reenable it?
I've confirmed that search and file history is enabled in Privacy settings. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Windows 11 Home 10.0.22621 Build 22621
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
YES! I don't understand why they messed with that feature. At least leave it as a toggle option for those of us who found it so viable to our daily work and productivity! Come on, Microsoft. The issue has been brought to your attention long enough ago - Fix it.
I'm glad that everybody is keeping the pressure on, however, they still haven't fixed the preview handler that they broke in Windows 7, so I'm not holding my breath.
Several months ago one of the MS reps advised me on this thread that this is not a mistake, rather it is now a "feature." I presume it has to do with privacy. Yes, I do miss it. Yes, I do wish they made it optional, but mediocre Microsoft support for Windows is now the norm.
YES! I don't understand why they messed with that feature. At least leave it as a toggle option for those of us who found it so viable to our daily work and productivity! Come on, Microsoft. The issue has been brought to your attention long enough ago - Fix it.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(281.6, 34%, 37%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ELF%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Several months ago one of the MS reps advised me on this thread that this is not a mistake, rather it is now a "feature." I presume it has to do with privacy. Yes, I do miss it. Yes, I do wish they made it optional, but mediocre Microsoft support for Windows is now the norm.
I doubt that it's a privacy issue. If that were the case, the auto-suggest list wouldn't be peppered with file and URL references with no option to clear them. I think it's just because they changed search to display Results-as-you-type, which is somewhat at odds with having a history drop down.
The simple solution is to give the user a checkbox to select their preferred search style. Wait-for-Enter and include history (as it was in the early releases of Windows 11) or Results-as-you-type without history (as it is now). Results-as-you-type plus history is also possible, but it's trickier to program.
But why doesn't the back button even work? Not keeping the search history is one thing, one extremely annoying tedious, monotonous thing.
But performing a search, and then opening a folder, and then going back and not having the search remembered is absolute lee asinine. It irks to no end!
