Why can I no longer search file contents on Onedrive?

Anonymous
2024-10-01T16:41:33+00:00

Once upon a time, the Onedrive search feature allowed you to search file contents, as well as file names.

Now it appears that Onedrive only allows you to search file names.

When did this change, and why? Content searches were a very practical feature.

Microsoft will lose users to better services (such as Google Drive) if it continues to make regressive changes like this. Being able to search file contents is a very low bar in 2024.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

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.

0 comments

49 answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-25T13:05:38+00:00

    I can confirm OneDrive does NOT search file contents.
    I just signed into a clean MS account. Went to Onedrive, creates a sign word doc and search for text in the doc finds no results.

    Tech reporters should tell the world MS dropped content-search. It's absurd to pay for storage that can't search file contents. And worse, my main account can't find any files in search now, nothing. search completely broken and no way to get support for a paid product.

    I tried once recently.

    It works on me when my drive is not loaded with a lot of documents.

    When I have thousands and thousands of documents uploaded, it doesn't work anymore.

    Maybe the search is taking so much resources in the server that it limits the functionality of overall performance of it. I don't know.

    I hope that if I waited longer, I can view them.

    I'll give an update on it.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-14T23:42:51+00:00

    I can confirm OneDrive does NOT search file contents.
    I just signed into a clean MS account. Went to Onedrive, created a single word doc and searched for text in the doc: finds no results.

    Tech reporters should tell the world MS dropped content-search. It's absurd to pay for storage that can't search file contents.

    And worse, my main account can't find any files in search now, nothing. search completely broken and no way to get support for a paid product.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T22:28:37+00:00

    Almost a year since this problem was identified. They still have not figured out how to solve it for everyone. Customer service was very kind but useless. I already migrated all my files to GDrive (it was a hassle!) and canceled my subscription to Microsoft 365. It's a pitty.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T16:50:06+00:00

    I tested a few search queries and obtained the same results on web (PC) and on mobile (iOS and Android).

    So it's definitely a server/cloud switch somewhere. I guess they are fixing it in waves because every now and then someone tells us that the search function came back after being missing for some months.

    I just wish they had treated this issue properly. We should have been informed appropriately.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T15:03:50+00:00

    That's the annoying thing, some people have got the search function back.

    I've had a further reply from OneDrive Support to say that the "engineering team is working diligently on the issue. I assure you we are giving it our utmost priority. Currently we do not have an ETA on this issue."

    And they have closed the case, then invited me to give feedback on the support I received. I did.

    kpt

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments