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
    2024-12-30T00:39:41+00:00

    December 30th, and I am having the same issue. I used to be able to pull up any OCR content from my vast library of images. I would be able to take a picture of my bookshelves and easily search for a book I was looking for and it would show up. Now, the search works for nothing but file names. Disappointing, that they have nerfed this so severely and with no end in sight.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2024-12-09T07:52:19+00:00

    Hello everyone,

    I am also experiencing the problem when searching within PDF files (it works with Office files). I have enabled content indexing (raw text) for the .pdf extension, and the OneDrive folder is selected in the indexing engine settings, but nothing works. No results are found when I search for a word contained in a PDF file (the file is a PDF containing text, not an image). I am using OneDrive version 24.221.1103.0033 and an up-to-date Windows 10.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2024-12-06T14:06:56+00:00

    Search started working properly for us on or before the 5th. Curiously, the Synology cloud sync that we'd been using as a workaround stopped working about the same time. Had to unlink, and relink.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-12-06T11:18:58+00:00

    As december 8th the issue is not solved

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2024-12-06T03:06:52+00:00

    In the meanwhile, on Google Drive you can search within documents, including searching only within specific folders if you like, as well as searching by document type.

    It’s astonishing that a company as well-established as Microsoft and a brand as dominant as Word can mess up so majorly. And the problem described in this thread isn't the only one that I've come across in Word.

    Google Drive:

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments