This is regarding the native DNN Search Results module/Search Crawler scheduled task. The DNN version is the latest (10.3.2).
Up until recently, the search was working fine ... pages, native & third party modules were being indexed and results shown for all.
Then one day search results stopped being shown ... every search term entered results in "No Results Found". This seems to have coincided with installing an updated version of a third party module (but the same was done on a test copy of the site with no such effect - see below).
However the Search Crawler scheduled task continues to run without error, and after clicking Reindex Content (under Site Settings > Search > Basic Settings > Search Index) the Search Crawler scheduled task reports that 1000s of items have been indexed. The App_Data\Search folder on the server shows files being updated.
Strangely, a test copy of the site, with identical DNN and module versions (see TEST SITE below) is working fine. Its not an absolutely identical copy however.
Can anyone given me any pointers for other things to look at?
Here are some observations of the site and the test copy of the site (in which search is working OK):
LIVE SITE (NO SEARCH RESULTS)
TEST SITE (SEARCH RESULTS OK)
Search Crawler results after reindex request
Search: Site Crawler
Starting. Content change start time 06/02/2026 09:45
Deleted Objects: 0
Tabs Indexed: 28
Modules (Metadata) Indexed: 11
Modules (Content) Indexed: 16351
Users: 52
Total Items Indexed: 16442
Indexing Successful
Starting. Content change start time 06/02/2026 09:24
Modules (Metadata) Indexed: 13
Modules (Content) Indexed: 9972
Users: 42
Total Items Indexed: 10055
Search Index info (Site Settings > Search)
Search Index Path E:\inetpub\wwwroot\CompanyIntranet\DNN\App_Data\Search
Search Index Size 43.83 MB
Active Documents 11314
Deleted Documents 4301
Last Modified On -
Search Index Path E:\inetpub\wwwroot\CompanyIntranet_Test\DNN\App_Data\Search
Search Index Size 36.68 MB
Active Documents 7906
Deleted Documents 29259
App_Data\Search folder
@Laurence thanks for posting so much detail:)
a few things to look at:
- as a superuser, see if there are any events in the admin log correlating with the time the crawler ran. - check IIS event log also. - are you running in a more advanced configuration and/or do you have multiple IIS app pools? - use Luke.net (it's old and clunky and may be hard to find) but will let you query against lucene directly so you can find out if the issue is with the indexing or not. - last resort is to stop iis, manually delete that folder, restart iis, and reindex. It's clunky but sometimes it solves everything although it doesn't show what happened.
- as a superuser, see if there are any events in the admin log correlating with the time the crawler ran.
There is nothing other than a log that a reindex was requested: Search_ReindexRequestedOn:2026-06-02 09:45:56.906
- check IIS event log also.
I assume you mean the Window Application Event Log? There are no events/errors in there around the reindex time.
- are you running in a more advanced configuration and/or do you have multiple IIS app pools?
No, its a standard configuration with 1 worker process per app pool, for both live & test sites
- use Luke.net
I found it here, and ran it against the App_Data\Search folder on the server. Under the Search tab I selected the StandardAnalyzer, default field=title and ran some searches and it worked, returning results for multiple modules
- last resort is to stop iis, manually delete that folder, restart iis, and reindex.
I tried that - the folder was recreated, and the crawler task showed positive results (see below).
Search: Site Crawler Starting. Content change start time 06/02/2026 13:48 Deleted Objects: 0 Tabs Indexed: 28 Modules (Metadata) Indexed: 11 Modules (Content) Indexed: 16352 Users: 52 Total Items Indexed: 16443 Indexing Successful
So DNN search still not returning results after all that?
- check browser tools console for errors since it is client side script
- try hitting search api directly
/API/internalservices/searchService/search?search=xxx
There are no client-side errors (200 OKs calling the API). I tried the API directly and got 200 OKs and empty JSON response for various searches. FYI, the URL seems to be this: /API/internalservices/searchService/preview?keywords=XXX&culture=en-US
I did notice one thing ... hits on page names are being returned, e.g. "Home" ... just no module content.
Unless there are any other suggestions looks like I'll have to debug it via Visual Studio ... yikes! :)
Thanks for your help!
When you go to search page, advanced, make sure you have filters set correctly:
I found it! I think maybe this is what you were meaning ... in the Search Results module settings there is a setting called Results Scope for Content Type(s) ... somehow all of the types except Pages had become unchecked. I checked all the module types and results appeared again!
Posted By Laurence on 6/2/2026 4:42 PM I found it! I think maybe this is what you were meaning ... in the Search Results module settings there is a setting called Results Scope for Content Type(s) ... somehow all of the types except Pages had become unchecked. I checked all the module types and results appeared again!
Exactly!
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