Welcome to the online problem-solving SharePoint! Here is a collection of information about how errors can be identified and fixed in the use of this product.
You didn’t know that over 200 million people around the world use SharePoint, which makes your search engine similar to the US Google business. Given this size, it’s amazing how many people relate to the online search of SharePoint.
In this blog post, we discuss how administrators can fix common problems when looking for Microsoft 365 in SharePoint. Then we will also examine ways to improve the user’s overall experience.
The blog post is for administrators who have just migrated from SharePoint 2016 to SharePoint Online as well as for those with experience who want to fix problems.
Problem 1: Missing results:
Users are commonly unable to find certain documents they know were added to SharePoint. Even if you have no active user report, it is a good idea to know typical reasons to keep an eye on them proactively.
Troubleshoot issue 1: Search is disabled:
A site settings menu can be accessed from the settings icon in certain types of SharePoint sites.
This menu no longer contains a new style of Communications or Team sites.
A search and offline availability setting are available in which web content can accidentally be excluded from the search results. If the radio is on No, flip it to Yes, then click on the Reindex website.
There is another indexing interface that can be inadvertently disabled if you go to the Documents page of your SharePoint website.
Click on the Documents page then click again the settings icon.
Select Settings of the library, followed by Advanced. Make sure that on that page items in this document library are listed in search results? You might want to hide certain documents from users when you have an advanced filter view, so you may also want to set Index No-Default Views to Yes.
After that click Reindex Document Library to make your changes become effective in the search index.
Troubleshoot issue 2: Inconsistent results:
Although you use your correct title as your search query, some Users cannot find a document. You could have problems with permissions if documents are not found consistently between users. First, make sure that the user concerned is indeed a member of the site.
Now, even though your users are correctly labeled as a Member, some of your folders are perhaps allowed to use the Member role incorrectly. Select a folder affected, go to Documents. To show the folder information, click the small icon and click Manage Access.
Make sure your role as a member is able to see permission at least on the next page. Click Advanced and add that part to it if it does not.
Troubleshoot issue 3: One particular document isn’t being found:
If in SharePoint you just can’t find a certain single document and no one else can find it, then it could need to be checked in or approved. Shows a little red icon next to the SharePoint title in the document?
If that is the case, it means it is checked out that means that the editor wanted the document to be retained because they are modifying this document and want accidental conflicts to be avoided, if someone else is trying to change it.
If you know it’s safe to review the document, click the 3-dot menu and choose Check-in or Check-out More / Discard. Although you have retired for the new SharePoint, a pending workflow could still be attached to a document. This means that public users are not allowed to view it and thus are not included in the search index.
To see if any documents are still pending approval, go to the library settings icon and navigate to Workflow settings. They would show under Workflows in progress if you had any pending workflows.
Problem 2: Bad user experience:
SharePoint has been plagued for most of its life with a search user interface that confuses users rather than supports them. This reached where Microsoft threw the towel and made a completely new online search for SharePoint. This is much easier to use at the cost of not being able to improve your results completely.
This may be enough for small organizations, but bigger organizations want more. Microsoft is aware of differences in the information architecture that search needs between large organizations are too diverse.
Basically, to create this, you are using the built-in web pages of this add-on to create a dedicated SharePoint search results page. The SharePoint standard search bar can be left untouched and set to move users back to their new dedicated search page.
The URL will be changed to your new page and will be accessible through the SharePoint admin center by browsing more features – searching for search center settings.
Solution 1: Enable more search filters:
This lack of standard SharePoint search makes modern search obviously so attractive. You can add two types of tags or date range pickers to your searches after installing the devoted Search Filters Webpart to point to most data sources.
Solution 2: Custom search suggestions:
The search of SharePoint has its own proposals, but it cannot be configured. In SharePoint, you do not typically get cracked for suggestions if you have dedicated applications or third-party web parts.
Modern search addresses this, however, by allowing you to configure personalized suggestion providers to point to any data source.
Solution 3: Highly specific searches:
In addition to replacing your global search for SharePoint, PnP Modern Search also enables you to search your organization for specific verticals. For example, say you are an attorney and you want to search for particular jurisdictions that use far more filters and metadata than global searching.
Problem 3: Get results from other apps
The team from Microsoft Bing announced the 2019 Microsoft Search search product. It includes SharePoint, Outlook, and OneDrive for business, making the search superior to that of SharePoint (and really a competitor to it). Both are available online at SharePoint, but the trip will not be officially declared.
There’s one thing that comes from this Microsoft search for now – to connect outside cloud apps using Microsoft Graph Connectors to your SharePoint search. This is essentially a push service where other applications can add their own records to the SharePoint search index.