Incomplete search results (only in the search bar)

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1

When I search for files using the GNOME search bar, I get incomplete results. When I click on “Files” next to the search results, Nautilus opens and the same incomplete results are shown. However, when I open Nautilus directly and search for the file, the file I am looking for is found immediately. The same is true for the “locate” command.

The file I am looking for is in a subfolder of /home/$USER/nextcloud and other files in some subfolders come up in the search results.

I was researching ways to reset/recreate the search index, but I could not find anything recent and/or helpful.

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you :slight_smile:

System Details Report

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  • Date generated: 2025-06-19 21:38:26

Hardware Information:

  • Hardware Model: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9370
  • Memory: 16.0 GiB
  • Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-8550U × 8
  • Graphics: Intel® UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
  • Disk Capacity: 512.1 GB

Software Information:

  • Firmware Version: 1.21.0
  • OS Name: Fedora Linux 42 (Workstation Edition)
  • OS Build: (null)
  • OS Type: 64-bit
  • GNOME Version: 48
  • Windowing System: Wayland
  • Kernel Version: Linux 6.14.9-300.fc42.x86_64
2

That’s the way I would do it. Why would you want to rely on a possibly outdated search index?

3

File indexing via Tracker (name recently switched to TinySPARQL) only takes place for the default or user-set paths. In case you haven’t done so explicitly, the ~/nextcloud subdirectory should not be indexed.

You can add that subdirectory to the list of search paths by going to GNOME Settings → Search → Search locations → Custom locations. Wait for a while for the new location to get indexed.

4

Because I find it a lot more convenient to use a centralized search functionality (simply click Super) and I do not care about the index being up to date - if it is refreshed every day or so, I would be fine with that.

5

I found some information on those paths, so I checked. Although the Nextcloud folder was already being indexed (because of bookmarks), I also added it manually, but the result is the same. Some files under ~/nextcloud show up, while others do not…

Screenshot From 2025-06-23 23-34-36
Screenshot From 2025-06-23 23-34-36603×994 40.7 KB

6

This was a tricky one, because the guides I could find on resetting indexes mentioned using tracker. Apparently, it was renamed (tracker → tinysparql and tracker-miner → localsearch, also see Gnome Tracker is being renamed · Issue #1078 · Netatalk/netatalk · GitHub).

I ensured all folders I wanted were added to the search locations and ran the following command, which started the recreation of the index:
localsearch reset -s

I can now find most files/folders, so I guess something must have gone wrong during the initial index creation or adding my custom locations did not correctly trigger the indexer to run…

1 Like
7

Just as a quick followup: The problem had reappeared shortly after resetting the index, so I gave up.

Having recently migrated to Fedora 43, this issue is now gone. I think it is fair to say that something was broken on Fedora 42, because now it is working as intended: When I search for a file name, it takes approximately 1-2 seconds (a bit longer than for everything else) for results from “Files” to show up alongside the other search results.

2 Likes