Cannot Find Documents When You Use a Custom Search Scope (287199)

SYMPTOMS

When you assign a search scope to a content source, you may not be able to find a document that is indexed from that content source when you are searching with the scope.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if the document has been indexed in more than one content source (for example, the document exists in two separate file share content sources). A document is only indexed in one scope at a time; therefore, the document is displayed in the scope of the content source that was updated most recently.

For example, if the Content source A and Content source B index file shares contain the same document named "Mydocument.doc", and Content source A is associated with Scope A and Content source B is associated with Scope B, when Content source A is indexed, Mydocument.doc is displayed in searches when you use Scope A, but not when you use Scope B. If Content source B is updated, Mydocument.doc is not displayed in Scope A; it is now displayed in Scope B.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue if a document belongs to more than one content source, set your search scope to This Site. You can also create a single scope that is applied to both content sources; if you assign the same scope name on multiple content sources, the content sources are merged into one scope.

MORE INFORMATION

All content sources and all local workspace documents automatically belong to the This site search scope. Coordinators can create additional search scopes and assign them to content sources, so that searches using the scopes only span the documents that are indexed as part of that content source.

To define search scopes, open the content source properties, and then click the Advanced tab. Each scope that is defined by a coordinator is displayed in the Search box in the portal. When you use scopes, you can define the range and depth of searches in the workspace.