Common search stops working - reinstall fixes

[paulhurm]

For personal & project sorting reasons I have -lots- of files and folders that start with the three letters PWH.

I usually search by just typing in "PWH" and then going through the results to get to the file or folder I want.

Several times in the last few months typing in "PWH" has quit working and there are zero results shown. At least twice now I have fixed this problem by uninstalling then reinstalling Everything and having things work as expected again.

I suspect some kind of log file is getting corrupted (?). Uninstalling and reinstalling would obviously replace the bad file and probably explains why things start working again after a reinstall.

Can anyone suggest a possible file or files that might be going bad? My thought is that if I knew the bad file I would just delete it and (I assume) let Everything create a new / clean one.

Any thoughts on this?

Paul

[void]

What version of Everything are you using?

Does forcing a rebuild from Tools -> Options -> Indexes -> Force rebuild help?

[paulhurm]

My version is:
Version 1.4.1.877 (x64)

I was unaware of the steps you gave. I will keep them in mind for the next time this happens. Things are working OK at the moment so I can't anticipate when the problem might happen again.

Thanks for the suggestion and I will try those steps the next time the problem occurs. My feeling is that this might do it as I did suspect some sort of corruption.

Paul

[therube]

When this happens, check your search options - like Match Case, for instance.

[paulhurm]

OK, when I use Everything I do not make changes from one time to the next on things like "Match Case". In fact I rarely do more than start Everything and enter a word or two that I know is part of my file or folder name. If things like Match Case are changed from one use to the next it is not by my doing.

Just a few minutes ago I ran into the issue again. I have a number of files and folders that contain the string "TOSRV" (a bicycle tour name). I opened Everything and simply typed in "tosrv" (yes in lower case since I almost never search by anything more complicated than a word or two I know is in the name).

I did get a number hits to this search but I was looking for a document that included "tosrv years" which contains a list of the years in which I have participated. The search for "tosrv years" gave zero hits even though I could go to explorer to drill into a folder and find files that contained that string (thus confirming they exist).

I then followed the previously provided steps to rebuild the indexes. After waiting until the system did its thing I then reran the search using simply "tosrv years" and this time got the results I had expected. I actually have around 20 files and folders that contain "tosrv year" in the title and they all showed up this time. This is what I would have expected all along.

It therefore seems to me that something is corrupting one or more indexes fairly often but I have no clue what might be causing this.

Any thoughts on the corruption issue would be appreciated but at least I now know what to do to reset this issue.

Thanks.

Paul

[therube]

Drives are NTFS & you do have Indexes set to Monitor changes?

Or if you're using Folder or File Lists, you've enabled similar settings?

Are the particular searches that are not returning results dealing with a single drive or is it more random?

I do not make changes from one time to the next on things like "Match Case"

Could be inadvertent. Inadvertently hitting Ctrl+I...

[paulhurm]

So, just to get back to a known starting point I uninstalled Everything and reinstalled using setup version "Everything-1.4.1.877.x64-Setup.exe". I checked and the default for "Match Case" seems to be unchecked, or at least that is how it was just after the reinstall.

I searched for "pwh" (lower) and it gave the results I would have expected (both upper and lower). I played around with that setting and it did give just upper case "PWH" when thus set so again that seems as expected. I then reset it back to match case unchecked which will be my normal preference.

I changed no settings after the reinstall and it is giving results from both my hard drive C: and an external, backup drive I:. Again as expected and as desired.

Yes, both drives are NTFS and when the problem was occurring neither was showing results.

Under Tools - Options - Indexes, I don't see something specifically marked "Monitor changes" but I assume "Index recent changes" is what you meant and yes that was checked by install default. Again defaults will all be set as per a fresh install.

No way to confirm whether I ever hit Crtl-I so I suppose that is possible. BUT, that would not explain why I got NO results since there are files with both upper "PWH" and lower "pwh" so something should have shown up rather than nothing at all.

It might still be interesting to know if I have something weird going on but for my operational purposes at least I know that reindexing seems to fix the issue so that I would not have to uninstall and reinstall.

Again, bear in mind that my use is pretty simple and I do not generally change search options (at least by choice per Ctrl-I above). For my needs, Everything has been a good tool for the quick finds that I have been doing. I am working to clean up a messy backup procedure that has produced numerous copies of the same files in various subfolders so it is generally a good tool for digging through things.

Thanks for the help and thoughts.

Paul

[froggie]

Under Indexes=>NTFS for each disk, do you have Include in database, Enable USN Journal & Monitor Changes checked?

When you reinstalled Everything, did you delete all copies of Everything.ini first ?

[paulhurm]

Recall that I have recently done a reinstall so install defaults are in place.

Under Indexes=>NTFS for each disk, do you have Include in database, Enable USN Journal & Monitor Changes checked?

Yes for both drives. Again, I assume this is the default after an install since I did not make any changes.

When you reinstalled Everything, did you delete all copies of Everything.ini first ?

No, but again, since the problem is "solved" by doing an uninstall then reinstall it would not seem to be this either. I assume the INIs are either not the problem or, if they are then they are replaced/fixed/something that the uninstall / reinstall fixes the issue.

From an earlier reply, rebuilding the indexes does seem to fix the issue so not sure what is changing that would be fixed by doing that.

Basically, since I have a "fix" that seems to work I am not too concerned about knowing the underlying problem. I can fix the indexes rather quickly and at least don't have to uninstall / reinstall any more.

Paul

[froggie]

Recall that I have recently done a reinstall so install defaults are in place.

Paul

Not necessarily. That is why I asked about deleting the .ini files. Everything will try to preserve .ini file contents on an install. If there is some setting there that is causing the problem, just reinstalling the executable may not fix it.

If the .ini files are deleted (with out without reinstalling the executable) , the next time Everything starts it will recreate the .ini files with default values.

[paulhurm]

OK, I see your point and agree. I am still leaning away from the INI being the problem though. If a bad INI was the problem then, if they aren't replaced, the problem would persist after the reinstall. Since a basic reinstall solved the problem then I am leaning back to the indexing concept. Plus, since the problem reoccurred and was solved by the re-index that would seem to be where the problem occurred.

Since re-indexing seems to solve my particular issue, I at least know what to try should it occur again. I haven't used Anything heavily real recently, but the issue has not reoccurred and I am able to function OK and know what to try if it does. After this discussion, I also know of some other things to double check in case my fingers have done a weird keystroke combination somehow.

thanks for the ideas.

Paul