Windows 10 Desktop search does not index .odt file content

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#1

In 2015 under LibreOffice 4.4 I asked if anyone could help with the problem that Microsoft Desktop search does not index, or at any rate does not find, LibreOffice Writer files based on their content (though the file names are indexed and found. Problem w/ Windows 10 indexing .odt content for File Explorer search function At that time I added that under Indexing Options > Advanced Options the .odt, .odp, and .ods extensions are all checked, and in each case the radio button for “Index Properties and File Contents” is checked. The filter description for Writer is Open Document Format ODT Fillter, and similarly for the others.

Now it is 2021, six years later, and I am using LibreOffice 6.2.8. However, none of the other circumstances of 2015, as described above, have changed. Is there really still no solution to this? There was a bug report on this (# 130320) in January of last year, listed as “unconfirmed”. I can confirm that I have had this problem for six years and through multiple versions of LibreOffice, and it is certainly still true for me. Oh, and I should add: This is not a problem with specifically old files, or new files, or big files, or files with spaces or funy characters in their names. None of my .odt files are being indexed.

Is this issue languishing because it only affects a few machines, and works for everyone else? If so, is there any diagnostic information I can provide that would help to find the cause, for those of us affected? Or is it just that all the volunteer developers use Linux?

#2

I suppose that this is a flaw in the file explorer of Windows, not an issue with LibreOffice. I understand that you have enabled indexing of the ODF formats, but Windows Explorer may need to rebuild the index. See this posting in a thread from the OpenOffice forum.

Windows 11 File Explorer - how search .odt files?
#3

Or is it just that all the volunteer developers use Linux?

Well, how would this be relevant? I, for instance, am a Windows user/developer, and I tried to help triaging the problem is tdf#130320 that you mentioned. But I simply do not reproduce it on my system (a necessary pre-requisite to be able to do something with this) - as well as OP there in the bug is unable to repro on their home system.

#4

Can’t repro on Windows 10 Pro / 20H2 as well. Indexing ODF file formats works as expected .

#5

keme, thanks for your input. I did all the things that John_Ha reccomends back in 2015, and I rebuild my desktop index at least once a year, usually more often than that. So whatever the problem is, it is not one that this solves. One thing I have not done is a fix via iFilter, suggested by the final comment in your link. But the last reference I could find here to iFilter was in 2017, and said the iFilter approach was outdated. https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/problem-w-windows-10-indexing-odt-content-for-file-explorer-search-function/15999/ Note that I commented that I had the same problem in the 2017 posting.

#6

Mike Kaganski & Opaque-- I am not much of a programmer, but I nonetheless spend a lot of time doing coding in R. I know that when my R code does not work, if I want help it is both courtious and pragmatically necessary to provide a reproducable example if I am to get useful answers. But here, the problem lies in the interaction between Windows and LibreOffice, both of which are black boxes to me for anything beyond the user interface. Mike, I was suggesting that for the problem to go unsolved for so long, it needs to be rare either among users or among developers. I was not asseting both.

#7

What I hope for from the community is someone who understands Windows indexing & what LibreOffice needs to supply to make irt work, to suggest places where it could be broken & how I might check.
Could a slightly broken LO instalation leave some fragment behind when upgraded? Could some Windows update to its indexer break in a way that harms .odt indexing but not most other doc types? Where does the OpenDocument Format Filter come from, who supplies it, and is there a way to see if it’s working? What is iFilter, what has replaced it, and could it be the cuprit? Are there Windows settings outside of the Indexing Optins->Advanced Settings->File Types dialog that could be the problem? Is there any other software that is neither LO nor Windows that might be messing this up? I don’t have anything very exotic – R, Calibre, Foobar2000, ClassicShell, DisplayFusion, Dropbox, and multiple browsers & media players. But I’ve had the identical problem on 3 windows computers over these 6 years.

#8

Hmm. Classic Shell, that wouldn’t interfere at all with File Explorer operations would it?

#9

Turns out that Classic Shell is unmaintained now but this answer from elsewhere relating to Open Shell might have helped.

#10

Dear Folks–

I have found a solution to this problem that worked, at least for me. Back six years ago when I first tryed to solve this, a complete uninstal/reinstal did not solve the problem. Between then and now, I have done update/upgrade installs. Those did not hel either. But i just did a full uninstall/reinstall, and I am now getting indexing results from all thre LibreOffice docs that I have opened since. I have not yet done a full reindex, as that takes several days, but when I do I’ll give everyone a further report.

I believe this is about the LibrerOffice installer installing a corrected Filter or, if different, iFilter, but only if none are already present.

#11

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