Search FAQs

You may see different results while doing a wildcard search for the term ge* as compared to a wildcard search for the term get*. For example, in the image below you see ge* shows 7509 results. Let's say, you're searching for app*. In the backend, the wildcard * expands to match any character sequence after the term app. For example, app* might expand to app, app0, app01, .., apple. The expansion takes place for the first 100 expanded terms only. Post expansion, all the files associated with the 100 expanded terms display on the search results page. There's a possibility that application may not be within the first 100 expanded terms so, you may not find files with the search term application in the search results. You may see fewer search results for the term ge* as compared to get*. Ensuring that you can find the most meaningful and actionable results as fast as possible, enter more criteria in the search bar.

Currently, no, but you can submit a new feature request in the Developer Community.

You need to format functional commands as code. For instance, File:span searches fetch all files named span with the extension included. This behavior occurs because the most common scenario for users is to fetch the filename along with the extension. In case you don't want to see the extension, use the following search string: file:{filename} NOT file:{filename}.

I see a Showing partial code results banner in code search. Your code base might have one or more large repositories. The larger the repository, the higher number of documents that get searched. When you search large repositories, the request could take more time to process, which can cause the search request to fail. In this case, you may see partial search results along with the Showing partial code results banner, per the previous image. You could try the following alternatives, as applicable to your scenario:

• Scope your query by using filters to narrow down to a "repo" or a "path".
• See if you can narrow your query to avoid scenarios that require matching too many terms. For example, while looking for methods like App_App1, App_App2, and so on, instead of searching for a* try searching for app* instead. (a* will match many more terms than app*).

Specify the History field. For example: History:Keyword.

You can toggle between Work Item and Code Search entities by using the picker next to the search box.

1. Go to [Discover in Azure DevOps(https://aka.ms/discover).
2. Enter your query and search.
3. Choose the Packages pivot. You can also navigate from your organization's landing page. At the top left of your screen, there's a link to the Microsoft enterprise search page below the Azure DevOps logo.

Specify the History field. For example: History:Keyword.

1. The search box is shown only in the context of a project page. Go to a project and check if the search box is displayed at the top right.
2. If you don't see the search box, verify that the extension is installed for the collection. If not, see Install and configure Search.

1. Wait until you're sure sufficient time has elapsed after installing or configuring Search. It typically takes less than one hour for Search to index a collection. But, it may take up to 12 hours based on the size and number of code files, work items, or wiki pages.
2. If no results are shown after this period, check the indexing status.

1. If the files were added in the last few minutes, wait for about 10 minutes while they're indexed.
2. Check indexing status for the collection.
3. If the files are still not shown in the results, reindex the repository or collection where the files are located.

Check indexing status separately for each collection.

1. Pause all indexing and see if performance recovers.
2. If performance does recover, consider locating Search on a separate server if you haven't already done so.

If Search is on a separate remote server and the source version is TFS 2018 Update 2 or higher, verify that the user followed these upgrade steps. Run this script to fix the issue, if the upgrade steps weren't followed.

Related articles

• Search artifacts and packages
• Search work items
• Export access levels audit log

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