[resolved] Global search doesn't search all libraries

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Server Version#: 1.19.1.2621 on Linux Mint 19.2
Player Version#: 4.30.2
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-04-06_13-40-30.zip (2.7 MB)

I have two music libraries, one for classical, which includes symphonic movie soundtracks (like Lord of the Rings, for example), and the other for non-classical.

The artist Enya appears in both libraries. I have her albums in the non-classical library, and she appears on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack (track artist for 2 tracks) in the classical library.

When I’m at the Home page, then enter ‘enya’ in the Search field, this is what I see in the dropdown:
image
Note that it only sees the two tracks in the classical library. When I click ‘Search all sources…,’ the results are the same.

When I navigate to the Classical library, then enter ‘enya’ in the Search field, I see the same results as above.

When I navigate to the Popular Music library, then enter ‘enya’ in the Search field, the dropdown shows this, which is what I would expect from the Home page at least, if not everywhere:
image
But when I click ‘Search all sources…,’ the results only show the results from the Classical library!
image

1 Like
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It appears the “global” search (searching from Home) only considers pinned libraries.
If you use the search bar from within a library, Plex will also display results from that library (on top of the pinned library results).

It looks like the search in other clients acts the same way – except it’ll also offer a dropdown to manage the scope of your search from the search bar and/or the search result page. I can only guess that that’s also the general direction for Plex Web… admittedly it feels a little incomplete at this stage.

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Both libraries are pinned, so I would expect to see results from both libraries when searching from the Home page. The “global” search being limited to pinned libraries is pretty non-intuitive, by the way, but that’s a separate issue.

When in one library or the other, the dropdown ‘top 3’ results are limited to that library.
EDIT: Whoops, on reflection, the ‘top 3’ results are NOT limited to the selected library. The items boxed in red are from the Classical library, and green indicates the Popular library. Search was conducted within the Popular library.
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But when I’m in Popular Music and I click ‘Search all sources…’ it shows only the results from the Classical library.
image

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This also happens if using numerous Movie libraries, work around is to have a Library containing all and keep it at bottom of menu stack. I use this method as i find Genre menu on a TV client easier than search.

1 Like
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Is there any confirmation yet on this being a bug? I’m experiencing the same issue and it really does make the search experience quite a bit less appealing. My fear is that this is some sort of intentional change and its going to stay this way.

Thanks,
D

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My bad… I have now learned it’s actually focusing on libraries that are flagged as “on deck”.

From what I’ve seen it’s not considered a bug. Not saying I share that view.
My 2ct: look at the other clients and you’ll notice they have received a more extensive search functionality… so it might be worth to give them some more time and we might get something that’s actually good :wink:

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K. I’m keeping my fingers crossed this gets reverted. I can’t think of anything positive about how the search is acting now as opposed to its previous behavior, but maybe I’m missing something. I’ll add my details bellow in case its needed for sorting things out.

Client:
Plex Web Version 4.31.1 running in Fire Fox 75

Server
PMS Version 1.19.1.2630 running on Win 10 Pro

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I only have one music library, it’s pinned, and it’s not showing up in the search at all. I’m probably getting hit by this same “feature.” Anyone know how to fix it?

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None of my libraries are included in Dashboard, so On Deck is not an issue.

I don’t see how this could possibly be seen as not a bug. Items included in the ‘top 3’ dropdown are not included in the ‘Search all sources’ page, and the Search All Sources page launched from Popular Music library shows only results from the Classical library. There’s no way that is a designed result.

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Bad news guys. I found this in the patch notes:

Plex Media Server 1.19.1.2589 is now available in the Beta update channel
included in the FIXES:
(Library) Don’t include search results on home screen for libraries which don’t have “include in dashboard” enabled.

I can’t imagine who thought that was a needed “fix” but there it is. Maybe if it hits the stable channel and annoys enough people we might see a revert. But it looks like for some reason its intentional.

1 Like
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That really is bad news. It’s completely counter-intuitive. This will require an explanation from Plex.

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I agree this is a terrible change. When in the library with the item I am searching for, if an item is not in the top 3 search results, I can’t even access the item through search. Normally, I would tap “Search All Sources…” when the search result wasn’t in the top three but that doesn’t even work now. Search All Sources doesn’t seem to retain the library in which the search was initially created. So it’s not even finding the first three results that I was just seeing.

How can this be an improvement?

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It is. I’m not sure how forcing the media to be “on deck” fits with a global search. I’m perfectly happy with the libraries I do have “on deck” so being forced to include more just to have search really feels bad. I think a good example of the negative impact is that previously, I could do a global search for lets say “Jamie Fox”. I could see results for his content across all libraries. With this change I could never get search results for, lets say, his music that would return more than three results. Replace that name with whomever you like but we simply will now only ever be able to get three search hits unless we include all our libraries in “on deck”. For me, that destroys “on deck”.

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I’ve posted a question in the Plex Pass Betas forum to get into this.

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Is Plex truly this out of touch with how their end users use their software? On what Earth does a search bar that is built in to the header of literally every single page in the interface NOT used as a universal search?

I just don’t get it. The dashboard isn’t a search filter. Why is it being used as one all of the sudden?

Revert this change.

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Here is a post on reddit that addresses the change @beckfield. Maybe there hope… maybe.

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This definitely feels like a fix for a problem that didn’t exist in the first place. But if there are users asking for this, then really it should be implemented as a settings option. What we have now is a broken search unless you include everything in dashboard which would for me at least make a mess. Please roll this back or implement as an option if it is really something people want. Personally I thought the global search was great as it was. Now it’s partially useless.

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I wouldn’t call what it was “great,” because it didn’t really find everything. But this change is a really bad step in the wrong direction.

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Had to add my opinion - just came across this looking for some music that I know I have and not being able to find it.
This is ridiculous. I’ve been trying to think why would anyone want this behavior, which basically gives up on global search altogether, and couldn’t think of a reason.
Regardless, maybe they should add an “Include in search” for libraries, but search should have nothing to do with “on deck”.

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I have been scratching my head for a few days since I use Plex with my Sonos system, and I suddenly couldn’t search my Plex music library from within Sonos.

This is because I haven’t included my music library on the deck. Makes no sense.

What is on the deck shouldn’t be used as a filter for searches. Maybe add search visibility as an option for each library instead (“include in search” / “exclude from search”).

Edit: I know understand that this is a feature, not a bug. I added my music libraries to the dashboard to make them searchable again, then removed them from the dock (home screen). Everything is back to normal :slight_smile: