# 'Search' functionality doesn't work well
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121
**Category:** General Discussions
**Tags:** search
**Created:** [October 4, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121 "2025-10-04T15:00:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/1 "2025-10-04T15:00:40Z")
Hi
I’m trying to perform search of one of the words in movies name, but it doesn’t find it.
Searching for the first word always successful.
Tried \*_crayon_\* or “crayon”, but it never find the full name unless I write the first word in name.
Why?
What am I missing?
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### Author:  [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/2 "2025-10-04T15:26:08Z")
Is this about media from your local / a shared server or are you searching a movie via Plex’s Discover feature?
Have you enabled that respective source in the search preferences?
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/3 "2025-10-04T15:44:47Z")
I’m searching local / shared, not Discover (I hate it, think it’s annoying).
What you present in the picture just doesn’t work for me.
Media Library is marked.
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### Author:  [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 3:50pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/4 "2025-10-04T15:50:51Z")
Would you mind sharing some additional details?
e.g. what version of PMS are you using and do you get the same result on different clients or just a specific one (which)?
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/5 "2025-10-04T15:56:45Z")
Version 1.42.2.10156
But just to clarify - searching never worked as you show in picture (year+).
I tried on my PC and laptop, different users - all same results.
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### Author:  [@nibbles](https://forums.plex.tv/u/nibbles)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/6 "2025-10-04T18:42:47Z")
> [@ehudpaz](#):
>
> I’m trying to perform search of one of the words in movies name, but it doesn’t find it.
>
> Searching for the first word always successful.
This used to happen to me also and the topic arose on the forums. It was definitely odd how it was limited to the first word. You could probably find the old topic after some digging. I vaguely recall a Plex employee responding.
But it works now (searching for _strange_) in both the search box TomH pictured and in **Advanced Filters → Title → contains**. I tried the [hosted web app](https://app.plex.tv/) and Plex for Mac. It’d be interesting if we could narrow down what you’re encountering even though you have up to date apps.
When you used your PC and laptop to test, describe what players you ran. Maybe it was Chrome on both for example?
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 7:14pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/7 "2025-10-04T19:14:49Z")
I use Brave browser in PC and laptop.
I didn’t find any ‘Advanced Filter’.
I tried searching for some movies I share with my kids - can’t find them using search unless I write the first word.
I use the search box at top.
It’s also weird there is no option for internal search in Settings, trying to figure whether it’s setup or configuration issue.
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### Author:  [@nibbles](https://forums.plex.tv/u/nibbles)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/8 "2025-10-04T21:30:46Z")
I’ll experiment with Brave and Opera to see if there’s any difference between those and the Safari I tested.
To get to Advanced Filters if you’re curious, you would
1. click your Movies library in the left sidebar
2. click your **Library** tab at the top center of the Movies window.
3. click the **All** dropdown and scroll to the very bottom
4. where you find Advanced Filters.
> [@ehudpaz](#):
>
> It’s also weird there is no option for internal search in Settings, trying to figure whether it’s setup or configuration issue.
By internal search I’m guessing you mean a substring search as versus an exact match. What your topic describes is you’re stuck on exact matching which would explain why you’re required to type the first word, but I seem to default to a substring search.
I’m not familiar with another configuration for exact match vs substring in **Settings** , but I can say that for sure there’s that option in **Advanced Filters**. It’s labeled **is** versus **contains**.
I take that back, are you using the agent named **Plex Movie**? I may be required for searching substrings of movie titles.
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 3:55am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/9 "2025-10-05T03:55:15Z")
Ok.
Still - nothing.
And it exist.
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### Author:  [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 7:35am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/10 "2025-10-05T07:35:10Z")
Does that only happen for you with terms followed by punctuation?
I’ve noticed you’re dealing with an „other video“ type library and did some testing with those on my own setup. Still working fine for me (though, I didn’t have any items with the search term immediately followed by a dot).
Does this issue persist for you after optimizing your server’s database (settings \> [server name] \> troubleshooting)?
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 8:00am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/11 "2025-10-05T08:00:08Z")
Yes. Tried the Optimize from Troubleshooting - **no change**
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### Author:  [@nibbles](https://forums.plex.tv/u/nibbles)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 8:56am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/12 "2025-10-05T08:56:23Z")
I’m unable to replicate your search issue on Brave. I’m getting the expected **contains** sort of substring search results, even with an **Other Videos** type of library on this Mac.
I’ll try to get around to testing on Win 11, though.
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### Author:  [@SwiftPanda16](https://forums.plex.tv/u/SwiftPanda16)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/13 "2025-10-05T14:41:11Z")
Have you checked your database for corruption?
> **[GitHub - ChuckPa/DBRepair: Database repair utility for Plex Media Server...](https://github.com/ChuckPa/DBRepair)**
>
> Database repair utility for Plex Media Server databases
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/14 "2025-10-05T15:19:35Z")
I downloaded the files but it seems they are built for linux infrastructure, and I run server on Win 11 platform.
Tried running the PS file, without success.
Am I missing something?
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### Author:  [@nibbles](https://forums.plex.tv/u/nibbles)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/15 "2025-10-05T17:08:10Z")
> [@ehudpaz](#):
>
> Tried running the PS file, without success.
Could be any of several reasons. Please screenshot the error you get. Then we could ask the author. Some thoughts …
- Chuck provides directions in a [Windows-Readme for DBRepair](https://github.com/ChuckPa/DBRepair/blob/master/Windows/README-Windows.md)
- MS removed Powershell 2.0 in August from Win11 24H2
- You may need to install Powershell 7
- You may need to override some Windows security features as explained in the Readme.
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/16 "2025-10-05T18:06:52Z")
I tried the bat file (one shot) using CMD with admin rights, here’s the error I got:
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### Author:  [@DTR](https://forums.plex.tv/u/DTR)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/17 "2025-10-05T18:42:03Z")
It looks like you copied the entire web page, not just the script. You can find the raw script here: [raw.githubusercontent.com/ChuckPa/DBRepair/refs/heads/master/Windows/DBRepair-Windows.bat](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ChuckPa/DBRepair/refs/heads/master/Windows/DBRepair-Windows.bat), or use the “Download raw file” button when viewing the file:
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 5:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/18 "2025-10-06T05:48:36Z")
Closed server and tried running the script - finished successfully.
Ran server again, tried searching ‘crayon’ - the movie still doesn’t show.
It does give me some results - **but none related to the phrase** , and it’s not showing in files names or in title (due to privacy matters I won’t upload picture of the result)
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### Author:  [@ehudpaz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ehudpaz)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 7:54am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/19 "2025-10-08T07:54:15Z")
Hi
So, as I understand, no one encounter it.
Does anyone know how do I contact the developers?
It’s nice they have a forum, but no real solutions for customers’ issues.
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### Author:  [@Divideby0](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Divideby0)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/search-functionality-doesnt-work-well/932121/20 "2025-10-08T15:42:32Z")
Hi. Unfortunately, there is no alternate way to directly contact developers other than through these forums. While they lurk and respond here, it can be overwhelming for them to monitor each conversation for a direct plea for help (if they even can in some cases). Most of the time, they only chime in if there is no further help forthcoming from power users such as you have gotten so far, and even then only if they notice the post.
If they do not hop in within a day, I’d try a shameful (shameless?) poke to try to gain attention.
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