Run a search reindex

Once you change your primary search language or create, edit, or delete a synonym, those changes won't take effect until you reindex your knowledge base for search. This can be considered a "required" search reindex, since you won't see updates appear until the reindex has been run.

You'll see a message appear across the top of most pages when you've made this type of change:

To complete the reindex:

1. Click the View and reindex link in that message, which will jump you to the Settings > Search page.
   If your knowledge base is actively used, we recommend running a search reindex after-hours, since it will knock out full search results while it runs.
2. Click the link in the warning at the top to jump to the Search Reindex section:
   
3. Click the Reindex KB button to trigger the reindex:
   
4. A confirmation pop-up will appear, warning you that full search will be disabled while the reindex runs. To run the reindex, click the Reindex KB button in that pop-up.
   
5. You'll see a progress bar while the reindex runs:
   
   1. You may see a warning message before the progress bar appears:
      
      This just means the reindex has been briefly delayed. The progress bar should appear momentarily!
6. Once the reindex is complete, the progress bar will disappear and a timestamp for the last reindex will be displayed beneath the Reindex KB button. Your synonyms are now live!
7. For the next hour, the Reindex KB button will be disabled. Hovering over the Reindex KB button will show you when the next reindex can be completed. If you do make other changes to synonyms or your primary search language, you will be able to reindex again within the hour, though.
   
   

In addition to required search reindexes, occasionally you may want to run a search reindex ad hoc.

You shouldn't ever *have* to do this--articles are generally reindexed for search as you save changes to them.

But once in a while, due to a glitch on our side or an outage, something may have gone wrong when we automatically reindexed content.

If you notice search results not updating with recent changes and the article or category in question hasn't been excluded from search results, running a reindex is usually the first troubleshooting step our team takes, so you may want to run one yourself before reaching out to our team.

To run an optional search reindex:

1. Go to Settings > Search.
2. Scroll to the Search Reindex section.
3. Click the Reindex KB button to begin the process.
   Full search results will be disabled while the reindex is running. If your knowledge base is actively used, we recommend running a search reindex after-hours.
4. You'll see a pop-up confirming you want to proceed. If you're running the reindex at a time where it won't matter that full search results are briefly disabled, click Reindex KB to confirm the process and begin the reindex.
   
5. You'll see a progress bar while the reindex runs:
   
   1. You may see a warning message before the progress bar appears:
      
      This just means the reindex has been briefly delayed. The progress bar should appear momentarily!
6. Once the reindex is complete, the progress bar will disappear and a timestamp for the last reindex will be displayed beneath the Reindex KB button.
7. For the next hour, the Reindex KB button will be disabled. Hovering over the Reindex KB button will show you when the next reindex can be completed.
   

Sometimes when you run a reindex, you may see a warning appear that the reindex has been delayed:

If you see this warning, don't panic!

You can consider this a courtesy message: we're just trying to let you know it will take a bit before the reindex starts so you don't feel worried that it's taking longer than it might normally.

We run automatic back-ups of all search indices. If you see this warning, it just means that your search index was in the act of being backed up when you tried to reindex. Since we can't back up something while it's being edited, we delay the start of your reindex until the back-up is complete. We'll start it after the back-up is done.

You don't need to do anything else here--we will automatically begin the reindex after the back-up is complete. This usually takes a few minutes to complete, and you're welcome to navigate away during that time.

If you stay on the page, after a few minutes, the warning will disappear and the normal reindex progress bar and completion messages will start back up.