# Is the search function totally or partially inoperative?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [September 28, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635 "2008-09-28T23:49:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635/1 "2008-09-28T23:49:35Z")

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I just tried searching for two words. After pressing the “search now” button, the screen redrew almost immediately, but gave no results. I tried changing the search parameters – specifing a poster or partial name or none, changing the date range and forum, and got the same results several times in a row.

Since I didn’t get the “You can only search once every 5 minutes” message, it looks like the search simply didn’t get started.

But just before posting this, I tried again, with a short time period, a single forum, and one keyword. It took about 3 minutes, but it returned two threads.

So I tried the original search. Page reloads instantly, no error, no search, no results.

What gives?

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635/2 "2008-09-28T23:59:45Z")

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Just to clarify, I always use the advanced search. And I looked for, but didn’t see the older thread before starting this one, sorry. Maybe a mod can merge them?

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**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635/3 "2008-09-29T00:02:12Z")

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I haven’t been able to search for anything. I have the same problem you describe and it persists after clearing cookies and temporary files. It just refreshes back to the search page.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635/4 "2008-09-29T00:06:49Z")

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> [@fruitbat](#):
>
> I haven’t been able to search for anything. I have the same problem you describe and it persists after clearing cookies and temporary files. It just refreshes back to the search page.

I clear temp files frequently, but never all cookies (I’d lose all my passwords!) and never had this happen before. So that’s probably not a factor in my case.

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**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-search-function-totally-or-partially-inoperative/465635/5 "2008-09-29T00:35:29Z")

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Jerry has not been able to get back to us. I’ll mention this again.

I will also close this thread.