Crawled Properties Not Created From Site Columns in Modern Team Sites
You know that feeling where you’ve done something so many times and it’s worked and then one day it just doesn’t? Yeah, I just had one of those.
I’m still a big fan of the PnP Modern Search Web Parts, just like I was last week or last year. To really make them sing in your solutions, you’ll end up creating Site Columns and using Content Types. I love those things, too, but this post isn’t about why.
Over the last few weeks, when I have created Site Columns, made sure they are included in Content Types, and added content using those Content Types, the Site Columns have not shown up as Crawled Properties in the SharePoint Admin Center (More features / Search [Open] / Manage Search Schema). They simply never show up. I’ve given it overnight, then a week, then two weeks.
The sequence here is important, so to reiterate:
- Create your Site Columns
- Add the Site Columns to Content Types
- Add content using those Content Types – This is the one that bites many people, including me. No content, nothing to crawl!
- The Site Columns show up as Crawled Properties
I swear this has been a reliable way to go from Site Columns to Managed Properties (after mapping to Refinable[Type]NN Managed Properties) for years. The ultimate goal in my case is to use those Managed Properties in search-driven solutions using the PnP Modern Search Web Parts. But of course, Managed Properties have other benefits as well.
I’ve been doing this for years, and I sorta feel like I know what I’m doing. I’m not proud, so I headed over to my MVP channels, and tagged people like Agnes Molnar (@molnaragnes) and Mikael Svenson (@mikaelsvenson) in a post asking whether something had changed.
Agnes pointed out an old post from Joanne Klein (@JoanneCKlein) entitled Crawled & Managed Properties in Modern Team Sites. Turns out there’s a kooky hole in things. I have no idea why this hasn’t gotten in my way before.
If you are creating your IA (my shorthand from Site Columns and Content Types, among other things) in a modern Team Site, it’s not good enough to be an Owner. As Joanne wrote, you also need to add yourself as a Site Collection Administrator directly. (Site Permissions / Advanced permissions settings / Site Collection Administrators)
Event though you’re in the Owners group, and the Owners group is in the Site Collection Administrators, you still need to add yourself directly.
Do that, kick off a re-index of the site in question, and within moments practically, your Crawled Properties will be ready to use. None of us are quite sure why this is, but it worked in two tenants for me today, one right after the other.
In case you’re wondering, once you have the Crawled Properties in place (below, ows_SiteName, ows_ExaminerName, and ows_Jurisdiction are Crawled Properties), you can map them to Managed Properties (RefinableString00, RefinableString01, and RefinableString02 below). Those Managed Properties can then be used as filters (nee refiners) in the PnP Modern Search Web Parts or elsewhere.
Mikael also pointed me to his post Tech and me: Mapping or clearing crawled property to managed property mappings using PowerShell (or code). This looks like it might help with this problem, but more likely is most useful when the Crawled Properties are not showing due to a different bug.
Thank you Joanne, Agnes, and Mikael!
Marc, have you tried this with a group connected team site? The plot thickens here because crawled properties DO show up for me in connected and not connected team sites whether I’m a SCA or not, but the managed properties they are mapped to, aren’t available in search web parts or the highlighted content web part IN GROUP CONNCTED team sites only. Msft is looking into this, but all in all there are too many moving parts in search for mere mortals to master.
I was so stumped on this. Thank you for laying it all out! Has Microsoft been notified? I can’t imagine this is intended….?
Hi Marc, I found that the crawled properties search does not necessarily return all items, even when they have been crawled and exist. For example, it works fine and shows my custom crawled properties when I search crawled properties for “ows_q”. In the result list I see “ows_q_CHCS_NewsCategory” and others. But my custom crawled properties are not showing when I search for “ows_q_CHCS”. Riddle me that. I have posted this in the community at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sharepoint/bug-sharepoint-crawled-properties-filter-not-showing-all/m-p/2399800 and I think it’s a bug.
Nice to hear from you, Ingeborg!
I left you a reply on the Tech Community post. My guess is you haven’t created content with values for the Site Column(s) and/or you’re not a Site Collection Administrator.
M.
Your reply may have helped me. I created two choice columns “MenuLevel1” and “MenuLevel2” and kept looking for them in Crawled Properties by searching for “Menu”. They didn’t show up. After reading your reply, I searched for “ows_Menu” and voala, “ows_MenuLevel1”, “ows_MenuLevel2”, “ows_q_CHCS_MenuLevel1”, and “ows_q_CHCS_MenuLevel2” all show up. Then I search “Menu” again and they remain showing up. Thank you.
After several weeks of testing, I found that Crawled and Managed Properties in SharePoint Online CANNOT be managed at the site collection level BUT at the Tenant level only.
Maybe I missed a note in Microsoft documentation but there wasn’t anything clearly visible that suggested this.