Removing quicklaunch items also removes search in modern group site

Question

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a new modern site using the Team Site template (from the create site button on the SharePoint landing page)
2. You should now have a site with a quick launch with a few default items, and the search box should appear above the quicklaunch
3. Edit the quick launch, and remove all items, and save the changes
4. Refresh the page
5. The quicklaunch will not be displayed at all, and page content will now fill the page since there are no items in the nav. Which is nice, except the search box is gone also.

Any thoughts on this? There seems to be two solutions. Either add a dummy item to the quick launch so the full left nav comes back, or recreate the site as a communication site. (communication sites don't have a left nav, but they do have a search box at the top.)

Any search configuration options to move the search box to the top? Any elegant way of bringing search back without adding a dummy item to the quicklaunch?

Answer 1

Per my research, there is no other OOB method to bring it back.

Another solution, develop a search box web part for modern page using SPFx.

Here is a demo about using SPFx to create an Enterprise Search Web Part for Modern Pages:

http://www.carlosmontilla.com/single-post/2017/12/05/Create-an-Enterprise-Search-Web-Part-for-Modern-Pages