SharePoint search only works for domain admins

Question

I've been running into a problem where most accounts can't search my SharePoint main site through the search bar at the top-right of my page. I have a document library that they need to be able to search in, and it never returns any results regardless regardless of what is searched.

After further testing, domain admins are able to search fine but the rest of the accounts in the domain are not. I assume this is a simple fix, but I have been searching everywhere and have not found a solution. Has anyone run into this?

Thank you!

EDIT: I just tested this on the SharePoint server's admin account, and that worked too.

Answer 1

Have you added Search service account to the "Windows Authorazation Access Group?" You may follow this link to do that http://troygerber.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/only-get-search-results-when-logged-into-sharepoint-as-sharepoint-farm-account/

Answer 2

Option #1 This may be a permissions issue. I would carefully review the permissions on that library as well as the permissions on your results.aspx page.

Option #2 It sounds like you may have an issue with your search results (results.aspx) page. More specifically, the web part where the search core results are displayed. To edit this page you can go to:

{{yoursearchcenterpath}}/Pages/results.aspx?DisplayMode=Design&ControlMode=Edit

I would open that web part and check your settings. Specifically ensure that your "Results Query Options" are along the lines of:

• Query Language => Browser Locale
• Cross-Web part query ID => User query
• Remove Duplicate Results => Checked
• Enable Search Term Stemming => Unchecked
• Ignore Noise Words => Checked
• Fixed Keyword Query =>
• Append Text To Query =>

Those last two are left empty.

Answer 3

This scenario occurs if you have a one-way trust established and are performing a search with a user from the trusted domain.

One Way Trust DiagramIn order to rectify this situation, you’ll have to configure your Search Service Application to store ACLs in Claims format. To do this, you’ll have to use PowerShell (credit goes to Sladecross for this).

$SearchApp = Get-SPServiceApplication %searchGUID%
$SearchApp.setproperty(“ForceClaimACLs”, 1)

Replace %searchGUID% with the GUID of the Search Service Application. Run this if you know the GUID:

Get-SPServiceApplication

After you perform a full crawl, you’ll see search results, regardless of which domain you’re logged in.

I’ve also witnessed situations where the search crawling account was a domain account from the trusted domain. This does allow users from the trusted domain to perform search. However, the problem with this is twofold because configuring a managed account with an account from the trusted domain causes all sorts of wacky things:

• The inability to access the Configure Managed Accounts screen from the UI.

• When logged-in from the other domain (the non-trusted one) you won’t see search results. It becomes an either/or situation.

Answer 4

Please check this blog https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2344518 It will fix your issue.