How to Fix Windows 10 Cannot Search Text Inside PDF Files
Question details
The user is unable to search for specific text inside PDF files using Windows Explorer, despite the search functioning correctly within dedicated PDF reader applications like Acrobat.
- Product
- Windows Explorer / PDF
- Device & OS
- Windows 10
- Scenario
- Attempting to locate specific files by searching for keywords contained within the PDF document text directly from the Windows 10 file browser.
- Observed behavior
- Windows Explorer returns no results for the searched text, failing to index or read the text contents inside the PDF files.
Ensure you are logged into Windows 10 with an administrator account, as modifying indexing options requires administrative privileges.
Enable PDF File Content Indexing in Windows 10
Configure Windows Search to index not just the file properties, but also the actual text contents of PDF files.
By default, Windows 10 may only index the file names and properties of PDF documents. To allow Windows Explorer to search the internal text of a PDF, you must manually update the File Types settings within Windows Indexing Options.
Click the Windows Start button, type 'Indexing Options' into the search bar, and press Enter to open the settings window.
Click on the 'Advanced' button at the bottom of the Indexing Options window. Provide administrator credentials if prompted.
Navigate to the 'File Types' tab. Scroll down the list of extensions and locate '.pdf'. Click on it to highlight it.
Under 'How should this file be indexed?' at the bottom, select the radio button for 'Index Properties and File Contents'.
Go back to the 'Index Settings' tab and click the 'Rebuild' button to apply the changes and re-index your drive. Note that this process may take some time depending on the number of files.
Check if PDFs Contain Selectable Text or Scanned Images
Verify whether the PDF actually contains text that a computer can read, rather than a flat, scanned image.
Easily Search and Manage PDFs with WPS Office
Bypass Windows Explorer indexing issues by using WPS Office. Its powerful built-in PDF reader offers fast, comprehensive text searching and OCR features to quickly locate content across all your documents.
- 1. Download and Install WPS Office: Download the free WPS Office suite from the official website and install it on your Windows 10 PC.
- 2. Open Your PDF: Launch WPS Office, click on 'Open', and select the PDF document you want to search.
- 3. Search Document Text: Press 'Ctrl + F' to open the Find tool, enter your keyword, and instantly navigate through all matches in the document.
- 4. Use OCR for Scanned Documents: If the PDF is an image, navigate to the 'Tools' tab and select 'OCR' to convert the document into searchable text.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Windows 10 ignore PDF contents during a search?
By default, Windows 10 is often configured to only index the file properties (like file name, date, and author) of PDFs to save system resources. You must manually enable 'Index Properties and File Contents' for the .pdf extension in the Advanced Indexing Options to fix this.
Can Windows Search find text inside scanned PDFs?
No, Windows Search cannot read text from flat images or scanned PDFs. You must first use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software, like WPS PDF, to extract and convert the images into searchable text before the OS can index it.
Does rebuilding the Windows Search index take a long time?
It depends on the number of files and the speed of your hard drive. Rebuilding the index can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. During this period, search functionality in Windows Explorer might be temporarily incomplete.
