How To Fix a Degraded Search Index Partition in a SharePoint 2013 farm
Tags: sharepoint2013, search, index
Published: 2018-10-09 23:38:37

---
title: How To Fix a Degraded Search Index Partition in a SharePoint 2013 farm
published: true
tags: SharePoint 2013,Search,Index
canonical_url: https://blogit.create.pt/miguelisidoro/2018/10/07/how-to-fix-a-degraded-search-index-partition-in-a-sharepoint-2013-farm/
---

The post [How To Fix a Degraded Search Index Partition in a SharePoint 2013 farm](https://blogit.create.pt/miguelisidoro/2018/10/07/how-to-fix-a-degraded-search-index-partition-in-a-sharepoint-2013-farm/) appeared first on [Blog IT](https://blogit.create.pt).

Hello,

Recently, a customer reported problems with Search in a SharePoint 2013 farm. Instead of showing search results, the following error was being shown:

![](https://i0.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SP2013_Search_Problem.png?resize=512%2C66&ssl=1)

# The Problem

To diagnose the problem, I opened Central Administration and the Search Service Application page indicated problems with the Index Partition component in the Search Service Application Topology.

![](https://i0.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Central_Admin_Index_Partition_Degraded.png?resize=696%2C77&ssl=1)

To further diagnose the problem, I opened up a PowerShell window (used the option “Run As Administrator” to ensure proper permissions) and executed the following commands:

$ssa = Get-SPServiceApplication -Name “Search Service Application”  
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -SearchApplication $ssa -Detailed -Text

After execution, the result confirmed a problem with the Index Partition, showing the Index component with the Degraded state.

![](https://i2.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PowerShell_Index_Partition_Degraded.png?resize=679%2C343&ssl=1)

# The Solution

The solution was composed by two steps:

- Reset the Search Index
- Perform a Full Crawl on Search Content Source

## Reset the Search Index

To reset the Search Index, I went to the Reset Index page in the Search Service Application in Central Administration and clicked the  **“Reset Now”** button.

![](https://i1.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SP2013_Search_Index_Reset.png?resize=696%2C197&ssl=1)

To confirm the Index Reset, I clicked  **“OK”** in the popup message.

![](https://i1.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SP2013_Search_Index_Reset_Confirmation.png?resize=416%2C170&ssl=1)

## Perform a Full Crawl on Search Content Sources

After resetting the index, the search index data was deleted and to allow search results to be shown again, we need to perform a Full Crawl on all Content Sources in the farm. To do that, we must go to the Content Sources page in the Search Service Application in Central Administration and for each available Content Sources, select **“Start Full Crawl”**.

![](https://i1.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SP2013_Content_Search_Search_Full_Crawl.png?resize=696%2C285&ssl=1)

**NOTE:** If you have more than one Content Source, let the Full Crawl on the previous Content Source finish before starting to Full Crawl the next Content Source.

After the Full Crawl on all Content Sources finished, I returned to Central Administration and the Search Service Application page to check the Search Service Application status. The page now indicates a healthy status for all Search components.

![](https://i0.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Central_Admin_Index_Partition_OK.png?resize=696%2C77&ssl=1)

To confirm that the problem is solved, I ran the same commands previously executed in the PowerShell window.

$ssa = Get-SPServiceApplication -Name “Search Service Application”  
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -SearchApplication $ssa -Detailed -Text

After execution, the result confirms that the problem with the Index Partion is solved, showing an Activate state in the Index component.

![](https://i0.wp.com/blogit.create.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PowerShell_Index_Partition_OK.png?resize=677%2C346&ssl=1)

After the above steps, SharePoint sites started returning search results again!

**NOTE:** This solution should be also valid for SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint 2019. If you want to know all about the new features available in the new SharePoint Server release, click [here](https://dev.to/mlisidoro/sharepoint-server-gets-modern-sharepoint-2019-is-here-194f).

To find a solution to a search crawling issue I recently found in a SharePoint 2016 farm, click [here](https://dev.to/mlisidoro/sharepoint-2016-problems-crawling-content-and-the-the-crawler-could-not-communicate-with-the-server-error-message-1pjl).

If you are a SharePoint developer or administrator and want to learn more on how to install a SharePoint 2016 farm in an automated way using PowerShell click [here ](https://dev.to/mlisidoro/how-to-install-a-sharepoint-2016-farm-using-powershell-and-autospinstaller-part-1-54m5)and [here](https://dev.to/mlisidoro/how-to-install-a-sharepoint-2016-farm-using-powershell-and-autospinstaller-part-2-5e36).

Hope this can help someone with the same problem!

Happy SharePointing!

The post [How To Fix a Degraded Search Index Partition in a SharePoint 2013 farm](https://blogit.create.pt/miguelisidoro/2018/10/07/how-to-fix-a-degraded-search-index-partition-in-a-sharepoint-2013-farm/) appeared first on [Blog IT](https://blogit.create.pt).