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If you make a search for something that returns more than 10,000 items in result. For example, search for only one letter "a" return 161,338 results on MSE. But if you select a page where 10,000+ result should be shown:

Select page

In the edge case page 3227 shows zero results:

3237

But this is actual for any page where per_page * page_number is more than 10,000.

Though this does not happen for Stack Overflow in English. It looks like all other sites are affected.

Related bug report on ruSO.meta: Не работает страница поиска с номером >200 | Search page number >200 is bugged

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  • 1
    While this is reasonable to limit the search results to prevent exhausting the server, they should indicate this somehow, not let us believe there are more results when there aren't. Nov 13, 2017 at 14:02
  • 2
    @ShadowWizard for SO there is no limit. Propably because of some users have more than 10000 posts! Nov 13, 2017 at 14:31
  • 3
    Searches are indeed currently limited to 10,000 results total, but that's not by-design and the dev team is currently investigating.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Nov 13, 2017 at 15:20
  • @animuson you have about 2 more weeks, if you plan to keep the 6-8 week interval. Nov 13, 2017 at 15:49
  • 3
    english.meta.stackexchange.com/q/11037/3559 also reports this bug. I have found the upper limit is page 200 for regular stacks and page 666 for meta.se
    – Meta Ellen
    Dec 20, 2017 at 0:10
  • What possible gain is there to have, say, 20,000 results for any given search item? Even when I get 1,000 hits I know I have to narrow down my search request. Have you tried searching something other than "a"? Jun 5, 2018 at 6:51
  • 1
    @Mari-LouA That doesn't mean it's not a bug. 10000+ results may be less than useful but sometimes that's what you need. The related chat search bug, for example makes it impossible for me to see my earliest messages in a chat room without knowing what the messages say.
    – Catija
    Jun 5, 2018 at 11:46
  • Is there any chance of an update on this? If the results are limited, it should say so, not just suddenly have 0 results once you get to a page beyond what it'll show you. Though preferably, it should be able to show all of the results rather than truncating them at all.
    – 3D1T0R
    Jul 31, 2018 at 23:24
  • @3D1T0R I'm afraid not. Guess we just have to accept the fact the bug won't be fixed. :) Oct 16, 2018 at 7:06
  • Grrr. I find this issue very annoying. :-/
    – 3D1T0R
    Oct 16, 2018 at 16:34
  • Related issue with the Stack Exchange API.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jan 9, 2019 at 13:49
  • 1
    @3D1T0R I'm glad to be wrong.. it was fixed now. Jan 9, 2019 at 14:05
  • @ShadowWizard: W00T!!! ☺
    – 3D1T0R
    Jan 9, 2019 at 17:52

1 Answer 1

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This was fixed in a subsequent update to Stack Overflow, but was just now fixed for the entire network (thanks for the comments!).

Though we may limit search results eventually (because of Elastic performance), there aren't any plans to unless we're forced to.

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  • Nope. It's not fixed. Proof (that's page 201, page 200 works.) Jan 9, 2019 at 13:48
  • If it's fixed, perhaps you can take a look at this related API bug?
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jan 9, 2019 at 13:49
  • As we fixed it on Stack Overflow due to being huge but not meta - one moment. Jan 9, 2019 at 13:50
  • 3
    Okay, it should be fixed across the network and for any new sites that grow over 10k now. Jan 9, 2019 at 13:57

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