Windows 10 Settings not indexed

I ran into this same issue and tried just about everything under the sun to fix it and ended up giving up and reinstalling. My friend recently ran into the very same issue (ONLY things from the new settings panel not showing in search results either from start search or directly from settings), and he said this fixed it for him: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState

First, make sure Indexed\Settings folder is not empty. You should have a folder such as en-US (depending on your language) with bunch of files in there. If it is empty, you should copy the files from another account or computer as described in the answer below.

Then, right-click the Indexed folder → Properties → Advanced → Check Allow files in this folder to have indexed in addition to file properties.

Click Apply and Exit.

He said in his case, it was already checked, but he unchecked it → applied → rechecked it → applied and that fixed it for him.

I think I've found the solution to this issue:

Run Lpksetup /u and uninstall any possible duplicate language you find there, restart Windows and wait a few minutes.

I tried the top answer to this post on the indexing options for the folder at the following link:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\indexed

It did not work. I noticed that my "indexed" folder only contained an empty "settings" underneath. I logged into a local account on my machine (where search was working properly), and found that it had a folder called "en-US" under "settings" with a bunch of files underneath that my domain account was missing. I copied this folder and pasted it at the following location on my domain account:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Indexed\Settings\

After this I restarted, and my search was fixed!

Looks like there is probably a multiple cause issue with same effect going on. For me it was right after a fresh domain install. Perhaps others have a different issue with the same effect where indexing permissions get messed up. For me, the actual items that needed to me indexed were missing.

Hoping this hack of a fix sticks. At least the basic things I use now work, so that's all I need for now. Hopefully this is helpful for others. Good luck!

Ugly workaround: Don't a use Microsoft account.

Less ugly workaround: Put up with it until Microsoft issues a fix.

Fortunately, there are dozen's of reports of this in the Windows feedback app, which increases the odds of a fix. To that end, I posted the following repro. It certainly seems related to account types.

1. Clean install Windows 10 Enterprise x64.
2. Create a local user. (At this point, search works.)
3. Create a new user via a Microsoft account -or- connect the current account to a Microsoft account.
4. Sign in via the Microsoft account. (At this point, search is broken. For example, typing "check" does not provide a "Check for updates" result. Old-style Control Panel items appear, but new-style Settings do not.)
5. If in step 3, you created a new account, sign back into the local account. (At this point, search works again. It is only broken for the Microsoft account.)

@Zediiiii was almost right

1. PowerShell with Admin rights (uninstall Cortana app)

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*cortana*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

2. Log in with another admin account

3. Delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy folder. Don't forget to go to the folder of that user account!

4. Log out and login back to the affected user account

5. PowerShell with Admin rights (install Cortana app)

Get-AppxPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -register "$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode}

6. Reboot. Maybe sign out and sign in will work too without reboot.