You are here:
Limitations for Search in Salesforce Classic
Keep these limitations in mind when using Search in Salesforce Classic.
Required Editions
| Available in: Salesforce Classic |
| Available in: All Editions except Database.com |
Chatter and Global Search
When Chatter is enabled, global search and feed search are enabled, but sidebar search and advanced search are disabled. Your organization's administrator must have Chatter enabled to use global search. Search options aren't available to Chatter Free users.
Search scope doesn’t affect Chatter feed searches; which include matches for posts across all objects.
Sidebar and Advanced Search
The table outlines the main differences between the sidebar and advanced search.
| Feature | Sidebar | Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| Location | If made available, located to the left of the page. The sidebar panel can be customized to be collapsible. | Link to advanced search within the sidebar search. |
| Record Fields and Attachments | Searches all custom field types except for type text area, long text area, and rich text area. The standard fields searched vary by object. Attachments aren't searched. | Searches all custom field types. The standard fields searched vary by object. |
| Multiple Object Searches | Choose one object by which to limit your search. Select Search All to search across all objects searchable by the sidebar. | Choose one or more objects by which to limit your search. Select Search All to search across all objects searchable by advanced. |
| Search Terms | Uses a phrase search and matches terms in the exact sequence that they appear. For example, searching for bob jones returns items with Bob Jones, but not Bobby Jones or Bob T Jones. In addition, a trailing wildcard is added at the end of the search terms. For example, Bob T Jones*. | Uses separate word search for searchable fields within a record. For example, searching for bob jones returns items with Bob Jones, and a contact named Bob Smith because his email address is bsmith@jones.com. |
| Nickname Search | Doesn't include results for nicknames. | Includes results for nicknames. |
| Spell Correction | Not available. | Available. You enter a search term that doesn’t yield results because of incorrect spelling. Instead, you see results that match a corrected spelling of the search term. Spell check availability varies by object. |
Lookup Search
If you change the owner of a record, the original owner may lose rights to see the record depending on the configuration. However, the original owner can still see the record in their recently viewed items in the lookup search results even if they don’t have rights. For sensitive data, turn off Salesforce Classic and use Lightning Experience instead. Lightning Experience removes the record from the previous owner’s Lookup page.
Structured Queries Based on Multiple Criteria
To look for records based on a structured query, such as accounts in a certain area or open opportunities within a company, use a list view, report, or dashboard.
Limit to Items I Own
When Limit to items I own is selected, the search results don't return asset, idea, invoice, order, question, quote, reply, and user records because these records don't have owners.
Filters
Your admin determines the available filter fields in a search layout. Search filters aren't available in Customer Portals or partner portals.
When filtering search results, the operator is selected automatically based on the field type. Except as noted, all fields use the contains operator. Auto number and phone fields use the contains operator because they can contain non-numeric characters. The = (equals) operator is used with these types of fields.
- Dates
- Numbers, except auto number or phone fields
- Record IDs
Explicitly using the OR operator is only supported in number fields. Except for number fields, commas are used as OR operators in search results filters. For example, if you enter Acme, California in the Account Name filter field, your results include account names with Acme or California. For number fields (where a comma can be part of a number) commas aren't treated as OR operators, so explicitly enter the OR operator.
If you specify more than one criterion, the result includes only records that match all the criteria. For example, if you enter acme California in the Account Name filter field, your results include account names with acme and California.
Don't include http:// or https:// in the URL filter criteria to avoid receiving unexpected results. When you enter values in URL fields and save records, Salesforce adds https:// to any URL that doesn't start with http:// or https://. The added https:// isn't stored in the database. For example, if you enter salesforce.com in the Website field and save the record, the Website field displays https://salesforce.com, but the value stored is salesforce.com. Therefore, if you enter https://salesforce.com in the Website filter field, your results don't include your record.
Lookup Fields and Object-Specific Quick Actions
Object-specific actions let users quickly create or update records in the context of a particular object. If you customize the quick actions layout with a lookup field that has a dependency on a read-only field, the lookup can’t find the related records.
