DEVONthink 3 doesn't find a document with the word "xsv". What to do? Rebuild the database?

In my DEVONthink database “Computer” I have a (a few days old) Markdown document with the word xsv (or more in detail `xsv`) in the content. - When searching for xsv in the database DEVONthink 3 didn’t find the document. (DEVONthink however does find it by other words in the content.)

Being perplexed I then created a brand new Markdown document named “Backtick Test” in my DEVONthink Inbox with the following content:

This contains the word `xsv`, or not?

When searching in the Inbox the new document is found as expected.

What’s going on? And what’s the best way to fix this?

The database is a few years old by now, so I tried a Spotlight index rebuild in the Database props of “Computer”, but that doesn’t better things. (I didn’t get any feedback in the log window though, so I don’t know whether the rebuild really happened.)

Next step could be to Rebuikd the daatbase. Should i do this? I am scared I might lose some (meta)data.

Export and import the document again. Does this make a difference? If not then please post the snippet containing the word, thanks.

Export and Re-Import does not fix it.

I have uploaded a zip with the problematic document here:

Csvkit-Like Tools for Working With Tabular Data.md.zip (1.7 KB)

ps: A smaller test document just containing

## A header

Under a header.

## `xsv`

Under my search word.

was found OK.

If you include the backticks, the document is found but no highlights shown.

Excluding the backticks finds the document with no issue here.

For me it definitely does not work with the searchterm xsv nor with `xsv`.

Put the file in a different database and try the search there.

Now I have put it in DEVONthink’s Inbox db and the document is still not found when searching for xsv. (Note: It is found searching for rows)

Som is this rather a document issue or a database issue?

It’s a bug of the indexer, the next release will fix this. In the meantime you could use the hidden preference IndexRawMarkdownSource

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Thanks for this. Makes sense - and reassures me.(*) :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

(*) Every time a search does not work as expected I start worrying a little bit about the viability of the tool as a whole, because search is the main ‘view’ into the data…

Why?

Because searching is the main ‘view’ into my data, i.e. the main way to find information. And if the search doesn’t work reliably (or at least if I perceive the search as not working as expected) I start questioning the usefulness of a tool like DEVONthink…

Please don’t think I dislike DEVONthink - I love it and it is much better than any home-grown solutuon would be, but issues like th one discussed here do chip away a tiny bit of the trust I put into the tool…