Flow-Launcher/Flow.Launcher · error · SearchException

{e.Message}

Error message

{e.Message}

What it means

Thrown as SearchException(engineName, e.Message, e) from SearchManager.SearchAsync when the index/content search IAsyncEnumerable surfaces any exception other than OperationCanceledException or EngineNotAvailableException. It is the catch-all that converts arbitrary provider errors (OLE DB, COM, IO, Everything IPC) into a typed SearchException so the upper layers can render a single failure result. The inner exception is preserved but only its Message is surfaced.

Source

Thrown at Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.Explorer/Search/SearchManager.cs:170

                        continue;

                    if (IsResultTypeFilteredByActionKeyword(search.Type, actions))
                        continue;

                    results.Add(ResultManager.CreateResult(query, search));
                }
            }
            catch (OperationCanceledException)
            {
                return [.. results];
            }
            catch (EngineNotAvailableException)
            {
                throw;
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                throw new SearchException(engineName, e.Message, e);
            }

            results.RemoveWhere(r => Settings.IndexSearchExcludedSubdirectoryPaths.Any(
                excludedPath => FilesFolders.PathContains(excludedPath.Path, r.SubTitle, allowEqual: true)));

            return [.. results];
        }

        private List<Result> EverythingContentSearchResult(Query query)
        {
            return
            [
                new()
                {
                    Title = Localize.flowlauncher_plugin_everything_enable_content_search(),
                    SubTitle = Localize.flowlauncher_plugin_everything_enable_content_search_tips(),
                    IcoPath = "Images/index_error.png",
                    Action = c =>

View on GitHub (pinned to 7fc63b07bb)

Solutions

1. Inspect the inner exception (SearchException.InnerException) to find the real cause.
2. Make the provider surface EngineNotAvailableException for engine-down cases so they bypass this catch-all.
3. Catch SearchException at the result-rendering layer and degrade to a single 'search failed' result instead of crashing.
4. Add provider-specific resilience (retry on transient OleDbException, skip-on-error for IOException) so the catch-all is rarely hit.

Example fix

// before
catch (Exception e)
{
    throw new SearchException(engineName, e.Message, e);
}

// after - distinguish transient vs fatal and keep partial results
catch (Exception e) when (e is not OperationCanceledException)
{
    Main.Context.API.LogException(nameof(SearchManager), $"{engineName} search failed", e);
    if (IsTransient(e)) return [.. results];
    throw new SearchException(engineName, e.Message, e);
}

// Pre-validate the provider's environment before searching.
if (Settings.IndexSearchEngine == IndexSearchEngineOption.WindowsIndex && !WindowsIndex.WindowsIndex.PathIsIndexed(query.Search))
    logger.Info("Query path is not in the Windows Index crawl scope.");

static bool IsProviderUsable(Settings s) => s.IndexSearchEngine switch {
    IndexSearchEngineOption.Everything => File.Exists(s.EverythingInstalledPath),
    IndexSearchEngineOption.WindowsIndex => IsWindowsSearchRunning(),
    _ => true,
};

try { return await searchManager.SearchAsync(query, token); }
catch (SearchException ex) { App.API.LogException(nameof(SearchManager), $"{ex.EngineName} search failed", ex.InnerException); return new List<Result>(); }

When it happens

Trigger: IndexProvider.SearchAsync or ContentIndexProvider.ContentSearchAsync throws IOException (drive gone), OleDbException (query parse failure), COMException (shell ext crash), UnauthorizedAccessException (ACL), ObjectDisposedException, or any other runtime exception while enumerating results inside the `await foreach` at line 149.

Common situations: Searching a path on a disconnected network drive; Windows Index returns a malformed row the OleDbDataReader cannot parse; Everything IPC errors mid-stream; a file in the result set triggers an unhandled shell-extension exception; the cancellation token is disposed mid-enumeration producing ObjectDisposedException rather than OperationCanceledException.

Related errors

• {e.Message}
• SHParseDisplayName failed
• SHBindToParent failed
• GetUIObjectOf failed
• InvokeCommand failed with code {hr:X}

AI-assisted analysis of Flow-Launcher/Flow.Launcher@7fc63b07bb (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/de33b7ab0a11d1b6. Report an issue: GitHub.