Strange bug affecting search results [#18883]

[tbm72]

Just noticed a strange bug affecting the search function. I have the album 'Dare' by the band 'The Human League' in my library but if I start typing 'human' or 'league' or 'human league' in the search box I get no results and the band name doesn't appear in the artist column browser. But if I search for their album 'Dare' it finds it and I can now see the artist "The Human League' in the Artist column browser. But I search again for 'human' and it goes back to not showing any results in the column browser.

I tried editing the band name in the album properties to drop 'The' and just be 'Human League'. Now when I search for 'human' the band name shows up in the column browser but if I search for 'league' I get no results.

Then I've also seen similar behaviour for the artist 'Sebastien Tellier' - if I start searching for 'Sebastien' in the search field it shows his name in the artist column browser with correct search results but if I search for 'Tellier' I get nothing.

I imagine it probably affects other artists but these were the first 2 I've noticed it with. This is using the very latest MM5 build (5.0.3.2609).

[Lowlander]

What Search mode do you have set for Search and which Build (Help > About) are you using?

[tbm72]

I wasn't even aware of the search options (never changed it from default) but it's set to 'Ignore diacritics/Match beginning of words (faster)' and Search Current View is set to 'Filter matches'. Build is as stated above (5.0.3.2609).

[Lowlander]

I tested it with the match within words option and it worked as you expect.

[tbm72]

I switched to Match Within Words and it seems to be working OK as it always did for me before. I guess this is a feature that was changed in the latest update as I've never changed this myself.

[tbm72]

Still not sure I understand the function of the 'Match beginning of words' option though as if it is set to that it doesn't give me any results for The Human League whether I search for any combination of words, e.g. 'the human', 'the human league', 'league' etc.

[Barry4679]

Still not sure I understand the function of the 'Match beginning of words' option though as if it is set to that it doesn't give me any results for The Human League whether I search for any combination of words, e.g. 'the human', 'the human league', 'league' etc.

"Match Beginning.." uses a fast search index where every separate word in a tag is a separate entry in the index.
This means that it should return "The Human League" type the beginning of any of those three words. eg. Th or Lea

I say "should" because there is a bug that has just been fixed, but not yet released, where anything that you quoted (eg. "th") needed to have matching capitalisation, ie "Th"

the other related sort options are:
* "Match whole words only" ... here you would need to type all of the letters in any of the words ... ie. the finds that band, but th does not.
* "Match within words" ... slower ... but the band could be found if you typed some part of any of the words... like man ... or gue

[tbm72]

Thanks Barry4679 that helps me know what should be happening but even taking into account the current bug it still isn't working for me as you say.

*Ignore diacritics/Match beginning of words (faster)
Even considering the bug you mentioned 'The Human League' (with all correct matching caps) doesn't find it. If I type 'The' then the band is in the list but as soon as I add 'The H' or 'The Human' it's not found any longer. Maybe this will be fixed when the bug gets fixed.

*Respect diacritics/Search whole words only (faster):
'the' correctly finds 'The Human League' in the list.
'human' or 'Human' or 'The Human' or 'the human league' or 'The Human League' don't find the band in results.

*Respect diacritics/Match within words
This seems to be the only of the 4 options that works correctly.

*Respect diacritics/Search whole words only
This seems to work OK for all combinations of 'The Human League' but it seems to not work for some others. For example I have a track by Bomb The Bass featuring (the sadly departed...) Mark Lanegan. So the track title is 'Black River (Gui Boratto Remix Feat. Mark Lanegan)' but if I search for 'Lanegan' or 'lanegan' it doesn't find this track. I've double checked the Title field is ticked in the search options. It doesn't find it using any of the other search options either (apart from Respect diacritics/Match within words).

So the only search which seems to work correctly for me is Respect diacritics/Match within words.

[Barry4679]

The Human League seems to have passed me by
You have anything by The Rolling Stones?
Do you see the same behaviour?

The beta bug fix version has now been published ... do you want to try it?

When you have been testing to get the results that you described, did you use the backspace or delete keys at all?
I am on the newest release now. Before that I was seeing a problem where:

• if I typed the The Roll I saw the The Rolling Stones included in the list, as expected

• but if I backspaced a couple of times so I just had The Ro

• and then typed the two l's again. I saw nothing

My guess was that the above steps had MM5 searching for something like The Roll<backspace><backspace>ll ... and therefore was finding nothing

Maybe this accounts for what you were seeing.
Can you try closing the search box between each of your tests
Or install the new version, as I don't see that issue anymore.

In the tests that you describe have you been placing quote marks around what you are typing.
You shouldn't because that brings in different rules.
I tested without any surrounding quotes marks.

[Rob_S]

Definitely something weird going on here, not sure why I had not noticed before. My database contains about 13,000 tracks.

In MM4 scanning same set of tracks the search term rover finds 244 tracks - 206 of which are by The Irish Rovers or Irish Rovers and including 3 versions entitled I Roved Out and anything else containing the word rover

In MM5 2609 the same search term in Global Search using the default search method finds only 26 tracks some of which are by Irish Rovers with or without The, some having rover in the title, and some having rover in the album name

settings are Ignore.., match beginning, with artist album title, album artist etc all checked

Using ignore, match whole .. Irish Rovers finds 2 tracks

Backspacing and retyping does not appear to affect my results.

More testing is required to figure out exactly which ones are being left out, and why

Next step attempt database maintenance to see if that helps

[Rob_S]

Ps

Database maintenance made no difference

Interesting note - selecting artist node - The Irish Rovers in same MM5 finds 202 tracks

[Rob_S]

pps

Re-installed 2608, problem solved.

ppps

Why when using the option respect diacritics - match within of words

ish overs or overs - finds Irish Rovers, "ish overs" and "overs" does not find anything

[tbm72]

Other things that don't seem right with search:

I click on the Music node and then enter 'human' in the search box and it returns results from both my Music collection and also from my Audiobook collection which is configured as a completely separate collection from Music. Shouldn't the search box only return results from the node I click before carrying out the search? Same happens if I click on my Audiobook node first and search for 'human'; it returns results from both my music and audiobook collections.

I tried the thing about searching for The Rolling Stones then backspacing etc and that didn't cause any problems for most of the search option configurations - The Rolling Stones appeared as expected at all times. The only time it didn't was when using 'Ignore diacritics/Search whole words only (faster)' - when I typed 'The Rolling' I got no results for the Stones.

[Rob_S]

I figured out how to search only the current display.

Open the search box, (click the magnifying glass) - any search you enter in the box that appears will be global

Now click the down-arrow to the right of it, and select the option "Search current view"

The right hand search box disappears, and a new search box opens at the left next to your current tab.

If not, try a different skin - material design seems most reliable.

Enter your search term in that left-hand search box, and the results should be limited to whatever you had displayed


ps No one has confirmed or acknowledged the search bug in V2609??? Is this only me?

[Barry4679]

ps No one has confirmed or acknowledged the search bug in V2609??? Is this only me?

Oh, no. You have started another pandemic.
I see it also now.
Thanks for your persistence.
I could not see it before. Maybe it got introduced with 2609.

the problem is reported here

I figured out how to search only the current display.
Open the search box, (click the magnifying glass) - any search you enter in the box that appears will be global
Now click the down-arrow to the right of it, and select the option "Search current view"
The right hand search box disappears, and a new search box opens at the left next to your current tab.
If not, try a different skin - material design seems most reliable.

The quick way to do a local (aka Contextual) search is to just type something when the focus is in the main panel.
That auto-opens the middle search box that you describe.

There is nothing wrong with the non-standard skins btw. There was a problem, in one of the recent betas, in MM5 which was affecting many skins. It is fixed now.