search query ignored because too common words

BobW2008 · Post by **BobW2008** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:58 pm

I am experiencing the following error every time anyone performs a search for an word:

The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words:
You must specify at least one word to search for. Each word must consist of at least 3 characters and must not contain more than 20 characters excluding wildcards.

I have check my sever settings, disabled the feature, set the threshold to 0 and to 75%, but no luck with any of the settings changes. I am using the fulltext native search.

I have tried to search the phpbb forums now that they are back up, but when I click the search results I get a Page Failed to Load error from phpbb. I'm sure this is related to the hack but I need help with this.

Does anyone have a link to a solution to this or any background on the search too many common words issue?

- Bob -

ameeck · Post by **ameeck** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:07 pm

In order to apply this settings, you must rebuild the search index.

If you reach such a link in a search engine, it probably begins with https://, just remove that 's' and the link will work fine.

BobW2008 · Post by **BobW2008** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:35 pm

Perfect - thanks.

And thanks about pointing out the 'https' should be 'http'. I would have never noticed that.

seakayak · Post by **seakayak** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:48 am

I'm having the same problem. Can you tell me in simple terms how to fix it please.

ameeck · Post by **ameeck** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:53 am

I already did. Go to ACP :: Maintenance :: Search Index and rebuild the search index you use for searching on your board.

seakayak · Post by **seakayak** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:43 am

Thanks for that I just need to be pointed in the right direction.

fonant · Post by **fonant** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:06 pm

I think there is also a bug in the phpBB search: once a word has been declared "common", because it exists in a large number of posts, it never gets treated as not-common again. This means that common words in early posts in the forum get marked as being common much more easily than words only appearing in later posts.

See my bug report for the latest on this: http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/42255

I've switched to the MySQL full-text search and this works well as an alternative.

meusv · Post by **meusv** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 2:34 pm

ameeck wrote:I already did. Go to ACP :: Maintenance :: Search Index and rebuild the search index you use for searching on your board.

I did this:

ACP > Maintenance >

And I don't see an option to *rebuild the search index"

I only see:

* Create Index
* Delete Index

Would anyone mind explaining the process in Steps, so that the end result is Members *can* search for "common" terms?

I would very much appreciate it and thanks for your patience.

Danbo342 · Post by **Danbo342** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 11:27 pm

I realize this is a somewhat old thread and you most likely have found the answer to your question, but since I had the same question as above and in keeping this a knowledge base here is what I believe the answer to be.

Choose Delete
Then Choose Create

This solved the "search query ignored because too common words" for me, at least for now. And you are correct, there is no such term "Rebuild Index" but think Vojtech meant to rebuild it with the above two steps.

mlavanish · Post by **mlavanish** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 2:39 am

Thanks Danbo342. That answered my question too.