# Problems enabling Open edX Search

**URL:** <https://discuss.openedx.org/t/problems-enabling-open-edx-search/815>\
**Category:** Site Operations Help\
**Created:** [November 8, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/problems-enabling-open-edx-search/815 "2019-11-08T13:56:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Yago](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/yago/32/367_2.png) [@Yago](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Yago)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/problems-enabling-open-edx-search/815/1 "2019-11-08T13:56:06Z")

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Hello

I am trying to replicate this page into my openedx instance [https://www.edx.org/course/?](https://www.edx.org/course/?) and I believe I need to enable the search engine but I am facing some problems.

I have a fullstack Ironwood installation, I have enabled open edx search following the official guide for Ironwood [https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-installing-configuring-and-running/en/open-release-ironwood.master/configuration/edx\_search.html](https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/edx-installing-configuring-and-running/en/open-release-ironwood.master/configuration/edx_search.html) but it is not working as expected:

**In LMS, logged out,** when I click in “Explore courses” it sends me to _my-site/courses_ and I get a “Page not found error”. If I enable “COURSES\_ARE\_BROWSABLE” flag in lms.env.json I get a page that is similar to [https://www.edx.org/course](https://www.edx.org/course) but with no content and no possibility of finding any course.

**In LMS, logged in,** I am able to search for content, but only for course content (not course title or course name)

**In CMS**. Searching for info, somewhere I found that courses may need to be reindexed, but pressing “Reindex” into a course always generate an error.

Sorry, I believe there are three topics in one, but they all came in when I enable search in Open Edx.

Does anyone have had this problem and have an idea of how to fix it?

Thanks for any help or idea

Regards

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**Author:** ![joshm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4af34b/32.png) [@joshm](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/joshm)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 5:45am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/problems-enabling-open-edx-search/815/2 "2019-11-18T05:45:48Z")

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@Yago, I don’t know that the view on [edx.org](http://edx.org) which you’ve linked is available in the edx-platform.  
You can use the `/courses/` view which you’ve found however.

The course search shouldn’t be required to show the full courses page you’re mentioning.  
You may also try toggling `FEATURES["ENABLE_COURSE_DISCOVERY"]` in order to populate the list on the `/courses/` page. If `FEATURES["ENABLE_COURSE_DISCOVERY"]` is enabled, but the discovery service isn’t setup correctly, the page will show nothing.

–  
Correct, the course search will search through course content, but not course titles or names.

–  
Are there errors in the logs related to re-indexing the courses? That may be the cause for having an empty `/courses/` page, which you can either fix by disabling the discovery service with the `ENABLE_COURSE_DISCOVERY`, or by fixing the discovery service.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yago](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.openedx.org/yago/32/367_2.png) [@Yago](https://discuss.openedx.org/u/Yago)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 7:18am UTC](https://discuss.openedx.org/t/problems-enabling-open-edx-search/815/3 "2019-11-19T07:18:44Z")

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Thank you very much for your support @joshm, now I see things more clear. It seems my problem is with the Discovery service.

- When I try to run the catalog through CLI commands as `./manage.py lms cache_programs` it gives a Server Error calling to `/api/v1/pathways/?exclude_utm=1&page=1`. I’ve notice the service depends on the value of COURSE\_CATALOG\_URL in `admin/site/site_configuration`. If I put _localhost_ it gives a generic 500 and if I put the _server name_ it throws a **Connection Error**.

- When opening `/courses/` page, there is a call to `/search/course_discovery/` that returns a JSON of empty facets: `{"facets": {"org": {"total": 0, "terms": {}, "other": 0}, "modes": {"total": 0, "terms": {}, "other": 0}, "language": {"total": 0, "terms": {}, "other": 0}}, "total": 0, "max_score": null, "took": 2, "results": []}`

The problem is that I don’t know how to test the Discovery service further than `$ sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl status` (that shows service is RUNNING) and could not find any documentation further than [this one](https://edx-discovery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html) that seems to be outdated, as I cannot find the commands provided (neither in `/edx/app/edxapp` nor `/edx/app/discovery`).

Thanks for any help

Regards

> PD: `/courses/` page works like you said, switching off `FEATURES["ENABLE_COURSE_DISCOVERY"]` shows all the courses, but that is not what I am looking for ☹ And what a pity we don’t have the page shown in [edx.org](http://edx.org)…

> PD2: Finally I managed to enable course reindexing by adding the following values in `lms.env.json`:

```auto
    "COURSE_DISCOVERY_FILTERS": ["org", "language", "modes"],
    "COURSE_DISCOVERY_MEANINGS": {
            "org": {
                    "name": "Organization"
            },
            "modes": {
                    "name": "Course Type",
                    "terms": {
                            "honor": "Honor",
                            "verified": "Verified"
                            }
                    },
            "language": "en"
        },

```