Lumenare Search Troubleshooting Guide

Common issues and solutions for Lumenare Search.

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Search Not Working

Symptoms: No results appear, search form doesn’t respond, dropdown never shows.

Check Plugin is Enabled

1. Go to Settings → Lumenare Search
2. Ensure “Enable Plugin” is checked
3. Save settings

Verify Index Exists

1. Go to Index Management tab
2. Check “Indexed Posts” count
3. If zero, click “Reindex All Content”

Check JavaScript Errors

1. Open browser console (F12 → Console tab)
2. Look for JavaScript errors
3. Common issues:

• jQuery not loaded
• Script conflicts with other plugins
• Theme compatibility issues

Verify AJAX is Working

1. Check that admin-ajax.php is accessible
2. Some security plugins block AJAX requests
3. Whitelist lumenare_search action if needed

Check for Plugin Conflicts

1. Deactivate other plugins one by one
2. Test search after each deactivation
3. Identify conflicting plugin

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No Results Appearing

Symptoms: Search runs but returns no results for queries that should match.

Check Post Types

1. Go to Settings → Lumenare Search → General
2. Ensure desired post types are selected
3. Reindex if you add post types

Verify Content is Published

Only published posts are indexed. Draft, pending, and private posts are excluded.

Check Minimum Characters

1. Go to Settings → General
2. Check Minimum Characters setting
3. Ensure your query meets the requirement

Review Stop Words

Your search terms might be in the stop words list:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality → Stop Words
2. Check if your search terms are listed
3. Remove from stop words if needed
4. Reindex after changes

Check Match Mode

If using “All (AND)” mode, all keywords must appear in content.

Try switching to “Any (OR)” mode for broader results.

Reindex Content

Content might not be indexed yet:

1. Go to Index Management tab
2. Click “Reindex All Content”
3. Wait for completion

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Results Not Relevant

Symptoms: Wrong posts appearing first, irrelevant results ranking high.

Adjust Weights

If titles should matter more:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality
2. Increase Title Weight
3. Decrease Content Weight if needed
4. Reindex after changes

Read the Tuning Guide →

Review Stop Words

Add common irrelevant words to stop words:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality → Stop Words
2. Add words that appear in many posts but aren’t useful for search
3. Reindex after changes

Check Synonyms

Ensure synonyms are configured correctly:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality → Synonyms
2. Each line should be comma-separated words
3. Example: car, automobile, vehicle

Add Phrase Boosting

If specific phrases should rank higher:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality → Search Phrases
2. Add important multi-word phrases
3. Adjust Phrase Boost Multiplier if needed

Disable Trending Ranking

If trending is causing irrelevant results:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality
2. Uncheck “Enable Dynamic Trending Ranking”

Try Different Match Mode

Switch between “Any” and “All” modes:

• Any (OR): More results, potentially less precise
• All (AND): Fewer results, more precise

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Live Search Dropdown Not Appearing

Symptoms: Typing in search doesn’t show dropdown results.

Check JavaScript

1. Open browser console (F12)
2. Look for errors
3. Ensure jQuery is loaded

Verify jQuery

Lumenare Search requires jQuery. Some themes disable it.

1. Check theme settings for jQuery options
2. Try switching to a default theme temporarily

Check AJAX URL

1. Verify admin-ajax.php is accessible
2. Try visiting: yoursite.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
3. Should return “0” (not an error page)

Review Minimum Characters

1. Ensure you’ve typed enough characters
2. Default is 3 characters
3. Check setting in Settings → General

Check Browser Compatibility

1. Test in different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
2. Some browser extensions block scripts

Clear Cache

1. Clear browser cache
2. Clear WordPress cache (if using caching plugin)
3. Clear CDN cache if applicable

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Index Not Updating

Symptoms: New posts don’t appear in search results.

Check Post Status

Only published posts are indexed automatically. Drafts, pending, and private posts are excluded.

Verify Post Type

1. Ensure post type is selected in Settings → General
2. Custom post types must be explicitly enabled

Manual Reindex

1. Go to Index Management tab
2. Use Partial Reindex → Index Only New Posts
3. Or click “Reindex All Content” for full rebuild

Check for Errors

1. Enable WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG in wp-config.php
2. Check /wp-content/debug.log for indexing errors

Database Permissions

Ensure WordPress has write access to database tables.

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Performance Issues

Symptoms: Slow search, site slowdown during indexing.

Reduce Index Scope

1. Go to Settings → General
2. Limit post types being indexed
3. Only index post types that need search

Increase Stop Words

More stop words = smaller index:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality → Stop Words
2. Add common words that don’t need indexing
3. Reindex after changes

Disable Fuzzy Matching

Fuzzy matching is more resource-intensive:

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality
2. Uncheck “Enable Fuzzy Matching”

Limit Dropdown Results

1. Go to Settings → Display
2. Reduce Dropdown Results (e.g., from 10 to 5)

Use Partial Reindex

Instead of full reindex, use partial options:

1. Index only new posts
2. Index specific post types
3. Index by date range

Optimize Database

Run database optimization tools:

• phpMyAdmin optimize
• WP-CLI: wp db optimize
• Database optimization plugins

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Security Filtering Too Aggressive

Symptoms: Legitimate searches are being blocked.

Review Blocked Characters

1. Go to Settings → Advanced → Blocked Characters
2. Check if legitimate characters are blocked
3. Remove characters needed for your content

Check Blocked Patterns

1. Go to Settings → Advanced → Blocked Patterns
2. Review regex patterns
3. Adjust patterns that cause false positives

Temporary Disable

For testing only:

1. Go to Settings → Advanced
2. Uncheck “Enable Security Filtering”
3. Re-enable after testing!

Check Security Logs

1. Enable “Enable Security Logging” in settings
2. Review what’s being blocked
3. Identify false positives

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Weighting Changes Not Taking Effect

Symptoms: Changed weights but results are the same.

Reindex Required

Weight changes require full reindex:

1. Go to Index Management tab
2. Click “Reindex All Content”
3. Wait for completion

Clear Cache

After reindexing:

1. Clear WordPress cache
2. Clear browser cache
3. Test search again

Check Settings Saved

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality
2. Verify weights show expected values
3. Save settings again if needed

Verify Weight Values

Weights must be positive integers (0-10).

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Taxonomy Terms Not Boosting Results

Symptoms: Category/tag matches not ranking higher.

Check Taxonomy Weights

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality → Taxonomy Term Weighting
2. Ensure weights are set (not 0)
3. Default: category=5, tag=3

Verify Taxonomy Exists

1. Check that taxonomies are registered
2. Verify terms exist and are assigned to posts

Check Term Matching

Terms must match keywords exactly or partially. The keyword “security” would match a category named “Security” or “Website Security”.

Reindex After Weight Changes

Taxonomy weight changes require reindex.

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Trending Ranking Not Working

Symptoms: Trending boost not affecting results.

Enable Trending Ranking

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality
2. Check “Enable Dynamic Trending Ranking”
3. Save settings

Wait for Trending Calculation

Trending scores are calculated daily (2 AM by default). New installations need time to accumulate search data.

Check Minimum Searches

1. Go to Settings → Search Quality
2. Check Minimum Searches for Trending
3. Queries need this many searches to become trending
4. Default: 5 searches

Adjust Boost Strength

If trending influence is too weak:

1. Increase Trending Boost Strength
2. Default: 0.5, try 1.0 for stronger effect

Verify Trending Table

Check that the trending table exists:

1. Access your database via phpMyAdmin
2. Look for wp_lumenare_search_trending table
3. If missing, deactivate and reactivate plugin

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Widget/Shortcode Not Working

Symptoms: Search form doesn’t appear or function.

Check Widget Placement

1. Go to Appearance → Widgets
2. Verify widget is added to a widget area
3. Check if widget area displays on your pages

Verify Shortcode Syntax

Use exactly:

Common mistakes:

• Wrong brackets: (lumenare_search)
• Wrong name: [lumenare-search]
• Extra spaces: [ lumenare_search ]

Check Theme Compatibility

1. Switch to a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Four)
2. Test search
3. If working, issue is theme-related

Review JavaScript Errors

1. Open browser console (F12)
2. Check for errors when page loads
3. May indicate script conflicts

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Database Table Issues

Symptoms: Errors about missing tables, database errors in logs.

Deactivate and Reactivate

This recreates database tables:

1. Go to Plugins
2. Deactivate Lumenare Search
3. Reactivate Lumenare Search

Check Database Permissions

Ensure WordPress user can create tables:

1. Check MySQL user privileges
2. Should have CREATE, ALTER, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE

Review Database Prefix

If using custom prefix, tables should be {prefix}lumenare_search_index, etc.

Manual Table Check

Access database via phpMyAdmin and verify tables exist:

• wp_lumenare_search_index
• wp_lumenare_search_analytics
• wp_lumenare_search_trending
• wp_lumenare_search_clicks

Contact Hosting

Some hosts restrict table creation. Contact support if tables can’t be created.

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Still Having Issues?

If you’ve tried these solutions and still have problems:

1. Check the WordPress.org forums – Search for similar issues
2. Post a support request – Include:

• WordPress version
• PHP version
• Plugin version
• Error messages (if any)
• Steps to reproduce

WordPress.org Support Forums →

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