đź’ˇ Our Technical Review in summary
Summary
SharePoint Online search results are currently failing to apply relevancy tuning. While all items remain searchable and present in the results, a code issue introduced by a recent update has prevented the system from prioritizing the most relevant items at the top of the search returns.
Impact
This issue affects all users performing searches within SharePoint Online. Impacted users may find it difficult to locate specific documents or information, as highly relevant items are not being promoted to the top of the results list, regardless of their actual importance or search match strength.
Status
Current State: The deployment of the code fix is now 100% complete across all affected environments, including both standard and Government Cloud spaces.
Next Steps: Microsoft is currently in the validation phase and is reaching out to organizations in the affected environments to confirm that search relevancy has returned to normal. A final resolution update is expected by Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
Microsoft Official Issue Details
User Impact
Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
Status: serviceDegradation
Service: SharePoint Online
Classification: advisory
Origin: microsoft
Updates
- 2026-03-23 15:25
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results provide all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: The deployment of our solution to address the code issue is complete. We’re reaching out to users hosted in the affected environments to validate that the issue is no longer occurring.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Start time: Friday, January 2, 2026, at 12:00 AM UTC
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 5:30 PM UTC
- 2026-03-20 15:25
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results provide all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: The deployment of our solution to address the code issue is at 94 percent saturation in the non-Government Cloud spaces, and we’re reaching out to users hosted in those environments to validate that the issue is no longer occurring. In parallel, deployment to the Government Clouds has just initiated and we’re monitoring its progress to ensure it completes as expected.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Start time: Friday, January 2, 2026, at 12:00 AM UTC
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Monday, March 23, 2026, at 5:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-19 15:22
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results provide all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: Our fix has reached 64 percent saturation and we’re reaching out to previously reporting users to confirm if the issue is still observed.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Start time: Friday, January 2, 2026, at 12:00 AM UTC
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Friday, March 20, 2026, at 5:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-17 15:48
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results provide all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’ve confirmed that the fix has reached 25 percent saturation, and we’re continuing to monitor its progression as it deploys across affected environments. Once available, we’ll provide a resolution timeline.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Start time: Friday, January 2, 2026, at 12:00 AM UTC
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Thursday, March 19, 2026, at 5:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-12 15:51
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results provide all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’ve expanded communications to encompass all potentially affected users and we’ve updated the “Title”, “User impact”, and “Scope of impact” fields of our communications to reflect this change. We’ve initiated deployment of our code fix to address the offending code issue so a subset of users to for additional assurance of it’s success, and we anticipate these users will see remediation by Tuesday, March 12, 2026. After validation from that limited deployment, will continue the process to all environment and provide a timeline for remediation as one becomes available.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Start time: Friday, January 2, 2026, at 12:00 AM UTC
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at 5:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-09 15:47
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results provide all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’ve internally validated our code fix and have confirmed it will be viable for addressing the code problems and for remediating the impact. As we further analyze the offending service update that introduced the code problem and confirm when the problems initially began, we’re expecting our solution will start deployment and that an estimated timeline for the remediation of the impact will be available by our next scheduled communication update.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 5:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-06 17:20
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’ve identified that a recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact. We’re preparing a fix to correct the code issue and expect to have a timeline for the fix deployment with our next scheduled communication update.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Root cause: A recent change introduced a code issue which is resulting in impact.
Next update by: Monday, March 9, 2026, at 6:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-06 11:36
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’re enabling connector data to assist us in validation of the path to confirm whether the property value is coming through as empty or if there is a property resolution issue caused by a conflict. Additionally, we’re exploring making code changes to add more logging to allow us to verify the behavior in greater detail.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Friday, March 6, 2026, at 7:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-05 12:14
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’re progressing with the investigation into all available diagnostic data and support-provided information to help identify the root cause of impact and a mitigation plan.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Friday, March 6, 2026, at 1:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-05 09:53
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’ve obtained further details from reporting users and are continuing to investigate all our available diagnostic data and support-provided information to help identify the root cause of impact and a mitigation plan.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Thursday, March 5, 2026, at 3:00 PM UTC
- 2026-03-04 08:44
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although search results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’re continuing to source search results where relevancy results aren’t prioritized to determine what is occurring. This process is moving slower than expected due to needing a larger data scope from affected users to understand the cause.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Thursday, March 5, 2026, at 10:00 AM UTC
- 2026-03-03 07:28
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although searches results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We require some additional information to effectively identify the root cause including full search results and confirmation that the searched items are present in the index. We’re expecting that this information will be available to us for further investigation and we’ll update at our next communication.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Wednesday, March 4, 2026, at 9:00 AM UTC
- 2026-02-27 22:09
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
More info: Although searches results are providing all items to users, the results don’t appear to be utilizing relevancy tuning. Items that are highly relevant to the searches may not be provided as top results due to this.
Current status: We’ve gathered the requested diagnostic data from some affected users, and we’re assessing this data to help isolate the source of impact and determine appropriate remediation actions.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 7:00 AM UTC
- 2026-02-27 11:30
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
Current status: Our investigation into the HAR logs has so far proven inconclusive. We’re collecting additional affected query results to help us continue the investigation.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Friday, February 27, 2026, at 10:30 PM UTC
- 2026-02-27 06:36
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
Current status: We’re continuing our review of the previously provided HAR logs. We’ve also requested additional search results and URLs that are expected to be listed with higher relevancy to help uncover the underlying reason for deprioritized search results.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Friday, February 27, 2026, at 11:30 AM UTC
- 2026-02-27 02:40
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
Current status: We’re reviewing HTTP Archive format (HAR) logs provided by some affected users to help with isolating the source of the issue and are formulating a remediation plan.
Scope of impact: This incident impacts all users performing SharePoint Online searches, who may not see search returns prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results. This information may be updated as our investigation continues.
Next update by: Friday, February 27, 2026, at 7:00 AM UTC
- 2026-02-27 02:15
Title: Some users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the resultsUser impact: Users’ SharePoint Online search returns may not be prioritizing high-relevancy items in the results.
Current status: We’re investigating a potential issue with SharePoint Online and checking for impact to your organization. We’ll provide an update within 30 minutes.
