Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

I am wanting to clarify how incremental searching works in lookup fields on a form in a model-driven app. I have Dataverse search enabled with my lookup tables included in the search. I have Quick Find views with columns to search in in the Find By section for each table that is referenced by a lookup field.

One of my lookup fields finds results where what is being typed is contained within one of the Find By columns. All my other lookup fields only find results that begin with what is being typed in the lookup field.

I have read differing views as to whether the contains search should work or not.

I can't understand what is different about these lookup fields that leads to them behaving differently.

Categories:

Power Apps Pro Dev & ISV

@dmorland

The behavior you're seeing with incremental search in lookup fields in model-driven apps can indeed be confusing, especially when some fields behave differently than others. Let's break it down and clarify what's happening.

🔍 How Incremental Search Works in Lookup Fields

In model-driven apps, lookup fields use Dataverse search (if enabled) and Quick Find views to determine how search results are returned. Here's how it typically works:

Dataverse Search Enabled:
- Uses relevance search (full-text search).
- Supports "contains" search across multiple columns.
- Results are ranked by relevance, not just prefix matching.
Dataverse Search Disabled:
- Uses Quick Find views only.
- Performs "begins with" matching on the primary column and any columns in the "Find By" section.
- Limited to the first 50 records unless paging is implemented.

🧩 Why You're Seeing Different Behavior

If one lookup field supports "contains" and others only support "begins with", here are the most likely causes:

✅ 1. Dataverse Search is not consistently applied

Even if Dataverse search is enabled globally, each table must be included in the Dataverse search index.
Go to Power Platform Admin Center > Dataverse Search Configuration and verify that all referenced tables are included.

✅ 2. Quick Find View configuration differs

The Quick Find view for each table defines which columns are searchable.
Make sure the "Find By" columns are correctly configured and published for each table.
Also ensure that the primary column is included and indexed.

✅ 3. Lookup field configuration

Some lookup fields may be using custom filters or views that override default behavior.
Check the form field properties and see if a custom view is assigned to the lookup field.

✅ 4. Security roles and permissions

If a user doesn’t have access to certain columns, those columns won’t be searchable.
Ensure that the user has read access to all relevant columns in the lookup table.

✅ What You Can Do

Here’s a checklist to standardize behavior across all lookup fields:

Enable Dataverse Search for all relevant tables.
Review and update Quick Find views:
- Include all desired searchable columns.
- Ensure they are indexed.
Check lookup field settings on the form:
- Use default views unless a custom one is needed.
Publish all customizations after changes.
Test with a user account that has full access to the data.