Why does my search index update on a delay rather than immediately?
When you publish or update an entry, you may notice that the change does not appear in site search results straight away. This is expected behaviour and is down to how search indexing works on your site.
How search indexing works
Your site's search is powered by Algolia, which maintains its own index of your content separately from the CMS database. When you save or publish an entry, the CMS does not update the Algolia index in the same action- instead, it adds an indexing task to a queue of background jobs.
Why queue-based indexing is used
Processing index updates at the moment of saving- synchronously- would slow down every save operation. By offloading indexing to a queue that runs in the background, saving an entry remains fast regardless of the size of your content library.
When the queue runs
On production sites, the queue runs on a regular automated schedule rather than continuously. This means there is a short window between publishing an entry and it appearing in search results. In most cases the delay is a matter of minutes. If an entry is still not appearing in search after a longer period, see the separate article on content not appearing in site search for further troubleshooting steps.
This also applies to other background tasks
The queue is used for more than just search indexing. Email automation jobs, DataThistle syncs, and Availability Search syncs all run via the same queue system. Any feature that processes tasks in the background is subject to the same scheduling behaviour.
How search indexing works
Your site's search is powered by Algolia, which maintains its own index of your content separately from the CMS database. When you save or publish an entry, the CMS does not update the Algolia index in the same action- instead, it adds an indexing task to a queue of background jobs.
Why queue-based indexing is used
Processing index updates at the moment of saving- synchronously- would slow down every save operation. By offloading indexing to a queue that runs in the background, saving an entry remains fast regardless of the size of your content library.
When the queue runs
On production sites, the queue runs on a regular automated schedule rather than continuously. This means there is a short window between publishing an entry and it appearing in search results. In most cases the delay is a matter of minutes. If an entry is still not appearing in search after a longer period, see the separate article on content not appearing in site search for further troubleshooting steps.
This also applies to other background tasks
The queue is used for more than just search indexing. Email automation jobs, DataThistle syncs, and Availability Search syncs all run via the same queue system. Any feature that processes tasks in the background is subject to the same scheduling behaviour.