Windows SharePoint Service 3 Search finds not matches after migrate users

I find the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search to be a royal pain in the butt to work with.

However, one issue gave me trouble for weeks. I read all kinds of blogs, message boards, etc and tried everything I could think of or had read. Nothing worked.

Once I figured out how to find the crawl log (see here) it wasn't so bad.

After reviewing the log in the Search database, I determined that the error message was:

Error in the Site Data Web Service. (Value does not fall within the expected range.)

Once I found this out, a google search returned a KB 941422, a hotfix.

The hotfix addresses my problem, which was that one site collection was being indexed, but another site collection was always returning no matches found when I did a search. I found out that there is a known bug that occurs when using the stsadm -o migrateuser command line to migrate users from one domain to another domain.

The hotfix is not tested as thoroughly as a service pack would be so Microsoft makes you request it. The url to request the hotfix is:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941422

A backup is always recommended. This includes your 12 hive since this is where most if not all the files reside that will be replaced.

One thing to be aware of when you download the hotfix. There is a 64bit and 32bit version (typically used). The download page only shows the 32bit version unless you tell it to show all platforms. If you try to run the wrong one, it will tell you it can't find the required product on the server.

One last thing, at first I did not think the hotfix worked since I tried the search and it didn't find any matches. The next day however, the same search did return results. So, I expect the content had to be reindexed after the hotfix was applied. Use the MSSCrawlHostList as explained here.