Manage a paused Search service application in SharePoint Server

APPLIES TO: 2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition SharePoint in Microsoft 365

Most operations that require the Search service application to be paused have to complete before the Search service application automatically resumes.

We'll show you how you can find out if and why the Search service application is paused. There are many reasons why the Search service application can be paused -- we'll list only the most common situations.

To manage a paused search service application

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group.

2. Start a SharePoint Management Shell on one of the servers in the farm.

3. At the Microsoft PowerShell command prompt, type the following command(s) to find out if the Search service application is paused.

   $ssa.IsPaused() -ne 0
   

   If this command returns False, the Search service application is running.

   If this command returns True, the Search service application is paused. Go to step 4 to find out why, and what action you should take.

4. At the Microsoft PowerShell command prompt, type the following command(s) until you find the reason why the Search service application is paused.

   Expand table

   Command	If the command returns True, the Search service application is paused for this reason:	Action
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x01) -ne 0	A change in the number of crawl components or crawl databases is in progress.	Wait until the topology change completes.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x02) -ne 0	A backup or restore procedure is in progress.	Wait until the backup or restore completes. After the procedure completes, run the command $ssa.ForceResume(0x02) to verify. For more information, see Restore Search service applications in SharePoint Server.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x04) -ne 0	A backup of the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is in progress.	Wait until the backup completes. After the VSS backup completes, run the command $ssa.ForceResume(0x02) to verify.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x08) -ne 0	One or more servers in the search topology that host query components are offline.	Wait until the servers are available again.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x20) -ne 0	One or more crawl databases in the search topology are being rebalanced.	Wait until the operation completes.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x40) -ne 0	One or more link databases in the search topology are being rebalanced.	Wait until the operation completes.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x80) -ne 0	An administrator has manually paused the Search service application.	If you know the reason, you can resume the Search service application. Run the command $ssa.resume() to resume the Search service application. If you don't know the reason, find out why someone has manually paused the Search service application.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x100) -ne 0	The search index is being deleted.	Wait until the search index is deleted.
   ($ssa.IsPaused() -band 0x200) -ne 0	The search index is being repartitioned.	Wait until the operation completes. For more information, see Manage the index component in SharePoint Server.

   After you've waited until the operation completes, at the Microsoft PowerShell command prompt, type the following command to make sure that the Search service application is running:

   $ssa.IsPaused() -ne 0
   

   If this command returns False, the Search service application is running.

   If this command returns True, the Search service application is paused. Re-run the commands from step 4 to find out why.

Resume a paused Search service application in SharePoint Server

To resume a paused Search service application, use the following PowerShell.

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -Identity MySSA
$ssa | Resume-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication