[object Object]

Dynamics 365 ships with two search experiences and they are not interchangeable. Quick Find runs SQL-like LIKE queries against a per-table view; Dataverse Search runs a fuzzy index across many tables at once. Most users do not know the difference. They should.

Quick Find: targeted, table-scoped

Quick Find is the search bar at the top of a model-driven view. It searches a defined set of columns on the current table using SQL LIKE predicates. It is fast, deterministic, and respects security perfectly. It is also literal: a typo returns no results.

Configure Quick Find columns in the Quick Find View for each table. Limit to four or five high-value columns (name, email, phone, account number). More columns = slower queries.

Dataverse Search: cross-table, fuzzy

Dataverse Search is the global search bar (top right). It runs against an Azure Cognitive Search index built from selected Dataverse tables. It supports fuzzy matching, synonyms, faceted filtering, and returns results from multiple tables in one query.

Enable per environment:

Power Platform Admin Center -> Environment -> Settings 
-> Product -> Features -> Dataverse Search: On

Configure indexed tables and columns:

Power Apps -> Tables -> [table] -> Properties 
-> Searchable: Yes -> Quick find columns added to search index

The freshness lag

Quick Find queries live data, so results are real-time. Dataverse Search queries the index, which is updated within minutes but is not real-time. A record created seconds ago may not appear in global search yet. Document this for users who run a search immediately after creating data.

When each one wins

Quick Find:

  • Looking up a specific record on the current table.
  • Need security and freshness guarantees.
  • Working with high-volume tables where the index would be expensive.

Dataverse Search:

  • “Find anything with this name across CRM.”
  • Cross-table workflows (find an account, contact, or case at once).
  • Tolerant of typos.

Performance impact of indexing

Each indexed table adds storage and indexing latency. Indexing 50 tables in a high-write environment can saturate the indexer and queue updates. Limit Dataverse Search to tables genuinely searched globally; do not enable for auditbase, plugintracelog, or other system tables.

Relevance tuning

Dataverse Search supports synonym files (custom synonym maps in Azure Cognitive Search). For industry-specific terminology (“policy” = “contract” in insurance), add synonyms. Without them, search relevance is generic.

Tools/PowerShell:
Set-AzSearchService -SynonymMap "industry-synonyms.json"

The mobile reality

The Dynamics 365 mobile app prefers Dataverse Search by default. If global search is disabled, mobile users get a degraded experience. Either enable global search or explicitly disable the global search bar in the mobile app config.

What to do this week

Audit your indexed tables. Anything indexed but rarely searched is paying storage cost for nothing. Anything heavily searched but not indexed is forcing users into Quick Find on the wrong table.

[object Object]
Share