One fix for Quickbooks' enormous QBSearchIndexerError.txt file

This is for Google; it's apparently a common problem, with no results as far as I can see.

The issue: Quickbooks 2014 (and possibly other editions) generates an enormous file, %TEMP%\QBSearchIndexerError.txt, containing reason after reason why something didn't go right building a search index, and this file can easily grow to fill the hard drive (mine today was almost 100GB).

This is lousy error handling by Intuit, which comes as a surprise to exactly nobody.

In my case, the error said:

Exception raised in IndexData
--Exception Data START--
Time: 11/17/2014 4:53:46 PM
Lucene.Net
checksum mismatch in segments file
   at Lucene.Net.Index.SegmentInfos.Read(Directory directory, String segmentFileName)
   at Lucene.Net.Index.IndexFileDeleter..ctor(Directory directory, IndexDeletionPolicy policy, SegmentInfos segmentInfos, StreamWri
ter infoStream, DocumentsWriter docWriter, HashSet`1 synced)
   at Lucene.Net.Index.IndexWriter.Init(Directory d, Analyzer a, Boolean create, IndexDeletionPolicy deletionPolicy, Int32 maxField
Length, IndexingChain indexingChain, IndexCommit commit)
   at Lucene.Net.Index.IndexWriter..ctor(Directory d, Analyzer a, Boolean create, MaxFieldLength mfl)
   at QBSearchIndexer.SearchDataIndexer.get_Writer()
   at QBSearchIndexer.SearchDataIndexer.WriteDocument(String searchIndexData, String searchStoreData)
   at QBSearchIndexer.SearchDataIndexer.AddDocumentToLuceneDataStore()
   at QBSearchIndexer.SearchDataIndexer.IndexData(Object obj)
--Exception Data END--

... a few bazillion times while it ran through my 100M Quickbooks db file, and since this process normally refreshes every 30 minutes, it doesn't take long for this to fill the drive. Ugh.

Running a file verify on the .QBW file didn't make any difference, nor did a rebuild of that same file. Ugh.

For this particular error, the fix was straightforward:

• Close Quickbooks
• Delete the %TEMP%\QBSearchIndexerError.txt file. If the file is in use, look in Task Manager for dbextclr11 and kill it.
• In the directory holding your .QBW file and look for the associated SearchIndex folder (such as STEVE.QBW.SearchIndex); delete all the files found there.
• Launch Quickbooks and nav to Edit:Preferences, then Search → Company Preferences, then click [Update Now]. This ought to rebuild the indexes without error, though it might take a few minutes.
• Verify that the QBSearchIndexerError.txt file isn't out of control.

This worked for me, but there are lots of other kinds of errors that may not have the same easy fix. It may be that turning off indexing may be the only real way to address this, save for running the gauntlet with Qiickbooks support

My environment:

• Quickbooks Pro 2014
• Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit
• Running as a non-admin user (no auto-elevate)
• Single-user QB with the data file on my workstation

Comments

[Brian Lee]

You are a lifesaver! I have a small SSD running Windows, and this stupid file was taking up over 25GB of data. Really appreciate the tips!