---
title: Enabling search indexing
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

To enable smart search indexing for all websites:

1. Open the **Settings** application.
2. Navigate to the **System -> Search** category.
3. Select the **Enable smart search indexing** check box.
4. Click **Save**.

The setting applies to both [Azure Search indexes](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-search-on-your-website/using-azure-cognitive-search.md) and [locally stored indexes](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-search-on-your-website/using-locally-stored-search-indexes.md). You can now create search indexes, and the system automatically logs indexing tasks whenever content covered by an existing index is added, modified or deleted.

> **Tip:** **Tip**
>
> You can find a list of all indexing tasks that are waiting to be processed in the **Smart search** application on the **Azure tasks** or **Local tasks** tabs. Here you can:
>
> - Look for information if you encounter problems with new content not being indexed correctly
> - **Delete** () tasks from the indexing queue to stop unnecessary or problematic indexing
>
> See also: [Monitoring search indexing tasks](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-search-on-your-website/monitoring-search-indexing-tasks.md)

> **Note:** **Note – File system permissions**
>
> If you wish to use [local search indexes](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-search-on-your-website/using-locally-stored-search-indexes.md), your applications must have the **Write permission** for the **\~/App\_Data** folder on the server's file system. This folder stores the search index files, so the system cannot create and update indexes without the required permissions.
>
> See [Disk permission problems](https://docs.kentico.com/13/installation/troubleshooting-installation-issues.md) to learn how to grant the write permission for the folder.

## Processing of indexing tasks

By default, the smart search runs indexing tasks immediately when they are created.

For [Azure Search](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-search-on-your-website/using-azure-cognitive-search.md) indexing tasks, processing is ensured by the **Execute Azure search tasks** [scheduled task](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/scheduling-tasks.md). The task's scheduling interval is not important – the system automatically runs the task whenever a new Azure Search indexing task is logged (if another instance of the given scheduled task is not already running).

### Scheduling indexing tasks for local indexes

For [locally stored search indexes](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-search-on-your-website/using-locally-stored-search-indexes.md), you can disable automatic running of indexing tasks upon creation by adding the **CMSProcessSearchTasksByScheduler** key to the _/configuration/appSettings_ section of your application's web.config file:

```html

<add key="CMSProcessSearchTasksByScheduler" value="true" />

```

When you set this key to _true_:

- The system only logs the local search indexing tasks into the database without running them. You need to process the tasks periodically, for example using the **Execute local search tasks** [scheduled task](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/scheduling-tasks.md) (runs every 4 hours by default).
- You cannot manually **Rebuild** indexes unless you also run the process that executes the indexing tasks.

> **Note:** **Executing local search tasks via the scheduler on a web farm**
>
> If your applications are running without sharing the search index folder on the file system, you need to configure the **Execute local search tasks** scheduled task to be executed on each web farm server individually.
>
> See: [Configuring scheduled tasks to be executed on every server of a web farm](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/setting-up-web-farms/configuring-web-farm-servers.md#configuring-scheduled-tasks-to-be-executed-on-every-server-of-a-web-farm)