# Forum Search tool
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 29, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856 "2009-01-29T20:46:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wnshall](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wnshall)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856/1 "2009-01-29T20:46:43Z")
I'm having a problem searching the forums. No matter what search term I put in I don't get any results, even for very common terms like "tag" or "mp3". Initially I was able to perform some searches, but after maybe 10 or so it seemed to stop working. Any ideas why, or what I might be doing wrong? Thanks,
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856/2 "2009-01-30T07:14:47Z")
search terms must have at least 4 characters, so "mp3" does not work
And did you read [Advanced Usage Help] ?
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### Author:  [@wnshall](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/wnshall)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856/3 "2009-01-30T17:15:27Z")
Thanks for your tip. Yes, I read the Help, so I know how to use "+tag +filename" to find posts with both terms. (BTW, the help says nothing about the 3 char limit.)
What confused my efforts to understand the issue is that pages returned by a search highlight the search term _even if the terms weren't actually used_. So, for example, if you search on "+tag +filename", the pages that are returned will have all occurrences of "tag" and "filename" highlighted, but tag wasn't actually used to limit the returned pages.
This limit to 4 char words seems a shame given that perfectly useful search terms on this forum include mp3, m4a, id3, ape, and so on. But I imagine it's built into the forum software (and for obvious performance reasons.)
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856/4 "2009-01-30T19:16:27Z")
One way to circumvent this is to use "m4a\*" with the star operator on the end of the three-character word.
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### Author:  [@incifinci](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/incifinci)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856/5 "2010-03-26T06:05:35Z")
I'm shure the admins must work some times more than optimal because users can't find already discoussed themes due to not perfect forum search engine - they (as I) must ask again and again.
Advanced Usage Help writes: **+apple +juice** Find posts with both words.
But when I search for **+csv +vertical +tab** , I get inadequate results - pages with only **tab** , without containing **csv** and/or **vertical**.
If forum search engine will be so good as Mp3tag, Florian could spend more time on developing instead of forum. 🙂
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/forum-search-tool/7856/6 "2026-02-09T12:21:21Z")