SharePoint Server 2010 - MaxDownloadSize and MaxGrowFactor

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After testing the MaxDownloadSize and MaxGrowFactor registry entries, I have something important to share: SharePoint 2010's Search registry settings are not universally able to be modified in the registry directly.

 

In this case, if you directly edit MaxDownloadSize and/or MaxGrowFactor for the Crawl Component in the registry branch (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Applications\<guid>-crawl-<#>\Gathering Manager) and then restart OSearch14, the setting will simply be overwritten and restored back to its default setting of 16 and 4, respectively.

 

To fix this, you need to do the following in the SharePoint 2010 PowerShell console:

1. Get the Search Service Application and store it in a variable by running: 

       $ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication

2. To get the current value of the MaxDownloadSize in the MSSConfiguration table: 

      $SSA.GetProperty(“MaxDownloadSize”)

3. The same thing can be done for "MaxGrowFactor" - $SSA.GetProperty("MaxGrowFactor")

4. To modify the MaxDownloadSize and MaxGrowFactor values (assuming the customer wants or needs to adjust MaxGrowFactor):

       $SSA.SetProperty(“MaxDownloadSize”, <size bigger than 16 for what you want to crawl>)

       $SSA.SetProperty("MaxGrowFactor", <size bigger than 4>)

       $SSA.Update()

 

Once this is done, you can safely restart OSearch14 and, at that time, the larger files will be able to be crawled without further problems.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Chris - I apologize for the extreme delay in replying.  The MaxDownloadSize seems to be able to be set to however big you want it to be set to.  It's important to note that raising that size will impact your crawl perf so plan accordingly.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thanks Jason for the comment!

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2010
    What is the max that MaxDownloadSize can be set to?

  • Anonymous
    November 11, 2011
    Max download size for SP 2010 is 2GB, from what i've found. don't quote me on that, though.

  • Anonymous
    May 06, 2014
    This little article saved me countless hours of grief. I am now able to crawl huge PDF files without the error occurring.
    Thank you!!