Managed Properties not available as Refiners on Content Search web part (SharePoint Online)

Question

I have managed metadata site columns where I’ve mapped the ows_ crawled property from a library to ‘RefinableString’s in the search schema. The ‘refinable’ box is ticked and I did this a few days ago now. I’m on SharePoint Online so can’t control the search crawls.

These refinable strings can be selected using a search refinement web part and they’re bringing back the relevant values. I just can’t see them to use on the refinement tab on a content search web part. I don't have any other refiners or query terms which would stop results with these properties being returned. Is there something I should check or something that controls their availability on this tab.

Thanks

Answer 1

In SharePoint online, RefinableStrings are the only elements to map the crawled properties to the custom managed properties if you need those to be as refinable and different datatype other than text and Boolean.But once the mapping is done, you need to re-index either the specific library/lists or the entire site before the results show-up in the refinement panels. In most cases, what i observed was even the refinement panel preview was also not working but once you save the search page the results will soon come on the pages as expected. Also, I would say the indexing time depends on the amount of content for crawling and it certainly doesn't need days of time.

I would also recommend to go through the documentation provided by Microsoft specific to SharePoint online. Reference link on indexing in SharePoint online

Overall information can be found in : reference-2