Magento - configurable products not showing up when searching

Question

When I search for a configurable product (by name, name fragment or SKU) the search does not return any configurable products. I can search for simple products.

The configurable products;

• Are in stock
• Are set to "catalogue / search" visibility
• Are visible in the categories and are purchasable

This is a multi-store setup and this issue only affects one store, so I'm assuming it's a configuration issue, but I can't find any setting that might stop configurable products being returned in a search.

I'm open to suggestions on this one, I'm pretty sure I've overlooked something silly - I just can't work out what!

Answer 1

I tracked the issue down to a third-party search module. If you're having the same issue, disable any third-party modules that replace the standard Magento search function. If the problem still exists, see the other answers here for some good advice. If the issue resolves, you may need to contact the module publisher.

Answer 2

Realize this is an old post, but for others: When working with configurable products you have to make sure that all simple products related to that configurable product are activated for the web site (this is different from "enabled" - see image). Even if one of the simple products for a configurable product is not enabled for the web site it will be sold on, the configurable product will not appear.