Maybe this should be two topics, but it’s an example of trying to solve a particular problem with the AI, and I still want an answer. :slight_smile: I am helping someone who wants a bunch of user custom fields to be searchable. I told them they’d need a plugin, but they don’t. You can check the “se…

[image] pfaffman: You can check the “searchable” option in the user settings (just how long has this been true?): Aah, not that long. :slight_smile: [image] 2.7.0.beta8: Share Topic Modal Improvements, Searchable User Fields, Pause Animated Images, and more Searchable user fields Staff ca…

[image] JammyDodger: I think the perfect solution would be a change to core to get the inbuilt user fields to also be searchable Agreed. [image] JammyDodger: You should be able to pull this info out using the data explorer though? Yeah ( data explorer was my suggestion until I realized…

Putting the ‘ideal’ aside for a moment… If they have a set of other custom fields already that are searchable then creating a new ‘Location’ one would probably be the smoothest option. :thinking: If you can migrate the existing values from the inbuilt Location field to this new Location custom fie…

[image] JammyDodger: If they have a set of other custom fields already that are searchable then creating a new ‘Location’ one would probably be the smoothest option. That’s actually what they started with (they had actually used location for something else). But now they want to use the locat…

Ahh. Right. That is slightly more of a tangle. :slight_smile: Are they showing these custom fields on signup? If so, I think they’d need to keep the custom field for Location as I’m not sure you can have the default one on the signup form (same for if they’ve included the extra columns in the user …

@pfaffman was there a resolution here so we can close this topic? [image] JammyDodger: I think the perfect solution would be a change to core to get the inbuilt user fields to also be searchable. It is a bit of an oddity that custom ones have more functionality than the default ones. @JammyD…

I’m halfway through writing a plugin that copies the email address and location to custom fields so they’ll be searchable. Having email available is definitely an edge case, though.

Searchable user custom fields and bad advice from ask.discourse.org

Product Support

tobiaseigen (Tobias Eigen) September 17, 2025, 8:29pm 7

@pfaffman was there a resolution here so we can close this topic?

@JammyDodger This seems like a very legit feature request if it’s true. Would you like me to start a Contribute > Feature topic or would you like to?

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Search should also look at "About me" section in user profile Feature	7	2652	July 19, 2020
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Searchable user custom fields and bad advice from ask.discourse.org

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