# “Move to existing topic” search silently fails while site search still works

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-to-existing-topic-search-silently-fails-while-site-search-still-works/392872>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Tags:** composer, ux, postgres, bug\
**Created:** [January 7, 2026, 12:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-to-existing-topic-search-silently-fails-while-site-search-still-works/392872 "2026-01-07T12:51:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ethsim2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ethsim2/32/522255_2.png) [@Ethsim2](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ethsim2)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2026, 2:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-to-existing-topic-search-silently-fails-while-site-search-still-works/392872/4 "2026-01-07T14:04:45Z")

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Thanks - that’s helpful context, and the linked report looks very similar.

What’s odd in my case is that it _did_ behave “non-responsive” when I wrote the OP: `/search/query` was being called with `term=Eve Park` etc. (200 responses), but the chooser list stayed static and did not refine at all.

Since then, I can now reproduce the _intended_ “responsive search” behaviour (as shown in my [Safe Mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true) recording) side-by-side with another browser window.

I haven’t changed anything on the server beyond what I described in the OP, so my current suspicion is that I initially hit either:

- a client-side state issue (cached assets / hard refresh difference / theme component interaction), or
- a query edge case where certain terms don’t return as expected (verbatim / punctuation / stop words / ordering), similar to the “verbatim move search can’t find topic” report you linked.

Next I’m going to compare the **actual JSON response** from `/search/query` between the “non-responsive” case and the “responsive” case (same term), and I’ll also run [Safe Mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true) again with/without themes to see if it correlates.

If anyone knows the exact matching rules used by the move-topic chooser (vs full `/search`) or where it differs, that would be super helpful - I’m trying to pin down whether this is a known limitation/edge case or a regression.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-to-existing-topic-search-silently-fails-while-site-search-still-works/392872)._