Rebuild Pages
Rebuild Pages does a full rebuild of the search index from disk. It clears the in-memory search documents and deletes the persisted search cache (documents.json), then re-scans every page that actually exists on disk and rebuilds the index from scratch.
It is the heavier counterpart of Reindex Pages. The relationship is the same as Reindex Media vs Rebuild Media:
| Action | What it does | Removes deleted-page "ghosts"? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Reindex Pages** | Rebuilds the search structure from the *persisted* document cache (fast). | **No** — a deleted page's leftover entry survives. |
| **Rebuild Pages** | Clears the cache and re-scans every page from disk (slower). | **Yes** — entries with no page on disk are dropped by construction. |
When to Rebuild
Use Rebuild Pages when deleted pages still appear in search results, the asset picker, or admin listings even though opening them returns "page not found". Reindex cannot fix that — it rebuilds from the same cache that still contains the stale entry. Rebuild is the only action that removes these.
Also appropriate after the persisted search cache is suspected corrupt, or after large out-of-band changes to the page store.
How to Rebuild
- Go to Admin → Page Management → Rebuild Pages
- Confirm the action when prompted
- The server clears the search cache and re-scans every page from disk
- A confirmation message shows the page count and search document count when complete
On a large instance (10,000+ pages) this is slower than Reindex and temporarily raises memory while the index is built from disk. User sessions, attachments, and media are not affected.
Reindex vs Rebuild
- Reindex Pages — routine, fast; refreshes the index from the cache. Use for normal "search looks stale" cases.
- Rebuild Pages — recovery; reconciles the index against what is actually on disk. Use to purge deleted-page ghosts.
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