Why new PrestaShop products do not appear in search
PrestaShop search does not read your product tables. It reads a word index built from them — `ps_search_word` and `ps_search_index` — and a product that has not been indexed does not exist as far as search is concerned.
The cause
Two tables between your catalogue and your shoppers
When indexation runs, PrestaShop breaks every product’s text into words, writes the distinct words to `ps_search_word` and the product-to-word links to `ps_search_index`. A search then joins those tables rather than scanning your products.
That is genuinely better than a wildcard scan — and it introduces a state that can be stale. Edit a product’s name and the old word is still in the index; add a product and it has no rows at all until the index catches up.
The rebuild
A full rebuild truncates and starts again
The “Re-build the entire index” action in Shop Parameters → Search does exactly what it says: it truncates the word table and rebuilds from scratch. On a large catalogue that is a long-running job on your own server, which is why merchants schedule it and why it is easy to leave undone.
The incremental path exists too, but it is the one that silently falls behind — through direct database imports, ERP syncs and anything else that writes products without going through PrestaShop’s own product-save path.
The fix
Sync on change, not on a schedule you have to remember
NitroSearch keeps its own index and the module updates it as products change, in small background batches. There is no “rebuild” button to forget, and no window in which a product exists in your back office and not in search.
If the index and your catalogue ever do diverge, a full re-send is one click on the module’s Configure screen.
More about PrestaShop search
Why is my new PrestaShop product not showing in search?
Because search reads `ps_search_word` and `ps_search_index`, and the product has no rows there yet. It will appear once indexation runs — immediately if incremental indexation is on and the product was saved through the back office, and only after a rebuild if it was written another way.
How often should I rebuild the PrestaShop search index?
A full rebuild truncates and repopulates the word tables, so it is a job you schedule rather than run casually. How often depends on how your catalogue changes — which is the awkward part: the right answer depends on something you have to keep track of.
Does an ERP or CSV import update the index?
Usually not. Anything writing to the database without going through PrestaShop’s product-save path leaves the word index untouched, and search keeps answering from stale rows with no warning anywhere.
Does NitroSearch need a rebuild?
No. The module sends changes as they happen, in the background. There is a “Sync catalogue now” button for a full re-send if you ever want one, but nothing depends on you remembering to press it.
PrestaShop behaviour on this page last checked against a live PrestaShop 8 install on 2026-08-04.
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