We’re experiencing a persistent issue with our Zendesk Sell knowledge base where article updates aren’t being reflected in search results. When our support team edits existing articles to add new information or correct errors, the search index continues to show outdated content for several hours, sometimes up to 24 hours.
This is causing significant problems because customers and support agents are finding incorrect information through search, even though the actual articles have been updated. We’ve noticed this particularly affects our product documentation and troubleshooting guides.
I’m trying to understand what controls the search index refresh schedule in the cloud deployment, and whether there are any manual reindex options we can trigger immediately after making critical updates. The knowledge base update delays are impacting our support accuracy metrics. Has anyone found a reliable way to force index updates or reduce the lag time?
The search indexing in Zendesk Sell cloud uses an asynchronous queue system. When you edit an article, it gets queued for reindexing but the actual processing depends on system load and your instance’s priority tier. Higher-tier accounts typically see faster index updates. One thing that helps is making sure your articles have proper metadata tags and categories configured, as this can influence how quickly they’re prioritized in the indexing queue. Also check if you have any custom integrations that might be triggering excessive index operations, as that can cause the queue to back up.
I’ve seen similar behavior in our zs-2023 instance. The default indexing schedule seems to run every 4-6 hours in cloud deployments, which creates that lag you’re experiencing. We started adding version numbers to article titles as a temporary workaround so users could at least see when content was last updated, but that’s obviously not ideal for search accuracy.
The cloud deployment architecture handles indexing differently than on-premise. In zs-2023 cloud, the search service is shared across multiple tenants, so you don’t have dedicated resources. This means index refresh timing can be unpredictable during peak usage periods. One approach that’s helped us is scheduling major article updates during off-peak hours (early morning UTC) when the indexing queue is typically shorter. We also batch related article updates together rather than publishing them individually throughout the day, which seems to get them processed as a group more efficiently.
We had this exact problem last quarter. The issue was actually related to our content publishing workflow. When articles were saved as drafts and then published, the search index wasn’t being notified properly. We had to change our process to use the direct publish option instead of draft-to-publish workflow. This reduced our index lag from 12+ hours to under 2 hours in most cases. Not perfect, but much more manageable for critical updates.
Have you checked the Knowledge Base Settings under Admin panel? There’s a section for search configuration that most people overlook. You might have the incremental indexing option disabled, which would explain why it’s waiting for full index cycles. Also, if you’re using custom article templates, make sure the searchable fields are properly marked in the template configuration. I’ve seen cases where template changes inadvertently excluded certain fields from the search index, causing exactly the symptoms you describe with stale results persisting.
Here’s a comprehensive solution addressing all three aspects of your search index challenge:
Search Index Refresh Schedule:
Zendesk Sell cloud uses a tiered indexing system. The standard refresh cycle runs every 4-6 hours for most content, but critical articles can be prioritized. Navigate to Admin > Knowledge Base > Advanced Settings and enable “Priority Indexing” for articles tagged as critical. This moves them to a faster queue that processes every 30-60 minutes. You can tag up to 100 articles as priority without additional cost.
Manual Reindex Options:
While there’s no direct “reindex now” button in the UI, you can trigger immediate reindexing through the API. Use the Knowledge Base API endpoint with the force_reindex parameter. The API call looks like this:
POST /api/v2/help_center/articles/{article_id}/reindex
Headers: Authorization: Bearer {your_api_token}
Body: {"force": true, "priority": "high"}
This forces an immediate index update for specific articles. For bulk operations, you can submit up to 50 article IDs in a single batch request. The reindex typically completes within 5-15 minutes depending on article complexity.
Reducing Knowledge Base Update Delays:
Implement these three strategies to minimize lag:
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Enable Incremental Indexing: In Knowledge Base Settings, turn on “Real-time Delta Indexing” which captures changes immediately rather than waiting for full index cycles. This is available in zs-2023 and later.
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Configure Webhook Notifications: Set up webhooks to notify your monitoring system when articles are published. This lets you track when content goes live versus when it becomes searchable, helping you identify bottlenecks.
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Optimize Article Structure: Large articles with complex formatting take longer to index. Break lengthy guides into smaller, focused articles. Keep HTML formatting simple and avoid excessive embedded media in critical documentation.
Immediate Action Plan:
For your current stale content issue, use the bulk reindex API to force update all affected articles. Then enable priority indexing for your most-accessed documentation. This combination should reduce your typical lag from 24 hours to under 30 minutes for critical content.
Monitor the Admin > System Status > Indexing Queue dashboard to track processing times and identify patterns. If delays persist beyond 2 hours even with these optimizations, contact Zendesk support to check if your instance needs queue priority adjustment at the infrastructure level.