Updated: July 15, 2020 (September 15, 2014)

Search of SharePoint Online from On-Premises

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

Search can work across SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server 2013 on-premises, but many supporting components are required. The diagram shows the process and key supporting components for “outbound hybrid” search, in which a user of an on-premises SharePoint installation (left) searches for content both on-premises and in SharePoint Online installation (right).

The on-premises user issues the search query (1), which goes to both the on-premises installation and to the SharePoint Online installation (2). Results come back from each installation (3) and are displayed to the user. Both SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online “security trim” results: the results link only to content that the user has permission to access. If the user clicks on a link in the SharePoint Online results, the user’s browser requests the content from SharePoint Online (4) and receives the content in reply.

Administrators must configure the on-premises installation to use SharePoint Online as a “results source” and direct queries to it. The capability also depends on the following supporting components:

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