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Free-text Omni-search leads to performance spikes in AEM

Last update: Fri Jun 27 2025 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Free-form text searches in AEM’s Omni-search feature generate multiple queries without filters, causing performance degradation and timeouts in the Author environment. Removing the node responsible for in-memory sorting improves performance. This workaround improves query performance on AEM pages.

Description description

Environment

ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Experience Manager as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)– Sites

Issue/Symptoms

Free-form text searches in Omni-search trigger multiple queries, leading to performance issues.

  • High response times and timeouts occur when using Omni-search without filters.
  • Alerts are triggered in the Query Performance tool.
  • The UI displays a Fail to submit form  error due to timeouts.
  • The issue doesn’t occur when filters like Sites  are applied.
  • The issue is caused by the node: /conf/global/settings/cq/search/facets/sites/jcr:content/items/orderby

Resolution resolution

To resolve this:

  1. Identify the node /conf/global/settings/cq/search/facets/sites/jcr:content/items/orderby, which causes in-memory sorting of large result sets and slows down query execution.
  2. Delete the node from your environment using a cURL command or a similar method. Make sure you have administrative privileges to perform this action.
  3. Test the affected queries again on both AEM pages and in Query Builder to confirm that performance has improved.
  4. Understand that this is a temporary workaround. If schema changes reintroduce the node, the issue will return. ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Engineering is working on a permanent fix for this behavior.
  5. If the issue returns due to schema modification or other factors, repeat the node removal process (step 2) to restore performance.
  6. To further improve performance, verify that custom indexes are correctly defined and deployed across both author and publish environments. Use tools like Explain Query output or debug logs to confirm that indexes are being used effectively during query execution.

Note: ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ is actively working on a permanent fix for this issue.

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