DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

Resolve content synchronization issues caused by custom index selection in AEM

Last update: October 22, 2026

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) may show incomplete or outdated content on Publisher when a custom Oak index is incorrectly selected for content queries because of an inappropriate scope or path restriction. To resolve the issue, review the custom index, correct its path restrictions, test the updated definition in a lower environment, and deploy it to Publisher.

Description description

Environment

  • Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)
  • Author and Publisher environments

Issue/Symptoms

  • Content published from Author doesn’t appear on Publisher.
  • Replication agents and cache flush agents function correctly.
  • Components may return expected results on Author but fewer or outdated results on Publisher.

Root cause

A custom Oak index is incorrectly selected for queries on Publisher, resulting in incomplete or outdated content. The custom index may have an inappropriate scope or path restriction, causing it to be selected for queries it wasn’t intended for.

Resolution resolution

Follow the steps below to resolve the issue:

  1. Review the custom index definition on the Publisher environment.
  2. Check the path restrictions and query scope of the custom index to ensure that they match the intended use.
  3. Temporarily disable the custom index on Publisher to determine whether query results and content synchronization are restored.
  4. If disabling the index resolves the issue, adjust the custom index’s path restrictions so that it’s selected only for queries within its intended scope. For example, restrict the index to /content/dam/provider if it’s intended only for DAM assets.
  5. Test the updated index definition in a lower environment to confirm that the correct index is selected for relevant queries and that content displays as expected.
  6. Deploy the corrected index definition to Publisher environments by following your standard deployment process.
  7. Re-enable the custom index only after confirming that it no longer affects unrelated queries.
  8. Verify that published content now appears correctly on Publisher and that queries return the expected results.
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