Eclipse Search Menus disabled randomly

Question

I use Eclipse 3.3 in my daily work, and have also used Eclipse 3.2 extensively as well. In both versions, sometimes the Search options (Java Search, File Search, etc) in the menu get disabled, seemingly at random times. However, with CTRL + H, I am able to access the search functionality. Does anyone know why this happens? Has it been fixed in Eclipse 3.4?

Answer 1

I don't have an exact answer. I will recommend that you try to correlate the disablement with which perspective is active. Likewise, which view is active. I have been using 3.4 and not experienced this issue.

Answer 2

As stuffikeepforgettinghowtodoblogspotcom said, the perspective seems like the culprit. I am using Pydev which hides the search and PHP, which displays it.

Answer 3

I'm using RAD 7.5.1 which runs on Eclipse 3.4 and I get this problem frustratingly often. It doesn't matter which perspective or view I'm in, or which editor I have open.

Restarting RAD usually clears it up, but because that's such a colossal pain, I found that you can get around it in the Search View, there is a link; "Start a search from the search dialog" which will bring up the search dialog.

This isn't a great workaround because the link only shows if you have no search history. To do another search, you'll have to clear your search history in the view.

Answer 4

I have this problem with MyEclipse 7 (eclipse 3.4) under Debian Lenny. Perspective doesn't seem to matter. I get around it with the shortcut ctrl-h but I was hoping for a better way.

Answer 5

Darn! I have that problem too -- in Eclipse 3.4.2.

Seems to be related to Navigator and Project Explorer views: - Switch to Debug perspective: Search menu items are there. - Switch to Java or Java EE perspective: Search menu items still there. - Click on a project in Navigator or Project Explorer: Search menu items all DISABLED.

(Curse! I use search in Selected Resources a lot! )-:

Hmmm... It may slso depend on the file type currently open in the editor. (Like Java vs xml.)

Answer 6

I couldn't get it to work even when restarting Eclipse.

Here's what worked for me: Closing all open files and opening a different file. The different file happened to be .java, but not sure if that had anything to do with it.

Answer 7

I have this problem too. It has appeared when I was installed the m2eclipse plugin. I had not found a solution, but you can use Ctrl+H shortcut instead. And you can navigate between tabs with Ctrl+PgDn or Ctrl+PgUp keys. My english suck.s!! :P

Answer 8

Closing all files and opening a new one worked for me as well. Not sure if it has something to do with too many files opend (3.5)

Answer 9

Still present in Eclipse 3.5.2 -- and for the first time really sticky.

I checked out the "close all opened files and open any other file afterwards" answer and that brought back the Search menu items. Additionally, if you were lucky and have the Search result view open, than indeed there is this little link "Open search dialog".

By the way, additionally lots of other project-related menu items seem to be greyed out also together with this, and they did not reanimate :-( But I did not really check out if these are only items for which it is useful and planned to be greyed out in this situation.