Why does query return 0 results if I don't specify index?

[kimberlytrayson]

I have a query in splunk that returns 0 results if I type:

my search terms here

but works if I prepend index=* to it. So, this returns the desired results:

index=* my search terms here

Does anyone know why? Thank you.

[cpetterborg]

If your "default search indexes" doesn't include the index that the data is in, then you will get the 0 results returned. That means that you have a set of indexes that you are able to search by default, but if the index the data is in isn't in the default index list, you will not get anything from the search.