SharePoint Online REST Search Refiners not working for managed properties ViewableByExternalUsers and ViewableByAnonymousUsers

[sharepointalist]

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

What SharePoint development model, framework, SDK or API is this about?

SharePoint REST API

Developer environment

None

What browser(s) / client(s) have you tested

• 💥 Internet Explorer
• 💥 Microsoft Edge
• 💥 Google Chrome
• 💥 FireFox
• 💥 Safari
• mobile (iOS/iPadOS)
• mobile (Android)
• not applicable
• other (enter in the "Additional environment details" area below)

Additional environment details

• browser version
• SPFx version
• Node.js version
• etc

Describe the bug / error

SharePoint Online REST Search API requests with refinement values specified for managed properties ViewableByExternalUsers and ViewableByAnonymousUsers returns 0 records instead of expected number of records. Specifying ViewableByExternalUsers:True in query works fine, only using it as a refiner results in a problem. This used to work at least few weeks ago. Both managed properties are refinable.

Steps to reproduce

1. Sent REST api serach request:
   {"request":{"SelectProperties":["Filename","FileType"],"SortList":[],"RowLimit":0,"StartRow":0,"Properties":[],"QueryTemplate":"(ContentTypeId:0x0101*)" ","Refiners":"ViewableByExternalUsers(sort=name/descending,filter=1000/0/),ViewableByAnonymousUsers(sort=name/descending,filter=1000/0/)","TrimDuplicates":false}}
2. The response includes refinement values: [
   {
   "Entries": [
   {
   "RefinementCount": "754",
   "RefinementName": "True",
   "RefinementToken": "ǂǂ54727565",
   "RefinementValue": "True"
   },
   {
   "RefinementCount": "2448",
   "RefinementName": "False",
   "RefinementToken": "ǂǂ46616c7365",
   "RefinementValue": "False"
   }
   ],
   "Name": "ViewableByExternalUsers"
   },
   {
   "Entries": [
   {
   "RefinementCount": "315",
   "RefinementName": "True",
   "RefinementToken": "ǂǂ54727565",
   "RefinementValue": "True"
   },
   {
   "RefinementCount": "3921",
   "RefinementName": "False",
   "RefinementToken": "ǂǂ46616c7365",
   "RefinementValue": "False"
   }
   ],
   "Name": "ViewableByAnonymousUsers"
   }
   ]
3. Send another REST api call with refinement token:
   {"request":{"SelectProperties":["Filename","FileType"],"SortList":[],"RowLimit":0,"StartRow":0,"Properties":[],"QueryTemplate":"(ContentTypeId:0x0101*)" ","Refiners":"ViewableByExternalUsers(sort=name/descending,filter=1000/0/),ViewableByAnonymousUsers(sort=name/descending,filter=1000/0/)","TrimDuplicates":false,"RefinementFilters":["ViewableByAnonymousUsers:ǂǂ46616c7365"]}}

The number of records returned is 0.

Expected behavior

Should return the number of records based on refinement value (token).

Thank you for reporting this issue. We will be triaging your incoming issue as soon as possible.

[sharepointalist]

@wobba Can you help? Our app is using this functionality, and it is suddenly stoped working a month ago...

[wobba]

@sharepointalist not sure.. as a workaround send in True or False, the refinement value instead of the token, as that should not be an issue for your scenario - no special characters to be encoded.