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How to add PDF Ifilter for SQL 2025?

Suresh Sukumaran 20 Reputation points
2026-03-25T08:02:31.93+00:00

Hi everyone,

I am recently facing an issue regard Full-Text indexing in SQL Server 2025. I have installed SQL 2025 with Full-text indexing. Then i install Adobe IFilter. Unlike SQL 2022, i am not able to find any output for pdf when i run the below query.

Select document_type, path from sys.fulltext_document_types where document_type = '.pdf'

Thank you in advance for the assistance.

Regards

Suresh

SQL Server | Other
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Answer accepted by question author
  1. Akhil Gajavelly 1,735 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-30T03:43:28.1866667+00:00

    Hi @Suresh Sukumaran

    Thanks for raising this this is actually a known change in behavior with SQL Server 2025. In SQL Server 2025, external filters like Adobe PDF iFilter are not automatically used anymore (unlike SQL Server 2022).

    If this query SELECT document_type, path FROM sys.fulltext_document_types WHERE document_type = '.pdf';

    returns no rows, it means PDF is not supported/registered on your instance, and installing Adobe IFilter won’t make it available.

    Check with this bellow query SELECT document_type FROM sys.fulltext_document_types;

    If .pdf is missing, PDF full-text indexing isn’t available in SQL Server 2025. Workaround: Extract PDF text externally and store it in SQL for indexing.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks,
    Akhil.

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  1. Q&A Assist
    2026-03-25T08:03:04.2033333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    SQL Server 2025 replaces legacy full-text filters (including older third-party IFilters) with new, built-in binaries. The supported document types and their filters are exposed through sys.fulltext_document_types, and each row represents an IFilter registered in the instance.

    If querying

    SELECT document_type, path
FROM sys.fulltext_document_types
WHERE document_type = '.pdf';

    returns no rows in SQL Server 2025, it means no PDF IFilter is registered for that instance. Installing Adobe IFilter alone is not sufficient to make it visible to SQL Server 2025; the engine uses the new, built-in filter set and only exposes filters that are registered and supported. The context provided lists default filters for many Office and ODF formats in SQL Server 2025, but .pdf is not among the documented default extensions.

    Because only document types present in sys.fulltext_document_types are available for full-text indexing, PDF full-text indexing cannot be used in SQL Server 2025 unless a .pdf row appears in that view. There is no documented mechanism in the provided material to add or register an external PDF IFilter for SQL Server 2025 beyond what the engine already supports.

    To verify what is supported on the instance, run:

    SELECT document_type, manufacturer, path
FROM sys.fulltext_document_types
ORDER BY document_type;

    If .pdf is not listed, PDF documents cannot be full-text indexed on that instance with the currently supported filters.

    References:

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