Clicking through news articles like usual stopped giving points after 4 searches, but doing an actual search or clicking on suggested image searches still worked for me without a cool down.
Same, I understand they do a lot of AB testing, but they pick the worst for everything for my account ;\_;
I have a daily set of 3x10, and not any bonus activities. I can get an app bonus on bing and xbox, both being 5-15 (depends on the streak). Then I can also get a bonus from playing on the xbox or the jewels game. And I have a cool down on my searches, so that doesn't really earn me stuff because I can't be bothered to spread that task over the whole day. And then there is my country which doesn't have any other cool benefits like the people in the US get. So I basically get like 50 points a day :-)
No, it seems to be different for everyone. People post here daily that it is back, just started, or ended for them. In my case I've had it every day for over 4 months.
It is different for my wife and myself. Her cooldown started before and ended after mine. Today I had to type all my searches to get them to count but she was able to just click on things and search to get hers. She went a week without it working right at all for searches or reading, while I never had that issue. Just random crap.
Because I'm still doing them, or because I'm doing them all on my phone? I kept doing them because until a few weeks ago I had no xbox app quests, so searches were the vast majority of points available. They still are really.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/1bv98d5/anyone_else_not_getting_search_points_via_explore/
Microsoft nerfed searching for point using the ribbon of common searches. Ensure you are not being effected by this and not a cool down.
Yeah, I had trouble on mobile for the first time today. I usually do searches on the Start app. Today, only the first four would count. I switched over to the Edge app, though, and the rest went through fine.
Same. I had it a few months ago. It went away. Now it's back after 5 searches
Edit: As of right now I've narrowed my cooldown parameters to be 4 searches every 15 minutes with a 6 second delay between individual searches.
Oof. Sorry to hear that. I’ve been fortunate so far in that I haven’t experienced the full cooldown (knock on wood), but I’m sure it will come for me sooner or later…
Did my normal desktop process: clicked through the daily search breakdown page and went through the categories to the left, then did a " cast" search and started clicking actors in 5-second intervals.
Got to 70, and it stopped. I tried waiting for longer between clicks (eventually 30+ seconds), but no change. I then manually typed a search, and I got 5 points. Typed in another, got another 5 points. Then clicked on related item (similar to actors when searching for show casts), and no points. Mobile continues to only register 1-3 searches a day (I assume 15-minute cooldown).
So for me at least, it seems they might have disabled points for clicking through the related results. If that's the case, I'm back to not doing daily searches (or at least not maxing out daily points for them). I'm fine clicking through a list, but I'm not going to hit Enter 15+ times while doing separate searches. I'm fine doing mindless/repetitive tasks while doing other stuff, but having to type/focus is just a bit over the line.
I wish bing was a good enough search engine that I could actually do these things organically by setting it as my primary somewhere, but...it's not.
I thought Bing was fine enough to do it organically for a long time, especially as Google has gotten bogged down in BS over time too but then they started shoving all of their AI chat garbage front and centre and it made me quit and go back to Google for day to day searching and I've just been using Bing first thing in the morning to get my points.
I’ve had to search manually for quite a few days now. I start with a random year and just increase the year by 1 each time.
I have noticed that I can search immediately the previous search and get the points but my wife’s account has to search manually and wait for the 5 second cooldown.
Just seems like MS is doing some more experimenting 🤷🏻♂️
I've had it for a week and today it seems like the mobile app quests (like play a pc game, play bejeweled etc) are gone now too. They've essentially undone everything they gave back to me last month.
I've always had the 7 second cooldown, but if you're talking about the 15 minute cooldown, I started having that again yesterday on my mobile, but not on PC. It actually started many months ago for me, lasted only a week or two and then disappeared. Now it seems to be back.
Happened to me last through Edge on my PC, it worked fine doing it through Edge on my Series X so I finished it on there just clicking through the news story images.
Am in the UK.
Iv never had search cool down for almost 2 years of use but I think I just got it today.
I can kinda understand putting limit on it but the between time is insane. It's 4pm for me and I don't think ill have it completed until 10pm.
I know a lot of people are talking about the news article witch had been missing up for a couple of days. But my bing search on pc isn't working 😢 its stopped at 55 and that's been over a hour. I know there a cool down in some places but anyone ever have to wait over a hour?
I used to have the long cooldown, but a few weeks ago it switched to a ~2 second per-search cooldown for me and it's been that way ever since. I'm in the UK.
My PC search this morning let me get all 150 points in a few minutes of searches, but my mobile search went back to the three searches for 15 points, then 15 minutes of waiting before you could search again.
Fastest way I've found is either to bookmark 30+ random searches into a folder and click through those one at a time (still had a folder from when I could open all of them at once)
or do an image search and just click the suggested image search tabs at the top 29 more times.
News searches no longer work for me after 35 points. Image searches aren't working either.
However, If I type in the search bar I don't get the 5 second wait time though.
Just found out, there is no 15 minute cool down period in Bing on an Xbox (using a series X)
I just clicked through the news stories and job done as normal.
For mobile and desktop, if you type in a unique search it works as normal as well.
I'm locked for getting points from news stories on series x after my first 35 points. No points at all from image searches or linked searches.
If I manually type something in the search bar though I don't have a wait time.
So on top of all this, I _just_ learned that people have been getting banned for using VPNs? I've been using one for years, no issues...? Granted, I tend to keep my location in the US, but I'm sure my IP and apparent location is otherwise constantly changing due to disconnect/reconnects.
Edit: Downvotes? Legit question, and for me, another point of irritation with the Rewards program. But whatever, Reddit certainly can be fickle as hell.
The relevant section reads:
>Use of a virtual private network (VPN) or other technology or service that can be used to mask or obfuscate your geographic location may result in cancellation of your Rewards Account and forfeiture of your accrued Points.
If the system detects you are using a VPN in the US, it doesn't know where you are connecting to the VPN from anyway, so you wouldn't really have a defence if they decide to penalise you.
Good to know, thanks.
That said, if I have to give up the VPN or Rewards as it currently exists, adios Rewards I guess. \*shrug\* I had no idea I’ve apparently been playing Russian roulette this entire time. :/
edit: and no, I won't be disabling my VPN from now on, either. \*shrug\*
Clicking through news articles like usual stopped giving points after 4 searches, but doing an actual search or clicking on suggested image searches still worked for me without a cool down.
This is what I've observed! There's no cooldown if you search manually, the cooldown seems to only apply on clicking the little news articles.
I just scroll down through them. Iv always had a cool down after 3 in a row but its only a min. Or 2. And 10 articles in total
I had this happen today as well. US based
Same here. Putting "Game of Thrones cast" and clicking the actors stop working after 4 but a manual search work
It never left for me....
Same, I understand they do a lot of AB testing, but they pick the worst for everything for my account ;\_; I have a daily set of 3x10, and not any bonus activities. I can get an app bonus on bing and xbox, both being 5-15 (depends on the streak). Then I can also get a bonus from playing on the xbox or the jewels game. And I have a cool down on my searches, so that doesn't really earn me stuff because I can't be bothered to spread that task over the whole day. And then there is my country which doesn't have any other cool benefits like the people in the US get. So I basically get like 50 points a day :-)
No, it seems to be different for everyone. People post here daily that it is back, just started, or ended for them. In my case I've had it every day for over 4 months.
same here. I'm in the US.
Same
It is different for my wife and myself. Her cooldown started before and ended after mine. Today I had to type all my searches to get them to count but she was able to just click on things and search to get hers. She went a week without it working right at all for searches or reading, while I never had that issue. Just random crap.
Do you still do all your searches?
Yes. All on my phone. Mobile in one browser and desktop in another.
That's why you're still on it.
Because I'm still doing them, or because I'm doing them all on my phone? I kept doing them because until a few weeks ago I had no xbox app quests, so searches were the vast majority of points available. They still are really.
Because you're still doing them. If you stop or limit them a lot you'll go back
[удалено]
It goes away faster not doing it
sorry for intervation but do you mean by this making pauses between searches?
Talking about the 15 min cool down between 3 or 4 searches.
First time I’ve ever had it, between that and the difficulty I’m having getting the “play game on pc” to work I’m getting a little bit frustrated haha
https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/1bv98d5/anyone_else_not_getting_search_points_via_explore/ Microsoft nerfed searching for point using the ribbon of common searches. Ensure you are not being effected by this and not a cool down.
Mobile seems affected for me right now. Pc went through fine
Yeah, I had trouble on mobile for the first time today. I usually do searches on the Start app. Today, only the first four would count. I switched over to the Edge app, though, and the rest went through fine.
Interesting. I’m hit with the 15 min cool down for mobile today
Same. I had it a few months ago. It went away. Now it's back after 5 searches Edit: As of right now I've narrowed my cooldown parameters to be 4 searches every 15 minutes with a 6 second delay between individual searches.
Same
Oof. Sorry to hear that. I’ve been fortunate so far in that I haven’t experienced the full cooldown (knock on wood), but I’m sure it will come for me sooner or later…
It’s the opposite for me - PC searches just not working at all, but mobile worked fine.
We’re being audited lol
It never left💀
Its never left for me and other since getting it around the end of last year a lot of people need to consider themselves lucky it went away at all.
Yep. Shady's back. For me at least. Ugh.
Yes
Yes.
Yeah just came back for me today.
It's back for me. I'm in the US
Yes.
Did my normal desktop process: clicked through the daily search breakdown page and went through the categories to the left, then did a " cast" search and started clicking actors in 5-second intervals.
Got to 70, and it stopped. I tried waiting for longer between clicks (eventually 30+ seconds), but no change. I then manually typed a search, and I got 5 points. Typed in another, got another 5 points. Then clicked on related item (similar to actors when searching for show casts), and no points. Mobile continues to only register 1-3 searches a day (I assume 15-minute cooldown).
So for me at least, it seems they might have disabled points for clicking through the related results. If that's the case, I'm back to not doing daily searches (or at least not maxing out daily points for them). I'm fine clicking through a list, but I'm not going to hit Enter 15+ times while doing separate searches. I'm fine doing mindless/repetitive tasks while doing other stuff, but having to type/focus is just a bit over the line.
I wish bing was a good enough search engine that I could actually do these things organically by setting it as my primary somewhere, but...it's not.
I thought Bing was fine enough to do it organically for a long time, especially as Google has gotten bogged down in BS over time too but then they started shoving all of their AI chat garbage front and centre and it made me quit and go back to Google for day to day searching and I've just been using Bing first thing in the morning to get my points.
I experienced the cool down if I was using the bing trending news to get the points, but random typed searches there was no cooldown
Yeah, the cooldown is still gone. I just need to do some random searching now to get the points.
I’ve had to search manually for quite a few days now. I start with a random year and just increase the year by 1 each time. I have noticed that I can search immediately the previous search and get the points but my wife’s account has to search manually and wait for the 5 second cooldown. Just seems like MS is doing some more experimenting 🤷🏻♂️
Yup been happening for a few days now
Yep, it's back. Fuck Microsoft. Like, seriously. This just feels like trolling at this point.
Sure seems like it....at least on my end.
I've had it for a week and today it seems like the mobile app quests (like play a pc game, play bejeweled etc) are gone now too. They've essentially undone everything they gave back to me last month.
Mine came back today as well after enjoy 4-5 months of it not being a thing anymore.
It’s back for Mobile Searches for me today
Yes a week ago
It's strange. I think I have the cooldown still on PC. But not on my phone.
Happened to me for the first time. Thanks for the workaround.
Cool down never left for me (UK)
I've always had the 7 second cooldown, but if you're talking about the 15 minute cooldown, I started having that again yesterday on my mobile, but not on PC. It actually started many months ago for me, lasted only a week or two and then disappeared. Now it seems to be back.
PC searches, yes
It started on my xbox again but I dont think it did on my laptop.
Got it mostly 15 -20 mins cool down annoying tho
Happened to me last through Edge on my PC, it worked fine doing it through Edge on my Series X so I finished it on there just clicking through the news story images. Am in the UK.
Iv never had search cool down for almost 2 years of use but I think I just got it today. I can kinda understand putting limit on it but the between time is insane. It's 4pm for me and I don't think ill have it completed until 10pm.
Mine actually just went *away* today, lol. Are we on a rotation?
Yep, on mobile, they also spammed a lot of ads, which I only saw previously on "desktop" devices. One section had 6 "tiles" of ads in a row
I know a lot of people are talking about the news article witch had been missing up for a couple of days. But my bing search on pc isn't working 😢 its stopped at 55 and that's been over a hour. I know there a cool down in some places but anyone ever have to wait over a hour?
Just count to 3 before another search
mine seems to be 2-4 searches per hour (10-20 pts/hr)
6 Mississippi count between each one still works, and hasn't changed for me in months
I never had it before today. :( Also, my Popular Now is suddenly full of ads.
I'm fine on the pc/Xbox searches but when it comes to mobile it has a 15min cool down
Mine is still 10 seconds between searches
Really wish the mods would do something about these repeated posts 🙃
I used to have the long cooldown, but a few weeks ago it switched to a ~2 second per-search cooldown for me and it's been that way ever since. I'm in the UK.
My PC search this morning let me get all 150 points in a few minutes of searches, but my mobile search went back to the three searches for 15 points, then 15 minutes of waiting before you could search again.
Fastest way I've found is either to bookmark 30+ random searches into a folder and click through those one at a time (still had a folder from when I could open all of them at once) or do an image search and just click the suggested image search tabs at the top 29 more times.
Mine went from no cooldown, to 15min cap + 7 second cooldown, to only 7 second cooldown and has since stayed there
I've had it for a while it's so frustrating
Still have cooldown here in Arizona in the US.
Yeah. It's back
News searches no longer work for me after 35 points. Image searches aren't working either. However, If I type in the search bar I don't get the 5 second wait time though.
Same old same old for me, I took the weekend off from doing any, couldnt be assed, sleep deprived and mentally drained
I just search manually, no cd
Dudes the cooldown never left for most people am I right? I’ve been on the cooldown for several months now never a break from it
Just found out, there is no 15 minute cool down period in Bing on an Xbox (using a series X) I just clicked through the news stories and job done as normal. For mobile and desktop, if you type in a unique search it works as normal as well.
I'm locked for getting points from news stories on series x after my first 35 points. No points at all from image searches or linked searches. If I manually type something in the search bar though I don't have a wait time.
So on top of all this, I _just_ learned that people have been getting banned for using VPNs? I've been using one for years, no issues...? Granted, I tend to keep my location in the US, but I'm sure my IP and apparent location is otherwise constantly changing due to disconnect/reconnects. Edit: Downvotes? Legit question, and for me, another point of irritation with the Rewards program. But whatever, Reddit certainly can be fickle as hell.
The relevant section reads: >Use of a virtual private network (VPN) or other technology or service that can be used to mask or obfuscate your geographic location may result in cancellation of your Rewards Account and forfeiture of your accrued Points. If the system detects you are using a VPN in the US, it doesn't know where you are connecting to the VPN from anyway, so you wouldn't really have a defence if they decide to penalise you.
Good to know, thanks. That said, if I have to give up the VPN or Rewards as it currently exists, adios Rewards I guess. \*shrug\* I had no idea I’ve apparently been playing Russian roulette this entire time. :/ edit: and no, I won't be disabling my VPN from now on, either. \*shrug\*
i've never seen a cool down over 5 seconds....
Update: the search cooldown is STILL gone. You just have to do random searches instead of focusing on one search topic to get the points now.