What does Windows error code 113 (ERROR_NO_MORE_SEARCH_HANDLES) mean?

ERROR_NO_MORE_SEARCH_HANDLES

A search-handle resource was exhausted

ERROR_NO_MORE_SEARCH_HANDLES is a legacy enumeration failure indicating that another search context cannot be allocated. It usually points to leaked directory-search handles or excessive concurrent enumerations.

Investigation

• Track every handle returned by file-search APIs.
• Ensure FindClose runs on success, failure, and cancellation paths.
• Measure concurrent enumerations and bound worker fan-out.
• Check long-lived services for a steadily increasing handle count.

Fix

Close search handles deterministically and reuse results where appropriate. Increasing concurrency without correcting leaks will make the failure recur.

References

• Microsoft: System error codes 0–499
• Microsoft: File management

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