What does Windows error code 113 (ERROR_NO_MORE_SEARCH_HANDLES) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: No additional search handle is available for the requested enumeration.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
EHOSTUNREACH	errno	Linux
EISCONN	errno	Windows
SESSION5_INITIALIZATION_FAILED	BugCheck Code	Windows

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ERROR_DISK_FULL	ERROR_INVALID_TARGET_HANDLE

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

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