Not able to search for catalog items when they are imported from one instance to another

When you move a catalog item from one instance to another and try to search then from native UI or portal, the search result might not show recently moved catalog item.

All supported releases.

Importing a record (ex - catalog item) from another instance, and creating a record are not the same.
We recommend you to make some changes in the record once it is has been imported, so that the record is indexed properly.

As a best practice please follow the below steps:
1. If a catalog item has been developed in dev instance, please set active = false when you are capturing it in an update set.
2. Once the catalog item has been moved to test/QA instance, set active=true for the catalog items that were moved.
3. This will trigger an update operation on the records, and the imported records will get indexed.
These records will not be indexed unless any changes/updates are made to the record.

Service Portal:

There can be situations where the record is indexed properly and is visible under global search for native UI.

But when you search for the same catalog item in service portal, the record is not shown in the search result.

An ill configured search scripted search source can be the root cause. Try removing the script from the search source, and use filter conditions to see if the catalog item is visible in the search results.