# Add members to channel

**URL:** https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971
**Category:** Troubleshooting
**Created:** [September 2, 2022, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971 "2022-09-02T08:27:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![TI-Admin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mattermost.com/ti-admin/32/4272_2.png) [@TI-Admin](https://forum.mattermost.com/u/TI-Admin)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971/1 "2022-09-02T08:27:25Z")

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I’m using mattermost 7.1.3.

When chosing ‘Add members’ to a channel, I can only search by user name. The search field sadly ignores first/last name searches.How do I add a user when I don’t know his user name?

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### Author: ![agriesser](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mattermost.com/agriesser/32/5644_2.png) [@agriesser](https://forum.mattermost.com/u/agriesser)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 9:29am UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971/2 "2022-09-02T09:29:57Z")

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Hi Ti-Admin,

I cannot reproduce that, on my system it also returns results when I type the firstname (which is not part of the username).  
What search engine are you using? Bleve or Elasticsearch or just database searches?

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### Author: ![TI-Admin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mattermost.com/ti-admin/32/4272_2.png) [@TI-Admin](https://forum.mattermost.com/u/TI-Admin)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 11:26am UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971/3 "2022-09-02T11:26:02Z")

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Thanks for the reply and your ongoing support here! I’m using the default database search.  
I’ve just added a public channel and trying to add people, I don’t get anyone in the search field apart from myself. Not even while using the correct user name.  
But I don’t get consistant results from my two mattermost instances so I have to investigate further.

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### Author: ![agriesser](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mattermost.com/agriesser/32/5644_2.png) [@agriesser](https://forum.mattermost.com/u/agriesser)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971/4 "2022-09-02T11:40:56Z")

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OK, this is strange. So you’re using this dialog here, correct?

![grafik](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/mattermost/original/2X/e/ea4fd09c3359b136898917ff5ebd64aeec17f2bc.png)

Does the behaviour change when you click on “Manage Members” for a channel:

![grafik](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/mattermost/original/2X/1/15f5f1b24cc753a4f2f294b1e8361743b8dc0cae.png)

Then click on “Done”

![grafik](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/mattermost/original/2X/3/3727122c5809fed3ec124d6cf213b68e47a0d8da.png)

And then on “Add”?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![TI-Admin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mattermost.com/ti-admin/32/4272_2.png) [@TI-Admin](https://forum.mattermost.com/u/TI-Admin)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971/5 "2022-09-02T12:24:31Z")

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That makes no difference. I will check how permissions may play a role here.  
I’ve allowed channel admins to add users, therefore I don’t see what’s going wrong.

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### Author: ![agriesser](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.mattermost.com/agriesser/32/5644_2.png) [@agriesser](https://forum.mattermost.com/u/agriesser)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://forum.mattermost.com/t/add-members-to-channel/13971/6 "2022-09-02T18:32:37Z")

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When you hit CTRL-k (or CMD-k) on your keyboard, in the search dialog that appears, are you able to search for the first- and lastnames there?  
When you’re about to write a message in a channel and you type `@` there and continue typing the first- or lastname of a person in your company, are you able to find them there? In both scenarios, I just confirmed that searching for the first- and/or lastname worked on my installations, so if this doesn’t work on yours, there might be an error with the autocomplete search index.