Legacy Mysql Search Setup

Store → Configuration > Catalog → Catalog → Catalog Search

Option	Description
Search Engine	Select Legacy MySQL (Deprecated)

New in version 1.1.12

Control how multi-word searches are interpreted.

Option	Description
OR Mode (Default)	Original Magento 2.3 behavior. Search “red bag” finds products containing “red” OR “bag”. More results, less precise.
AND Mode (Recommended)	Elasticsearch-like behavior. Search “red bag” finds products containing “red” AND “bag”. Fewer results, more relevant.

Note: Clear cache after changing this setting:

bin/magento cache:clean config

Examples:

Search Query	OR Mode	AND Mode
“red bag”	Products with “red” OR “bag”	Products with BOTH “red” AND “bag”
“leather wallet”	Products with “leather” OR “wallet”	Products with BOTH “leather” AND “wallet”
“blue”	Products with “blue”	Products with “blue” (same result)

Future: Based on community feedback, AND mode may become the default in version 2.0.