I seem to have figured it out!
The issue is with what appears to be a bug in how the search is entered/ saved.
To do a search for, say, Red colored boxes and bags you do the following:
in the search box:
(box,bag) +red NOTE: NO SPACES BETWEEN BOX AND BAG or + and RED
Now click search
Now in the saved search you will see that although the title is [search for "(box,bag) +red"] THE ACTUAL SEARCH WORD ENTRY IS WRONG. Check the line for search words and you will see it only says [(box ]
Go to that line and RE-ENTER the correct search: "(box,bag) +red"
Save the search and run it. It works!
250chief