Problem or Known Issue: 

Autocomplete fields (look-up fields with a gray circle on the right) — like the image fields, committee member fields, or section assignment fields — do not show all possible matching nodes.

Why it happens: 

There are a few reasons you might not see the option you expect:

  1. The number of items Drupal can display in the drop-down list is limited.
  2. When a node is unpublished, Drupal will not display it in the list of options.

 

Solution: 
  • Enter more of the title of the node to limit the number of possible results.
  • Check the node you're trying to add using the autocomplete field.  If it's unpublished, publish it.
  • Use the node id instead of the node title to reference the node. E.g. [nid:12345]

Note: A few fields — most notably Section Assignment — look up menu ids, not node ids. 

See Can't Change Section Assignment for tips for working with menu ids.