Windows OS Hub
  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • SCCM
  • Active Directory
    • Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
    • Group Policies
  • Windows Clients
    • Windows 11
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 7
    • Windows XP
    • MS Office
    • Outlook
  • Virtualization
    • VMWare
    • Hyper-V
    • KVM
  • PowerShell
  • Exchange
  • Cloud
    • Azure
    • Microsoft 365
    • Office 365
  • Linux
    • CentOS
    • RHEL
    • Ubuntu
  • Home
  • About

Windows OS Hub

  • Windows Server
    • Windows Server 2022
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • SCCM
  • Active Directory
    • Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
    • Group Policies
  • Windows Clients
    • Windows 11
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8
    • Windows 7
    • Windows XP
    • MS Office
    • Outlook
  • Virtualization
    • VMWare
    • Hyper-V
    • KVM
  • PowerShell
  • Exchange
  • Cloud
    • Azure
    • Microsoft 365
    • Office 365
  • Linux
    • CentOS
    • RHEL
    • Ubuntu

 Windows OS Hub / Outlook / Fix: Microsoft Outlook Search Not Working on Windows 10/11

January 14, 2022 ExchangeMicrosoft 365OutlookWindows 10Windows 11

Fix: Microsoft Outlook Search Not Working on Windows 10/11

If you face any troubles when searching for email items in different Outlook versions (nothing is found, not all results are displayed, not all *.pst files used for search, not showing recent emails, etc.), this article’s guidelines should help you to solve Outlook search issues (these recommendations are applicable to all current versions of Outlook 2021/2019/2016/2013 and Outlook for Microsoft 365).

Contents:
  • Check Search Indexing Status in Outlook
  • Enable Outlook Indexing by Windows Search Service
  • How to Rebuild/Reset Outlook Search Index?
  • Check and Repair Outlook PST Files
  • Outlook Search and Cached Exchange Mode
  • Outlook: Unable to Search in Exchange Shared Mailboxes
  • Outlook Search Not Showing Results After Installing Updates on Windows 10 and 11
  • Other Solutions to Fix Outlook Search

Check Search Indexing Status in Outlook

Outlook Search is powered by the Windows Indexing Service. To perform a search, Windows Search must scan the contents of the mailbox and connected PST files, and build an index of all available Outlook items. Therefore, the first step is to check the status of the Outlook index.

To do it, go to the Search tab, and select Indexing Status in the Search Tools section.

Outlook 2016 Indexing Status

If the indexing is OK, you will see the following status in the next window:

Outlook has finished indexing all of your items.
0 items remaining to be indexed.

Outlook has finished indexing all of your items. 0 items remaining to be indexed

However, if there are any search problems, the status will be different:

Outlook is currently indexing your items.
23817 items remaining to be indexed

How to Fix Outlook 2016 Search Problems

The Outlook search index is rebuilt when you add a new mailbox or Outlook Personal Folder (PST) file, move emails between folders, etc. If you have recently (up to 3-4 hours) performed these operations, you need to wait until indexing is complete. If you haven’t made significant configuration changes in Outlook for a long time and indexing is still ongoing, then the problem with the Outlook index is obvious.

Enable Outlook Indexing by Windows Search Service

To solve the problem, you should temporarily exclude Outlook from items that are scanned by the Windows Indexing Service. To do it:

  1. In Outlook, open File -> Settings;
  2. Select Search -> Indexing Options;
  3. Click Change
  4. Disable the indexing for Microsoft Outlook;
  5. Close Outlook, and using the Process Manager, make sure there is no outlook.exe process running on your computer.

Disable the indexing for Microsoft Outlook

In the properties of Outlook OST and PST files, make sure that their indexing is allowed (it is worth doing regardless of their indexing being already enabled in Windows Search Service settings). To do it:

  1. Open File -> Account Settings -> Account Settings;
  2. Go to the Data Files tab;
  3. Select files one by one and click Open file location;outlook pst file location
  4. Right-click the OST or PST file you need and select its properties;
  5. Click Other;
  6. Check the box Allow this file to have context indexed in addition to file properties -> click OK.PST file - Allow this file to have context indexed in addition to file properties

Open an elevated PowerShell console and restart the WSearch service:

Restart-Service -Name wsearch –verbose

powershell restart search service

Now you need to enable Outlook Indexing in Search Settings, which was previously disabled. Check Microsoft Outlook in the indexing options and save the changes.

Give Outlook some time to complete the full indexing (it depends on the number and size of mailboxes and connected PST files). Check Outlook index status as shown above and try to search for something.

How to Rebuild/Reset Outlook Search Index?

If the Outlook search problem persists, it is recommended to completely reset and rebuild the index of the Windows Search service. To do it:

  1. In Outlook, go to File -> Settings -> Search;
  2. Click Indexing Options -> Advanced;
  3. Click Rebuild;
  4. It may take some time to rebuild the index and the performance of your computer may be temporarily degraded.Outlook rebuid indexing
Tip. In some cases, it is worth optimizing Windows Search performance following this guide: How to fix a very large Windows.edb file.

Check and Repair Outlook PST Files

In some cases, the indexing service is not able to index Outlook personal folder files (PST) due to logical errors or corruption of their structure. It is recommended to check and repair corrupted pst files using scanpst.exe.

Outlook Search and Cached Exchange Mode

In this section, we’ll take a look at how Outlook search works if your mailbox is located on an Exchange server or Exchange Online (Microsoft 365). If Cached Exchange Mode is enabled in Outlook, the local index on your computer is used to search items. If Cached Exchange Mode is disabled, mailbox-side index (maintained by Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer) is used for mailbox searches.

outlook search with cached exchange mode

The MSExchangeSearch service indexes an email message as soon as it gets into the mailbox database on the server. If your Outlook doesn’t search your mailbox when using the Exchange Search Index, the problem is most likely with the Exchange server. The Test-ExchangeSearch cmdlet is used to diagnose problems with the Exchange Search service.

The most common problem is that the disk has run out (not enough space to increase the size of the search index), or the current index file has been damaged and needs to be rebuilt. You can use the built-in PowerShell script to reset the search index in Exchange %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\Scripts\ResetSearchIndex.ps1.

To reset the search index for a specific mailbox database, use the command:

.\ResetSearchIndex.ps1 mailboxdbname1

Also, check if indexing is enabled for the problem mailbox database:

Get-MailboxDatabase mailboxdbname1 | Format-Table Name,IndexEnabled

Outlook: Unable to Search in Exchange Shared Mailboxes

The Fast Search feature is enabled by default in all on-premises Exchange Server versions starting with Exchange 2016. In some cases, Exchange Fast Search doesn’t work properly on Exchange shared mailboxes that are connected in Outlook. In this case, when searching for emails in the shared mailbox, you will see an Outlook warning:

We're having trouble fetching results from the server. Some items may not be included in your search results.

outlook We're having trouble fetching results from the server. Some items may not be included in your search results
You can prevent Outlook from using Exchange Fast Search. To do this, create a DWORD registry parameter DisableServerAssistedSearch = 1 under the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search (for Outlook 2016 and Outlook 2019).

You can create a registry parameter using PowerShell:

New-ItemProperty -path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search" -Name DisableServerAssistedSearch -PropertyType "DWORD" -Value "1"

Reboot Windows.

You can’t use this option for shared mailboxes hosted on Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) because M365 uses Microsoft Search instead of FAST search.

Outlook Search Not Showing Results After Installing Updates on Windows 10 and 11

After installing security updates on Windows 10 and 11 in December 2021, Outlook’s search for recent emails stopped working. The issue occurs with both Exchange and Microsoft 365 mailboxes.

Search performance will be impacted because of a problem with how Outlook search is configured.

The problem appeared after installing the following updates:

  • Windows 10 21H2 and 21H1 – KB5008212
  • Windows 11 – KB5008215

Microsoft partially fixed this bug in update KB5009543 for Windows 10 (2022-01). However, this patch doesn’t always help.

To repair the Outlook Search, you can temporarily uninstall the latest Windows update:

wusa /uninstall /kb:5008212

Or, as advised by Microsoft, you can temporarily disable the use of the Windows Desktop Search indexing service in Outlook. To do this, create a registry parameter PreventIndexingOutlook with a value of 1.

New-ItemProperty -path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search" -Name DisableServerAssistedSearch -PropertyType "DWORD" -Value "1"

PreventIndexingOutlook registry parameter

When you restart your computer, Outlook will use its own search feature to search mailboxes and PST files. When searching in Outlook in this mode, a warning will appear:

Search performance will be impacted because a group policy has turned off the Windows Search service.

outlook Search performance will be impacted because a group policy has turned off the Windows Search service
The main disadvantage is that Outlook search will be much slower. Therefore, when Microsoft fixes this bug in one of the upcoming updates, you will need to remove this registry parameter.

Other Solutions to Fix Outlook Search

What else can you check if Outlook search is not working or returning incomplete results?

  1. From the Outlook menu, select Search Tools -> Locations to Search. Make sure all mailboxes and PST files are selected for search;outlook locations to search
  2. Make sure that the PreventIndexingOutlook = 1 parameter is missing in the registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search”. This parameter disables Outlook indexing by the Windows Search service. It corresponds to the policy “Prevent indexing Microsoft Office Outlook” under GPO Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search;
    If you are using MS Office Administrative Templates in the GPO, make sure the parameters in these policies don’t change the default Outlook search settings.
  3. In the Outlook settings (File -> Options -> Search) disable the option Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown;Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown
  4. Disable third-party Outlook extensions (File -> Options -> Add-ins);
  5. Reinstall Outlook using the Repair function of the MS Office installation MSI package (Office 365 has a convenient Quick Repair function);office365 quick repair
  6. Use the Windows 10 built-in Search Troubleshooter. To start the tool, run the command: msdt.exe -ep SystemSettings_Troubleshoot_L2 -id SearchDiagnostic  windows 10 search index troubleshooter
  7. You may also find a similar article useful: “How to fix search problems in Windows 10?”

3 comments
2
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
previous post
Forwarding Emails to an External Address in Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online)
next post
SSL Error: This Site Can’t Provide a Secure Connection in Chrome, Opera & Chromium

Related Reading

Configuring Event Viewer Log Size on Windows

May 24, 2023

How to Detect Who Changed the File/Folder NTFS...

May 24, 2023

Enable Single Sign-On (SSO) Authentication on RDS Windows...

May 23, 2023

How to Create, Change, and Remove Local Users...

May 17, 2023

Fix: BSOD Error 0x0000007B (INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE) on Windows

May 16, 2023

Categories

  • Active Directory
  • Group Policies
  • Exchange Server
  • Microsoft 365
  • Azure
  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • PowerShell
  • VMWare
  • Hyper-V
  • Linux
  • MS Office

Recent Posts

  • Configuring Event Viewer Log Size on Windows

    May 24, 2023
  • How to Detect Who Changed the File/Folder NTFS Permissions on Windows?

    May 24, 2023
  • Enable Single Sign-On (SSO) Authentication on RDS Windows Server

    May 23, 2023
  • Allow Non-admin Users RDP Access to Windows Server

    May 22, 2023
  • How to Create, Change, and Remove Local Users or Groups with PowerShell?

    May 17, 2023
  • Fix: BSOD Error 0x0000007B (INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE) on Windows

    May 16, 2023
  • View Success and Failed Local Logon Attempts on Windows

    May 2, 2023
  • Fix: “Something Went Wrong” Error When Installing Teams

    May 2, 2023
  • Querying Windows Event Logs with PowerShell

    May 2, 2023
  • Configure Windows LAPS (Local Administrator Passwords Solution) in AD

    April 25, 2023

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Popular Posts
  • Outlook Keeps Asking for Password on Windows
  • How to Manually Configure Exchange or Microsoft 365 Account in Outlook 365/2019/2016?
  • FAQ: Licensing Microsoft Exchange Server 2019/2016
  • Whitelist Domains and Email Addresses on Exchange Server and Microsoft 365
  • Moving Exchange Mailboxes to Different Database
  • How to Cleanup, Truncate or Move Log Files in Exchange Server 2013/2016/2019?
  • Search and Delete Emails from User Mailboxes on Exchange Server (Microsoft 365) with PowerShell
Footer Logo

@2014 - 2023 - Windows OS Hub. All about operating systems for sysadmins


Back To Top