Troubleshooting Outlook search issues

• In Windows 10: Select the Start button, select Settings > Update & Security, and then select Troubleshoot. Find and click Search and Indexing, and click Run the troubleshooter.

• In Windows 8.1: From Start, search for Settings. In Settings, search for troubleshooting, and select troubleshooting in the search results. Find and run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter.

• In Windows 7: From Start, select Control Panel, and then select Troubleshooting. Find and run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter.

1. Start classic Outlook and click in the Search box.

2. Select Search Tools > Indexing Status from the Search menu.

3. When the Indexing Status dialog appears, you should see the following:
   
   

If classic Outlook has not finished indexing, note the items remaining to be indexed, wait five minutes, and then check again. If the number of items did not decrease, continue to the next step.

1. Start classic Outlook and click in the Search box.

2. Select Search Tools > Locations to Search from the Search menu.

3. Ensure all data files/stores listed are selected.

1. Click the Windows Start menu and click in the Search box.

2. Type services.msc and press Enter.

3. Under the Name column, find and double-click Windows Search.

4. Set the Startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) if it wasn't already.

5. If the Service status does not display Running, click the Start button underneath it to start the service.

1. Exit classic Outlook.

2. Open Indexing Options in the Windows control panel.

3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, make sure that Microsoft Outlook is listed in the Included Locations column.

4. If Microsoft Outlook is not listed, select Modify, and then click to enable the check box next to Microsoft Outlook.

5. Select OK, and then select Close.

Follow these steps to make sure that the indexing options are configured correctly:

1. Exit classic Outlook.

2. Open Indexing Options in the Windows control panel.

3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, select Advanced.

4. Select the File Types tab.

5. Scroll down until you find msg in the Extension column and select it.

6. Make sure that the Index Properties and File Contents option is enabled.

7. Select OK, and then select Close.

1. Exit classic Outlook.

2. Open Indexing Options in the Windows control panel.

3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, select Advanced.

4. In the Advanced Options dialog box, select Rebuild.

5. Select OK, and then select Close.

If indexing does not finish, contact Microsoft Support to request assistance with Windows Desktop Search.

Follow these steps to create a new profile and test search:

1. In classic Outlook, select File > Account Settings > Manage Profiles. Or, you can exit Outlook, and open Mail in the Windows control panel.

2. In the Mail Setup - Outlook dialog box, select Show Profiles, and then select Add in the General tab.

3. In the Profile Name box, type a name for the new profile, and then select OK.

4. If prompted, provide account information, such as email address and password, and select Next.

5. Select Finish. You'll find the new profile name you added listed on the General tab in the Mail dialog box.

6. Under When starting Microsoft Outlook, use this profile, choose Prompt for a profile to be used and then select OK.

7. Restart Outlook.

8. In the drop-down list in the Choose Profile dialog box, choose the new profile name you created and select OK.

9. Click in the Search box and try your search.

If search works, there may be an issue with your old profile. You may want to make this profile the new default profile and transfer information from your old profile to the new one.

When searching for older results, you can use filters to narrow your search criteria. If classic Outlook finds too many results, older items may not be displayed. For more information on how to use filters, see Learn to narrow your search criteria in Outlook. 

The steps to access the repair tool vary depending on your operating system. Choose from the drop-down list below.

Use the uninstall troubleshooter to uninstall Microsoft 365, Office 2021, Office 2019, or Office 2016 from your Windows PC.

1. Select the button below to start the uninstall troubleshooter.

   Uninstall

2. Click Open if you get a pop-up window indicating This site is trying to open Get Help.

3. Follow the prompts on the remaining screens and when prompted, restart your computer.

4. Select the steps for the version of Office you want to install or reinstall.

   Microsoft 365 | Office 2024 | Office 2021 | Office 2019 | Office 2016

If the missing search results are in the Deleted items folder, you can add this folder to your search results:

1. Start classic Outlook.

2. Click File > Options, and then select Search.

3. Select the Include messages from the Deleted items folder in each data file when searching in All Items checkbox, and click OK.

4. Restart Outlook.

You can increase the time in your email account's offline settings so that more or all your emails are cached locally for indexing. To do this:

1. Start classic Outlook.

2. Click File > Account Settings > Account Settings.

3. On the Email tab, select your email account and click Change.

4. Drag the Download email for the past: slider to the desired amount of time or to the far right to All.

5. Click Next, and then Done. Close out the window and restart Outlook.

By default, classic Outlook will display 250 search results. You can increase this to show all results but search will be slower. To do this:

1. Open classic Outlook.

2. Click File > Options, and then select Search.

3. Clear the Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown checkbox, and click OK.

4. Restart Outlook.

When you search in classic Outlook using All Mailboxes or All Outlook Items scopes, limited or no results are returned for the Archive Mailbox. You can search for items that were moved to an auto-expanded archive mailbox only by searching the folder itself. Select the archive folder in the folder list to select the Current Folder option as the search scope. If a folder in an auto-expanded storage area contains subfolders, you have to search each subfolder separately. For more information, see Overview of unlimited archiving in Microsoft 365.

If the missing search results are in the Deleted items folder, you can add this folder to your search results:

1. Start classic Outlook.

2. Click File > Options, and then select Search.

3. Select the Include messages from the Deleted items folder in each data file when searching in All Items checkbox, and click OK.

4. Restart Outlook.

You can increase the time in your email account's offline settings so that more or all your emails are cached locally for indexing. To do this:

1. Start classic Outlook.

2. Click File > Account Settings > Account Settings.

3. On the Email tab, select your email account and click Change.

4. Drag the Download email for the past: slider to the desired amount of time or to the far right to All.

5. Click Next, and then Done. Close out the window and restart Outlook.

By default, classic Outlook will display 250 search results. You can increase this to show all results but search will be slower. To do this:

1. Open classic Outlook.

2. Click File > Options, and then select Search.

3. Clear the Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown checkbox, and click OK.

4. Restart Outlook.

The steps to access the repair tool vary depending on your operating system. Choose from the drop-down list below.

Disable server search as a short-term solution. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Windows, right-click Start, and then select Run. In the Open: box type regedit, and then click OK. This will open the registry editor.

2. In the registry editor dialog box, find this subkey in the registry, and then click it:

   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search

3. Click Edit > New > DWORD Value.

4. Type DisableServerAssistedSearch for the name of the DWORD, and then press Enter.

5. Right-click DisableServerAssistedSearch, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 1 to enable the registry entry, and then click OK.

7. Close the registry editor, and then restart Windows.

To search a Shared Mailbox, click the mailbox and use the Current Folder scope. This is a design limitation that will not change with future updates. Go to this Understanding Search Scopes blog for more details about what scopes are supported when.

To work around this issue, you can add the Shared Mailbox as a secondary Exchange account to the profile. First you will need to check if the shared mailbox is already listed as an account in the profile. If so, you will have to remove it. To do this, follow these steps:

• From the File menu, select Account Settings, then choose Account Settings again.

• Double click the Exchange account.

• Choose More Settings, and then select the Advanced tab.

• In the Open these additional mailboxes section, choose the shared mailbox and then select Remove.

Add Shared Mailbox as a secondary account to the profile by following these steps:

• From the File menu, select Add Account.

• In this dialog put the full name of the mailbox, e.g. support@company.com.

• When prompted for a password, choose the option Sign in with another account and use the Exchange account credentials that has permissions to the shared mailbox.

When you search a shared mailbox added as an additional mailbox you may see this error:

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

This will occur if you're using a perpetual volume license (MSI) version of Outlook. This is currently a limitation with perpetual versions of Office.

To work around this, you can disable server search as a short-term solution. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Windows, right-click Start, and then select Run. In the Open: box type regedit, and then click OK. This will open the registry editor.

2. In the registry editor dialog box, find this subkey in the registry, and then click it:

   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search

3. Click Edit > New > DWORD Value.

4. Type DisableServerAssistedSearch for the name of the DWORD, and then press Enter.

5. Right-click DisableServerAssistedSearch, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 1 to enable the registry entry, and then click OK.

7. Close the registry editor, and then restart Windows.