Forum Discussion

splasch's avatar
splasch
Copper Contributor
Jan 12, 2019

Outlook for Mac 2019 - Search not working :-(

Hi there New contributor - I have just upgraded Office 2016 for Mac to Office 2019 for Mac.  The Spotlight Search option in Outlook no longer works - I get no results, even when I am looking at an e...
GFisher2019's avatar
GFisher2019
Copper Contributor
Jul 29, 2019

Same EXACT problem.  Tried everything and still cannot search from the latest version of Outlook 365 on upgraded MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14.5 

 

anneu620's avatar
anneu620
Copper Contributor
Jul 30, 2019

GFisher2019 

I just found a fix to this issue on page https://www.repairwin.com/fix-outlook-for-mac-search-not-working-no-results/ 

The TIP in Method 6 worked for me:

Here is an alternative method to re-build the Outlook 2016 Database in MAC:

1.  Go to the following location:

  • ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data

2. Move the Outlook.sqlite file to your desktop. (This will force Outlook to detect an issue and to do an auto rebuild).
3. When the Rebuild is completed, open Outlook and perform a search.
4. If the search is working then delete the 'Outlook.sqlite' file from your desktop.

Rebuild took about 1 hour, but now everything works fine. 

  • scottha4's avatar
    scottha4
    Copper Contributor
    Dec 17, 2021

    anneu620Thank you!  This solved my problem after trying everything above.

    Here is an alternative method to re-build the Outlook 2016 Database in MAC:

    1.  Go to the following location:

    • ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile/Data

    2. Move the Outlook.sqlite file to your desktop. (This will force Outlook to detect an issue and to do an auto rebuild).
    3. When the Rebuild is completed, open Outlook and perform a search.
    4. If the search is working then delete the 'Outlook.sqlite' file from your desktop.

    • scottha4's avatar
      scottha4
      Copper Contributor
      Dec 27, 2021

      Microsoft Support JUST told me it is a known issue with the last and current slow beta release (I am on 16.56 (21121100)):

       

      Thanks for reporting this to us, Scott. We have a known issue with the search function in Classic Outlook and we are looking at the possibility of relating your issue to the report we have sent.

       

       

       

       

  • ctwardy's avatar
    ctwardy
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 19, 2021
    Alas, no luck for me. It rebuilt (overnight), but still not searchable. Odd.
  • RobertBurke's avatar
    RobertBurke
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 13, 2021

    anneu620 

     

    This is the only documented solution that I've found online.  If your Outlook search IS NOT working and your Spotlight search IS working, this will resolve your issue.

  • kaavik's avatar
    kaavik
    Copper Contributor
    Jan 02, 2020
    [re]Moving the Outlook.sqlite file also worked for me! Many thanks to anneu620
  • SMSimon's avatar
    SMSimon
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 02, 2019

    I am considering trying this.  Did you back anything up in advance?  Was anything lost?

    Thanks!

    anneu620 

  • mannWAI's avatar
    mannWAI
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 25, 2019

    anneu620 Tried the last tip but didn't work for my Outlook 2019 on macOS 10.14.6. Totally no results at all.

    • mannWAI's avatar
      mannWAI
      Copper Contributor
      Oct 02, 2019

      mannWAI I reindexed my entire hard drive by dragging the hard drive into the Privacy tab of Spotlight within System Preferences. It would prompt you and ask if you were sure. Click Ok and then click "-" to remove the hard drive to force re-indexing. After waiting for something like half an hour, the indexing was done and I could search my emails again.

  • jrstone2000's avatar
    jrstone2000
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 30, 2019

    anneu620 I tried that and it unfortunately did not end up working for me. This was the step I took prior to formatting my MacBook Pro 2019 hard drive, re-installing a fresh version of 10.14.6 Mojave and then re-installing version 16.27 of Office for Mac 2019. 

     

    In the interim between posting my original message and today, a small number of messages seem to have indexed, but it represents only a fraction of my Outlook database. 

    • Run2win's avatar
      Run2win
      Copper Contributor
      Aug 14, 2019

      jrstone2000 

       

      Working again! OK. So sometime before the 10.14.6 update I noticed that one of my users who wasn't working was partially working. A find of my e-mails within their profile would only find e-mails from the past couple of weeks but not from the past 3-4 years.

       

      Today I ran the Office update (16.28). Before the update I preformed a search and only got results back to 7/31/19. I turned off indexing by Adding the Main Profile to the Privacy tab in spotlight. I verified that in fact it was off. I didn't find any messages. After running the update I turned indexing back on by removing the Main Profile folder from the privacy tab in Spotlight. Within 60 seconds I preformed a search and found messages all the way back to 2016.

       

      This was not fixed by Apple in 10.14.6. I'm afraid I don't know exactly what fixed it but it is now working. I have another user to test and will see if I can nail down exactly what gets it working.

      • HannahMcAbbott's avatar
        HannahMcAbbott
        Copper Contributor
        Aug 14, 2019

        Run2win How do you add your main profile to the privacy tab in spotlight. Are you on a Mac? Spotlight seems to offer only a search option. I don't understand any of this. I'm still on 10.14.5. Should I update? It's infuriating that Microsoft offer services that don't work and then don't offer any support. I'm seriously considering other options.