Forum Discussion
Outlook Search not showing Recent Emails (December-2021)
Hi All, The outlook search option stopped working properly after WIndows10 update. The issue has happened after installing a security update from Windows (December 14, 2021—KB5008212). I had...
Saw this on bleepingcomputer too. This search takes about 30 seconds on SSD drives for average sized PST files. But setting the PreventIndexingOutlook key is an easy work-a-round.
The Outlook product manager needs to take this opportunity to have an independent functioning index in Outlook in case windows search breaks again in the future. I wish they did it like Thunderbird.
" But setting the PreventIndexingOutlook key is an easy work-a-round." but very slow for big PST files.
The best way thats worked for me, without removing the KB5008212 is stopping windows search service
net stop "wsearch"
close outlook and reopen it.
The Windows search will start working again and start indexing the recent emails from last indexing rebuild / last stop of wsearch
The best way thats worked for me, without removing the KB5008212 is stopping windows search service
net stop "wsearch"
close outlook and reopen it.
The Windows search will start working again and start indexing the recent emails from last indexing rebuild / last stop of wsearch
- I liked your work-around so much I just set it up to restart the Windows Search service automatically on every login using task scheduler, a .bat, and a .vbs file. This requires an admin user privilege to be set once in task scheduler to run. Steps are below incase someone wants to do the same:
1. create "run.bat" with this code:
:stop
sc stop WSearch
rem cause a ~10 second sleep before checking the service state
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 10 -w 1000 > nul
sc query WSearch | find /I "STATE" | find "STOPPED"
if errorlevel 1 goto :stop
goto :start
:start
net start | find /i "Windows Search">nul && goto :start
sc start WSearch
exit
2. Create in the same directory "SilentRun.vbs" with the code:
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "run.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing
3.Create the scheduled task
a. Open Task Scheduler->Create Task...
b. Under General Tab: Name=RestartWindowsService ; Run with highest priviledge=Checked ; Configure for=Windows 10
c. Under Triggers Tab: New->Begin the task=On workstation unlock
d. Under Actions Tab: New-> Browse -> Select SilentRun.vbs ; Start in=URL in Program/script field except for "SilentRun.vbs"
e. Under Conditions Tab: Start the task only if the computer is on AC power=Unchecked Thanks for the suggestion! It works. I went into Task Manager, stopped the Windows Search service, closed and restarted Outlook.
- Hi all,
If anyone still repros can you check what you see on these two dialogs:
1. In Outlook click into the Search bar, click Search Tools, Indexing Status. Is there still a number of emails to index? Is it incrementing slowly or fast?
2. In Control Panel search for Indexing Options and click on it. For status at the top does it show "Indexing is Paused" or "Indexing Speed is Reduced"?
On my work machine if I go to Task Manager and restart the Windows Search service that gets search back indexing at full speed, and I see all the emails in search results.- Thanks everyone for your comments. I followed the suggestion below from Gabe Bratton and it worked and seems to have permanently fixed the problem.
"I have also seen users say that open Task Manager, Services, locate Windows Search, right click, Restart it. Then restart Outlook also mitigates for that session."
