Search in outlook 2016 shared mailbox is not working

Eddy_Veldboer agreed, we have about 400 shared mailboxes used by around 1000 people all over the globe, and we just standardized on automounting all shared mailboxes, caching shared content, and not allowing users to add mailboxes to their MAPI profile outside of automounting.  We're still onprem and planning a move to the cloud and wanted to have a predictable, supportable experience.

Now we're being inundated with complaints about searching being broken, and turns out deploying what's been noted as the 'best practice' breaks a very simple, critical function.  It's frustrating that the server has a fully built out index of the database sitting there and the clients don't just reach on and use it.

I've voted on the topic as well, any idea what something has to get to for it to have any traction or attention?

Eddy_Veldboer 

I tried workaround A and disabled 'download shared folders' and it worked. thanks.

Thanks for helping out on this issue. I am still surprised a basic search doesn't include subfolders for shared mailboxes that are connected in Outlook via the default process (AutoMapped + download shared folders turned on). Also after raising a support ticket at Microsoft, the engineer acknowledged this is a 'known issue'. 

Workaround A) provided is to disable 'download shared folders'. This way subfolders are included in the search result. I keep my fingers crossed Outlook keeps performing and won't stop responding when heavy used. 

Workaround B) Otherwise I have to apply the other successfully tested workaround, but would have a higher impact on our users: 

1. cmdlet: Remove-MailboxPermission -Identity <shared mailbox> -User <user> -AccessRights FullAccess 
2. Remove shared mailbox connection from at users Outlook. (be patient until it disappears)  
3. cmdlet Add-MailboxPermission -Identity <shared mailbox> -User <user> -AccessRights FullAccess -AutoMapping $false
4. Wait a while and Start users Outlook and connect mailbox via new account, but be sure to choose 'login with other account' and using the users credentials and MFA. 
5. Restart Outlook and WAIT after the folder/client error when trying to open the shared mailbox. 
6. Keep fingers crossed after a while the shared mailbox magically opens up 😉

Hopefully this will help others, since it took me a whole day to believe this is true.. 

If you are reading this, please vote on the UserVoice because I am shocked it currently only has 40 votes.. https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/36925879-do-search-in-folder-and-subfolders-when-shared-ma

Gabe_Bratton 

We are running multiple on-prem servers and have encountered this issue many times by now, with different results everywhere.

Is there a timeline for the fix yet since it has been a while?

jlutzwright 

Hello, the software is suppossed to be in french in this case. Thank you for your solution.

joriswengerixionch 

If it’s not supposed to be in French, it’s an issue that I’ve run across. Sometimes there is some confusion when you have installed Office when the computer came with a demo version. Uninstall all versions of office (you’ll probably need a third party uninstaller such as Revo Uninstaller, since most of the installations will fail), then reboot and install again. This should fix the language confusion issue.

Hello,
I have the same problem (search did not work on shared mailbox in Outlook Microsoft 365 MSO (16.0.12827.20200)).
I tried the solution on this thread.
I also tried the solution on this page : https://support.office.com/en-us/article/troubleshooting-outlook-search-issues-2556b11f-f4d8-46be-b0a7-de33a3f4f066

But when I add the shared mailbox and it download the data in the .ost file.

Sometime it work and sometime I have an error on the shared mailbox : (in french : "impossible de développer le dossier echec de l'opération du client") 

Transalte : Impossible to develop the folder. faillure of the client's operation.

I have tried in cache mode and wihtout cache mode.

Without cache mode, the search juste keep going and do nothing.

I have tried to create the register key :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search
DWORD: DisableServerAssistedSearch
Value 1

For this one : 16.0\outlook\search

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\outlook\search
DWORD: DisableServerAssistedSearch
Value: 1

rob_dev 

In Outlook click File, Add Account.  Put in the address of the shared mailbox.  When you get prompted for credentials look for "User other account" or similar wording.  After you click that put in your primary email address and password that has permissions to the shared mailbox.

rob_dev you need full access to the shared mailbox. you can add the full access in the exchange admin panel. after you granted the access you can add the mailbox without using a password.

Gabe_Bratton 

I am using Exchange online. No on premise at all. How can i add a shared mailbox as an other email in the profile? I am being prompted for a password and i was under the impression shared mailboxes had no associated passwords. 

Berny_St 

For the first issue where you added the mailbox as another account in the profile are you not able to set the Sync Slider for the second account (shared mailbox) to All?  Maybe its a huge mailbox and takes up too much space?

In the next scenario you have the shared mailbox added to the primary account (File, Account Settings, Account Settings, More Settings, Advanced, "Open additional mailbox".  In this scenario search will work but you have to click on the Inbox of the shared mailbox and switch the search scope to "Current Folder". 

I think the main issue most folks have mentioned is needing All Mailboxes scope to work when searching from the Primary email account.  Is that what you are needing to do?  The only good solution for that scenario is to add the mailbox as another account in the profile and set the Sync Slider to how many months you need the results from.

we also have some troubles with the search and shared folders. 

we have added a shared folder as second mailbox in the outlook profile. the mailbox has a cache duration of 3 months. the search in the shared folder works fine for the caching period. if we want to search for older mails you'll get shown the mails from the inbox folder. but no search results. 

we don't have used the provided reg key change for using only the local search.

do you have a solution to use the cache feature in the shared folder, and also to use the online search in the shared folder. 

if we add the shared mailbox to the primary account, so the shared mailbox will be in online mode, the search works well. but the performance of the shared mailbox is very slow (showing mails, moving mails, ...). if we activate the feature "download shared folders" in the primary account, the search is completely broken (you get no results from the shared mailbox). but the performance of the shared mailbox is better than in online mode.

is there a resolution, to have a cached shared mailbox and also can use the local search for the cached period, and also have the possibility to search for older mails.

thank you for your help!

no success. Tried everything now. All together:

1. It seems outlook 2016 can not open a separate account if it is readonly (exchange "Reviewer" rights).

2. Adding the readonly-mailbox using "open additional mailbox" (shared) works, but we have the no-search bug (online- as well as cached mode)

Completely stuck here. We've migrated from Exchange 2010 to 2016, moved from office 2013 to 2016 and now lost the most basic Email functionality.

Chris7726 

You may need to look into Exchange PowerShell. Ex. Set-MailboxFolderPermission

So obviously, adding a second mailbox seems the only solution instead of shared mailboxes.

BUT: What about permissions? In our case, users have (and must have) READ ONLY permissions on a shared mailbox.

How can read only access be implemented when adding a second exchange account? Any hints on the "exchange way to do it" here?

Gabe_Bratton  Thanks for the solution.
Ive been looking for a fix since March 2017.

I Greatly appreciate your help.

Ryan_B2020 

Thank you for sharing your findings.  If I get any updates when All Mailboxes will be fixed to work for Shared Mailboxes I will post back.  I am not aware of any firm timeline yet though so the workaround will be needed for the time being.  

Gabe_Bratton 

Just putting a quick update on here - So far, disabling automapping and then adding the shared email back in as it's own account (following the instructions you previously provided) has worked on all of the computers that I have tested this on. Search is working correctly with this workaround - Without the need to use the OCT RegEdit.

Thanks Much!

Ryan

Ryan_B2020 

As far as I know there is not an option to turn off Automapping for all mailboxes at once.  Here are two topics that show the instructions.  If I learn of anything better I'll post back with it.  

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/exchange-server-2010/hh529943(v=exchg.141)?redirectedfrom=MSDN

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/domain-management/remove-automapping-for-shared-mailbox

Gabe_Bratton 

You are correct! I waited for an hour or so and just a few minutes ago, I found that search worked correctly for the shared mailbox that I disabled automapping for and had added as a separate account. 

The question now, is there a way to disable automapping for all of our shared mailboxes and users at once? I know how to disable automapping 1 mailbox at a time, but that would be a crazy task to take on doing it for each shared mailbox and each user.

I have started searching for this in the forums, so hopefully I come across something there, but thought I'd ask you to see if you knew the answer already.

Thanks,