Forum Discussion
Search in outlook 2016 shared mailbox is not working
Hello together,
I've found a solution that works for us.
With the installed O365 version 2103 (Build 13901.20462) 32bit and Outlook Version 16.0.13929.20296 from the Monthly Channel we've had the same issues like you have. The search in the shared mailboxes doesn't find something in the subfolders.
But as soon as I've installed the 64bit office version 2008 (Build 13127.21506) and Outlook version 16.0.13127.21452 from the semi annual channel the issue was fixed. Even in the online archive of the shared mailboxes we're able to search in the inbox and subfolders.
I've created a new config xml file for the Office Deployment Toolkit with using "https://config.office.com/deploymentsettings", activated the option for uninstalling previously installed office versions AND upgrading to the new architecture (from 32 to 64bit) and reinstalled office with running "setup.exe /configure configuration.xml" on cmd.
This was tested on 3 clients and an outlook instance on a terminal server.
Here's the config.xml:
<Configuration ID="d0f3cb44-4bdf-4bd0-9726-3034e2b16aea">
<Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="SemiAnnual" Version="16.0.13127.21506" MigrateArch="TRUE">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="de-de" />
<Language ID="en-us" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Publisher" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Teams" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Bing" />
</Product>
<Product ID="LanguagePack">
<Language ID="de-de" />
<Language ID="en-us" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Bing" />
</Product>
</Add>
<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="0" />
<Property Name="SCLCacheOverride" Value="0" />
<Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="0" />
<Property Name="FORCEAPPSHUTDOWN" Value="TRUE" />
<Property Name="DeviceBasedLicensing" Value="0" />
<Updates Enabled="TRUE" />
<RemoveMSI />
<AppSettings>
<User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="51" Type="REG_DWORD" App="excel16" Id="L_SaveExcelfilesas" />
<User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\powerpoint\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="27" Type="REG_DWORD" App="ppt16" Id="L_SavePowerPointfilesas" />
<User Key="software\microsoft\office\16.0\word\options" Name="defaultformat" Value="" Type="REG_SZ" App="word16" Id="L_SaveWordfilesas" />
</AppSettings>
<Display Level="Full" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
</Configuration>
Hope that helps you out a little bit.
Greetings from Germany,
Michael
msteinmu sadly doesn't help - am an end-user with no access or sway of deployment in my company.
This needs to be acknowledged by Microsft and fix deployed top-down.
Same problem here.
We're a small company with around 4 users where a shared mailbox is very important for all our work. This includes searching this mailbox to quickly find the right mail(s).
It must be a client issue, because search is working perfectly on the webmail in the shared mailbox.
We have tried everything. Well over 50 threads and guides as been read and followed without any solution (including "Troubleshooting Outlook search issues" of course)
I probably forgot some actions here, but from the top of my head all these actions have been tried:
- Add the shared mailbox as separate account. Both as M365 type and Exchange type. This will result in an additional .ost file (2gb+) in the AppData folder.
- Different combinations of the account settings and HOW to add the additional mailbox ("open additional mailbox" in the advanced tab or not (gets added automatically in some cases)). Closing the mailbox manually by rightclick from within outlook in the case it was auto-added on start) and then adding it again. Marking "download shared folders" nor not.
- Debugging Windows Search and the indexing operations. Including rebuilding the index (and also changing special indexing options for specific files/types). When choosing the program "Outlook" as object to index about 50,000 things were indexed, but still wasn't searchable in Outlook.
- All the different cache options (from disabled to 1 months)
- Completely wiped the profile from Control Panel->Mail and created a new one, with a new account and going with all the default options. Nope.
- Increase the time that Outlook waits for Exchange to provide search results before falling back to use local search (ServerAssistedSearchTimeout)
- All the combination of where to search (click inbox or the whole post box in left pane, and the scope "all outlook objects", "current postbox", "current folder" etc)
In some scenarios, the shared mailbox is added with its name visible (e.g. Support). In others cases, the email address is shown instead (e.g. support@ourcompany.com). Not sure which should be "correct".In some scenarios, the search animation just keeps circling forever. Unsure if something is trying to search at all. In other scenarios, the search just returns "No results" or similar. Sometimes a clickable link below ("More om server" i think) doesn't work either.
On one of our computers, the current status is that search results are shown from SENT ITEMS only, regardless of on which mailbox is clicked, or scope chosen for the search.
This whole thing has now taken such time to debug and gather information about to try to solve it, that we are seriously considering switching to a completely different e-mail solution.
Now we have a completely new computer (W10) with latest Outlook Version 2108 (Build 14326.20404). Is there a detailed step-by-step guide to follow to get search working properly in a shared mailbox? Like, every single step and every single option to follow it 100% ? Nothing is done yet on computer except installed office.
Any help greatly appreciated, but I think only a software update can properly solve this.
- Has this been resolved? I am manually adding Shared Mailbox accounts as other profiles in Outlook in Order for Mailbox managers to setup Search Folders in their shared mailboxes for their teams. Adding the account in the users profile does not allow this and neither does running it in noncached mode. There has to be a fix for this because adding additional profiles to Outlook is not the ideal situation.
- Still broken as a far as I am aware.
