Forum Discussion
Search not working in Outlook 2019 since updating to Monterey 12.1 on the Mac
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Kindly follow the steps mentioned below and verify the outcome:
Reassociate Outlook for Outlook email files:
1. Drag and drop any email to the Desktop from Outlook.
2. Right click / Control click on the email you dragged to Desktop and select 'Get Info'.
3. Expand 'Open with' and select 'Other' in the dropdown.
4. In the Finder application, choose 'Microsoft Outlook'.
5. Check the box that says 'Always open with'.
6. Select 'Add', and then choose 'Change All'.
7. Select Continue when asked “Are you sure you want to change all similar documents to open with the application “Microsoft Outlook”.
Once done, Re-index Outlook email files in Spotlight:
1. Open the Apple menu.
2. Select System Preferences, and then choose Spotlight.
3. Select the Privacy tab.
4. In Finder:
On the Go menu choose Go to Folder...
Copy and paste the following location into the "Go to the folder:" dialog box and select Go:
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/
5. Drag the ‘Main Profile’ folder or the folder with your primary profile name to the Privacy tab. Once added, remove the folder, and Spotlight will re-index the folder.
Note: You must perform this step for any additional profile folders you may have. Please note depending on the amount of email you have this could take several hours to fully index your email files.
Let me know how it goes. Thanks!
ajmarton Hello... I follow this steps... but it solves the issues just for a while; when I search something it take around 2 minutes to show something and then after 10 minutes the issues back and I can't find anything.
- Search should be pretty instantaneous if you are on Beta 22011201. Maybe you need to wait for Apple to complete indexing of your Outlook folder. Make sure the Outlook folder is not in your Spotlight/Privacy list under preferences
- the file association issue is real issue that seems to be resolved now (the MacOs update decided we should be using Mail? how poor!). But the spotlight re-indexing is not working for me, so no fun!
- UPDATE: THIS LAST SOLUTION WORKS for me!! Now Outlook search is WORKING. BUT you have to wait a minute. The first response is 'No Results" but after around 10 - 30 seconds the field starts to populate with results. And then it keeps going. So this indicates to me that the index is still compiling. SO AFTER YOU PUT IN A SEARCH TERM - WAIT FOR THE INDEX TO WORK IN REAL TIME. Or try several hours later and see what happens. Good luck!
ajmarton You mentioned that following the instructions they gave you via chat (reindexing, etc., etc.) made it work for you? Can you confirm that your search is working fine now?
For me (MacBook Air, Intel, latest Outlook for Mac, POP account), while reindexing, the search seems to show some results (they increase as reindexing progresses). However, once reindexing is complete, I don't see any search results.
For new emails, I am using the Spotlight to search and click and opening them and replying.. but for any emails older than a few days, it's a real pain.
- Sorry to report that Outlook search is NOT working again. I am not sure what happened. It was definitely populating search results in real time when I tried a test search. Then the next time I tried (after giving Outlook some time to re-index) it was back to 'no results'. Very disappointing.
- In the first 2-3 minutes, it start showing some results. After 5 minutes the situation returned to scrap.
- Yes, I unfortunately have the same out come.
ajmarton Seriously, Microsoft (and Apple) are trillion dollar companies - I do not have time for this; I re-indexed [and even installed the OS and Office multiple times] Yes - I got some Search results (sometimes after couple of minutes, but never complete) On Spotlight or Mail however it was complete - for now I prefer to work with my old MacBook Pro - the 2 days I spent to try to fix this issue are enough.
- Agreed! I am currently using (as a work around) Apple Mail on my new MBP M1 and iMac Pro. A real pain in the **bleep**.
