Indexing not running in Windows 8.1

I found an answer that completely resolved these issues for me. And it made complete sense once I discovered it. I do not use SkyDrive - But in my Windows 8.1 installation, I had noticed that opening the file explorer defaulted to SkyDrive.

In the Registry; sub values in the entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE|Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigs pointed to SkyDrive. (I suggest that you verify this on your systems prior to proceeding)

I renamed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE|Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigs so that if needed I could restore it. Then I restarted my PC.

Search issues with both file explorer and Outlook search issues were fully resolved after reboot.

I have seen several problems introduced by Microsoft implementation of SkyDrive. My next problem to work is to completely remove SkyDrive with "breaking" things. Have not found a way yet.

This one did it for me, thx!

Just deleted the subvalue, and everything is working.

Other symptom was not being able to launch indexing options from control panel at all.

Finally found a solution to this after about 2 weeks of on and off troubleshooting. This was in Windows 8.1. Indexing was not running, all options were grayed out, and no solutions I tried (registry changes, etc) worked.

A few posters suggested going to 2 directories and deleting all the files in those folders:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Temp\

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\

However, this solution was initially impossible for me, because the first directory (Temp) and all the files in the 2nd directory (Windows) would DISAPPEAR upon trying to view them. They would be there for a second when I first entered the directory, and then vanish. Since I couldn't get to them, I couldn't delete them. I've never seen files and folders do that before.

I fixed this by renaming the "Windows" folder to "Windows.old," and immediately the system generated a replacement "Windows" folder where the files didn't disappear!  I then did the same thing with the "Temp" folder, but this time it didn't auto-generate a new folder, so I just made one myself.

I didn't even have to delete the files in the newly generated folders. Indexing started working immediately after the new folders were created.

Hope this helps someone!

I wish you well but the technique worked for me allowing my PC to re-index my drives over the next few hours.  I was so pleased!  Then the next day my PC went back to the same unable to index state.  Re-trying the fix a second time did not work.  MS told me to reinstall WIndows.  When I have a few days spare -  ha ha - I will do that.  As a stopgap I am using Copernic Desktop Search to find information.

After many months of searching (no pun) for a solution and hours and hours of reading about this issue up and down the forums, this solution finally worked for me. I made the change tonight and will have to see if the fix persists. Thanks to whoever discovered this. MS, I add my vote asking you to build a true and permanent solution into 8.1 Update 1. Finally my Event Log can rest easy for awhile.

Will the next Win update include a fix for the indexing problem please? It's impossible to find emails on my PC since upgrading from Win 8 to 8.1 and it's very frustrating. I depend heavily on sent and received emails and it's a nightmare without the indexing facility - my PC says it's trying to index 4433 messages and it's been 'stuck' there for weeks. I'd rather not migrate to an alternative OS but my work is suffering as a result of this problem. Can you provide some assurance that Microsoft is working on a patch and will issue an upgrade soon please? Many thanks.

I had spent two hours giving full control of my PC to Microsoft support engineer and she was not able to fix the issue that had bugged me for months. Finally someone from community had suggested the following solution and my PC is now working fine. I suggest you try these steps and hopefully it will work in your case as well:

1. On your

keyboard, press the Windows logo and the letter R. It will launch the

"Run" box.

2. Type in

"regedit"

3. Now look for this string, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigs
4. If you found it, right click on the folder and rename it to: ren HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search\FileChangeClientConfigsBAK
5. Close the

Registry Editor and rebuild your Index