Windows 11 Indexing is paused

Hi Greg,

I have the same issue in Windows 11. I followed your steps below, but didn't get the warning re WMP. Returned to the indexing options dialogue and within a couple of seconds it said 'indexing paused'.

Is there any solution that will solve this? At the moment if feels like it will take several months to index my data.

Hi BW. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, specializing in Installation, Performance, Troubleshooting and Activation, here to help you.

Try this fix first:

1. Go to the main search icon on the Start bar and type SERVICES, and then select the SERVICES app.
2. Within the SERVICES app window, in the right pane, scroll down until you find the service named "WINDOWS SEARCH." Right mouse click on it and select RESTART SERVICE.
3. A warning window will display letting you know that restarting this service will also stop and restart a WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER NETWORK SEARCH service, and will give you the option to click OK or CANCEL. Click OK.
4. That should do it... if you return to the INDEX OPTIONS window, the PAUSE INDEXING button will no longer be grayed out and indexing will have resumed. Hope that helps~!

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/q...

If that doesn't fix it try Search troubleshooter at Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Additional Troubleshooters.

More in this Microsoft Search troubleshooting document:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/w...

Feel free to ask back any questions. Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.

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This was AWESOME and worked! BUT I did not turn off Outlook as I use that the most and it STILL worked. Indexing is working away as I type. THANKS!

Gosh that's too bad, it worked for me.

Are you able to use group policy editor to check that the 3 specific settings now match the "Enabled", then "Disabled", then "Disabled" settings from the posted 3 specific screen captures?

I had the same problem on two different laptops.

For me, I'm lucky that the workarounds worked in both cases.

Perhaps Windows 10 is different from Windows 11(?)

Having the same issue in Windows 10.

Tried the group policy work around.

Indexing is paused in Indexing Options.

Indexing has been temporarily paused in Settings.

This issue is affecting the way the Outlook search. The search results are not showing all items.

we have the same question