Indexing Broken in Windows 11 (Painfully Slow At Best)

Anonymous
2021-12-05T01:10:52+00:00

Hello

I have upgraded to Windows 11 Pro on two different laptops, and both have the same issue with indexing. It is painfully slow and then usually resets itself after a couple of weeks.

Both PCs are high-end laptops with Core i9 mobile CPUs (1 x 6 core and the other 8 core). Both run 2 x NVMe 1TB drives. Both have 64GB RAM.

Both run MS Office and I use Outlook for email connected to same IMAP accounts on both. My docs, pics, music and work-related files are all stored on OneDrive and accessed from both PCs (OneDrive is set to keep local copies on both PCs for fast access).

Windows is being asked to index around 250,000 files and 80,000 emails and calendar appts. Windows 10 used to accomplish this task in 6-8 hours max.

Windows 11 takes nearly two days just to index the emails. It can take up to three weeks to index the lot and then some folders simply refuse to be indexed. Then, after a couple more weeks it will eventually lose the lot and indexing has to start from scratch again (on both PCs)

I have tried:

Disabling backoff via registry so indexing never pauses

Only adding one location at a time to let it slowly build up (e.g., add only Outlook and when that finishes add a folder)

Rebuilding the index

Storing the index in different location

Search and Indexing Trouble-shooter

Nothing fixes the issue

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

Mick

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-11-30T05:20:13+00:00

    Some months later even on an insider build (beta branch - 22H2 / 22623.1020) I still have this problem. Deleting PluginResourceData only marginally improves the indexing speed. This is frankly a sad state of affairs for Windows.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-05T09:19:23+00:00

    You have to set the ShutoffThreshold Key as described, too. Otherwise the problem will be back soon. Deleting everything just postpones the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-10T08:38:10+00:00

    I had the same problem. The reinstallation seems too much work for me.

    The following helped me:

    1. PowerShell: dism.exe /online /disable-feature /feature-name=SearchEngine-Client-Package, (reboot necessary).
    2. via Services.msc I stopped "Windows Search" and then quickly deleted the files under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search.
    3. PowerShell: dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename=SearchEngine-Client-Pack, (no reboot required).

    The index is as fast as it was before...

    Good luck.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-01-03T00:39:43+00:00

    I have this same problem, I manage six Surface Pros (7's and 6's) for my company and have experienced this on all of them. Unbelievable that updating the Windows version would result in loss of indexing for Outlook (and File Explorer). I was able to fix the File Explorer indexing when using the built-in troubleshooter. The Outlook Indexing issue continues. After 3 weeks of "indexing", it still have 78k left and has been in that range for days.

    My question. One person indicated that re-installing Windows 11 from USB while keeping apps and data was only a temporary fix. Can any of the other people that performed this fix confirm or deny this? Do your Outlook searches and indexing continue to work the same as prior to the Windows 11 install, or did you go back to a perpetual state of indexing?

    Thank you for your responses.

    Hi,

    I am the one who originally posted the solution. On the two PCs I had with the problem, one of them has been great since the fix and the other required me to do it a second time a couple of weeks ago after problems developed again, but it's been great since then.

    With the second one that had the issue again, I added the index locations one by one. I first disabled all locations other than Outlook. When that was finished indexing then I added a few folders at a time and waited for each lot to finish. Not sure if it made any difference but it worked.

    The only issue with the solution that I can see it you will lose any custom changes you may have made to the OS, such as registry edits.

    I wish someone could find the underlying cause of the issue and give us a proper fix.

    Cheers

    Mick

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-12-05T01:50:21+00:00

    Try disabling the indexing? I run without it so you can do it just fine. If you search a lot though I understand why you wouldn't.

    If you keep it on, you might be able to try changing the index options instead or something else along that line: https://windowsreport.com/indexing-windows-8/#3

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