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
    2022-02-26T22:13:27+00:00

    I managed to remove these folders 'DesktopBackgound' and 'Start Menu' from indexing locations (they were among hidden folders), so now I have theoretically no locations set for indexing. Despite this fact, Windows keeps indexing! I tried stopping and then restarting indexing from Services, but it does not help. The system is continuoisly indexing despite no location ia being set! It suggests that this issue has nothing to do with Outlook, but the whole indexing service is broken, it is basically a piece of sht. Very, very disappointing!

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-26T12:53:03+00:00

    It seems that this workaround is not working any more :(

    I did it ca. 2 months ago, everything was fine until yesterday, when indexing went mad again. So I did the steps again.

    After the installation, indexing started fast, but after ca. 10 hours it was still working and got painfully slow.

    I stopped indexing and pushed 'rebuild' with only drive 'C' selected. Again, it started fast, but after a few hours it got very slow. I do not think it will ever finish, not speaking about indexing the rest of my drives as well as Outlook.

    Btw, in the indexed locations menu, there are two items I cannot remove: 'DesktopBackgound' and 'Start Menu' (see picture attached). It was the same before, but now I have the feeling that maybe theese have also something to do with the indexing issue. Is it the same for everyone or you can empty the list completely?

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-02T11:21:36+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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-12-10T12:36:11+00:00

    Hi Sandor

    Everything was the same after the installation with all of my programs and files still working, including Outlook, and desktop etc was all okay.

    There were a couple of custom registry edits that I had done previously which had been reset to default, but other than that everything was the same.

    The option to keep all my files and programs automatically during the installation but worth keeping a close eye on the installation to make sure this option is chosen.

    Many thanks for the quick reply, Mikey! I am really glad to hear that basically everything will stay as is. (I also have a few registry edits, but that is not a big deal to do again.) I will perform the install for sure, but will possibly save a full system image before just to be on the safe side.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-12-09T01:39:35+00:00

    thank you mikeyjames1967 i will try this today!! best regards

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