Indexing Broken in Windows 11 (Painfully Slow At Best)

Anonymous

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

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142 answers

Anonymous

2022-06-20T08:40:35+00:00

Just to say that I have the same problem - 10-20% CPU usage, constant irritating fan noise and a very hot laptop all because search indexer gets stuck, or indexes at the rate of 1-2 items per minute (out of ~700k). I tried everything here and nothing solved it for me, so as is often the case with windows 'features', I eventually disabled it as others have suggested. I mostly used this for Outlook anyway, and although it is now slower, it works - which is ultimately what we care about, windows team.
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Anonymous

2022-06-19T19:20:03+00:00

Hi Mondale,

You cannot believe how much me and all in our Lawyers Office here understand your problem.

We have the same here and at Microsoft nobody of the Windows team seems to be knowing what they are doing hence releasing updates and patches for these which do not resolve the problems.

We updated to Windows 11 after it had been many times recommended by Microsoft as better for all our brand new PCs. Now, as we cannot roll back to Windows 10 it seems we will just buy new machines and try to switch to Apple system as more reliable.

Regards Manuel Paulo S.B. Maia Gonçalves - Portugal
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Anonymous

2022-06-19T16:47:08+00:00

Hi Manuel,

I had the same problem four months ago, as I wrote two months ago after trying every advice from this forum: .....The problem is that it does not work at all from Windows explorer, not file names not file contents - docx, xslx, doc, xls, pdf...... Only my Outlook.pst file is searchable, from Outlook, fast and precise, as it should be. I cannot switch back to Win 10 on this notebook so I've just bought a new notebook with Win 10 and will transfer everything this weekend. Cannot wait Microsoft..............

So, if you lost the possibility to downgrade, buy new notebook, Win 10, desktop Office, and everything will work fine. I am still on Win 10 and will not upgrade at least one year. Searching contents of files is vital for my job.
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Anonymous

2022-06-19T12:11:05+00:00

Hello guys specially the Microsoft ones, that is if anyone in that "Black Hole" is paying any attention.

As mentioned on previous post I've got the index running after many attempts and the help of a Microsoft Engineer. Then I installed Update for Windows 11 X64 systems June 14, 2022— KB5014697 (OS Build 22000.739) and all Indexing fall apart again. Now n Windows 11 indexing simply frozens a 5 items.

EVEN WORSE the Outlook 365 Enterprise Version where all my lawyer office data is stored is also completely frozen even having only 29.596 Items to Index.

Each Law suit has a Unique Reference which is always quoted on the Subject field. Now as Search on Office 365 Outlook Enterprise Version does not work we cannot any longer find the Law Suit Reference we need in Outlook.

As my Lawyers office pays for all the OFFICE 365 Enterprise Version Licenses we have we had the help of a Microsoft 365 Engineer who called us back to help in reply to an assistance request.

Even him was dazzled for Outlook 365 Enterprise Version not working and could not resolve the problem.

Al this ends up on a gigantic nightmare to all your users and an enormous disbelieve on your updates, hope you guys at Microsoft realize this,

Why would you release an update which only causes severe problems??? I know that under your conditions and terms you at Microsoft cannot be responsible for the inconveniences this causes otherwise you would surely be more careful.

Dr. Paulo Maia Gonçalves (PhD
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Anonymous

2022-06-18T21:05:57+00:00

Hello guys. I've got the index running after many attempts and the help of a Microsoft Engineer.Then I installed Update for Windows 11 X64 systems KB5014697 of 2022-06 and all collapsed again.Now nothing works neither the Windows 11 indexing or EVEN WORSE the Outlook 365 Enterprise Version where all my lawyer data is stored. Pure nightmare from you guys at Microsoft.

Why would you release an update which only causes severe problems???

Unthinkable!!!! Get this fixed NOW.Dr. Paulo Maia Gonçalves (PhD) Manuel Paulo S. B. Maia Gonçalves
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