Indexing Broken in Windows 11 (Painfully Slow At Best)

Hi Greg - my Windows 11 box - a brand new, late 2021 high-end HP desktop PC - is also failing on search and search indexing. Search within Outlook 365 literally can't find any email results within the last 2-3 weeks...which is generally most of what I am searching. This is frustrating enough. In addition, having gone through some (not all) the remedies you list above, my PC is not only continuing with the Outlook search failures, but is also using "high" resources (per Task Manager) to index my PC - and it's been doing this for WEEKS. I do mean calendar WEEKS.

I ask this question with all due respect: how can Microsoft - who owns not only the Outlook app, but also the operating system - not fix this for its vast user base? It is incredibly frustrating - and a giant waste of our time - to spend hours 'trying' a big list of fixes. And none of us gets our kicks 'rebuilding' a PC.

A brand new PC, fully-updated OS, and fully-updated app suite should just WORK. It should not be an invitation for the paying users to waste their time on either the problem ("where the he11 is that email I need right now!") or a set of unreliable fixes/workarounds.

I think my only path now is to either (a) spend time trying more possible fixes, or (b) wait for Microsoft to fix this problem on the back end. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I do also have a life to live.

Can you verify that Microsoft is actively working to make patches to the OS that'll actually fix this for ALL users?

Thanks!

Respectfully, Ash

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 also did the mentioned fix ca. 3 weeks ago. For me, it is all fine since then. Indexing finished in 5-6 hours and problems have not started again yet. Hope it will remain like that.

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

I also lost indexing with the Windows 11 update, and rebuilding the index was painfully slow. I re-installed Windows 11 from USB keeping apps and data hoping to fix the slow index rebuild. However, I have seen no difference in the re-indexing speed. I have been re-indexing for three days and, at this speed, it is going to take several more days.

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.