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
    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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  2. Anonymous
    2021-12-27T21:41:44+00:00

    I had the same problem. I also reinstalled Windows 11 while keeping apps & data and this fixed my problem.

    HOWEVER this is only temporary. As soon as you reboot or I think after a few days it will revert back to the "bugged" state like it was before (slow indexing and 10% cpu usage for the indexing service). I reinstalled W11 twice now and the problem returned after a few days.

    It's very weird because when I got it finally fixed there was almost no CPU usage at all and "Search Protocol Host" took up the most % of the CPU when idle (like 4% maybe?). Now this process is not taking any amount of CPU but instead the "Windows Search Indexer" process/"Windows Search" service which takes up about 9% usage all the time.

    I gave up and just disabled indexing and use Everything to search files.

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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
    2022-01-03T00:24:18+00:00

    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.

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  5. 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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