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
    2022-01-15T02:17:47+00:00

    A Million thanks mikeyjames1967 for sharing this work around. I was struggling so much. I followed through reinstallation of Windows 11 and now it works like a chime. Appreciate your help !!

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-01-15T10:34:58+00:00

    Yes, I found a solution

    1. Create Windows 11 Installation Media on USB - Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)
    2. Click on setup.exe from the USB
    3. Do an install keeping apps and files.

    When the install was finished indexing worked great.

    One thing I did before the install was to remove all the indexing locations (until "index these locations" is empty) and the click 'rebuild'. I did this to clear any previous indexing information. I have no idea whether this actually does anything but if you want to ensure you do exactly what I did maybe do this as well.

    Since then, the PC has been fine. It indexed all of my emails and files in 4-5 hours.

    Thanks again for this workaround, it saved me pulling some hair out. Unfortunately like mentioned later on, I am running into the issue again a week or so later, seems like indexing rather quickly cannot keep up with moderately-sized changes to the filesystem (e.g. uninstalling large apps...). At least it's better than before.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-16T01:41:21+00:00

    ntioned later on, I am running into the issue again a week or so later, seems like indexing rather quickly cannot keep up with moderately-sized changes to the filesystem (e.g. uninstalling large apps...). At least it's better than before.

    Sorry to hear that. One of mine is still going strong. The other I have had to do twice but now seems fine. I hope that stay this way.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-01-23T20:51:15+00:00

    I see that as of 1/19 MS is listing this as a known issue, suppose that means there will be an update that fixes it soon?

    This is the first time I've ever updated Windows before I was forced to. I will not make that mistake again.

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-21H2#2778msgdesc

    Outlook search might not locate recent emails
    Status Originating update History
    Mitigated N/A Last updated: 2022-01-19, 15:56 PT <br>Opened: 2022-01-19, 15:40 PT
    Recent emails might not appear in search results on Outlook desktop app on Windows 11. This issue is related to emails which have been stored locally in a PST or OST files. It might affect POP and IMAP accounts, as well as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft 365 hosted accounts. If the default search in the Outlook app is set to server search, the issue will only affect the advanced search.Workaround: To mitigate the issue, you can disable Windows Desktop Search which will cause Outlook to use its built-in search. For instructions, see Outlook Search not showing recent emails after Windows update KB5008212.Next steps: We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.Affected platforms:<ul><li><p data-prewrap="true">Client: Windows 11, version 21H2; Windows 10, version 21H2; Windows 10, version 21H1; Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10, version 1809; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019</p></li><li><p data-prewrap="true">Server: Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server, version 1809; Windows Server 2019</p></li></ul>

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-01-26T10:15:22+00:00

    When we will see a fix of slow indexing on W11?

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