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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

142 answers

Anonymous

2022-03-12T22:21:35+00:00

Hey everyone,

I may have a new fix !!!

I found myself facing the same issue on Windows 11.

After hours of troubleshooting and trying almost every fix suggested on the web including a hard reset deleting all files and apps, the issue persisted!!!

However, through process of elimination I narrowed down the issue to PDF files!!!

It seems that by default window will try to index the content of certain file types, including pdf. And I believe that in my case that was causing the issue.

1 .- Under "Control Panel/Indexing Options/Advanced/File types" find "pdf" and make sure that the option "Index Properties Only" is selected. You don't want windows trying to index the file content of your pdf documents!

2 .- Delete and rebuild your index with the "Rebuild" option in "Control Panel/Indexing Options/Advanced/Index settings"

If the issue persists, disable indexing of PDF files altogether in "Control Panel/Indexing Options/Advanced/File types". This is easily done by unchecking the pdf file extension.

If the issue still persists, as well as previous posts in this thread, the following page offers a couple of things to try: https://www.technipages.com/what-to-do-if-windows-11-indexing-is-not-working

Finally, in order to set expectations, I was able to re-index my entire library of 32 000 items in less time than it took me to write this post. I estimate indexing speed was about 30-50 items per second running a 11th gen i7 laptop with SSD drive.

Best of luck !!!
Was this answer helpful?

3 people found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2022-01-26T10:15:22+00:00

When we will see a fix of slow indexing on W11?
Was this answer helpful?

3 people found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments

Anonymous

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>

0 comments

Anonymous

2022-01-15T10:34:58+00:00
Yes, I found a solution

Create Windows 11 Installation Media on USB - Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

Click on setup.exe from the USB

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.
Was this answer helpful?

3 people found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-12-10T12:22:40+00:00
Yes, I found a solution

Create Windows 11 Installation Media on USB - Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

Click on setup.exe from the USB

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.

Hi Mikey!

I have the same issue, indexing is damn slow after Windows 11 update. Many thanks for posting this solution. I am looking forward to trying this.

I have spent a lot of time installing, setting and fine-tuning everything in Windows, therefore I am a bit worried doing the installation procedure you mentioned. Therefore, can you please specify what will be kept and what will be lost after this? It is clear that installed apps and personal files will not change, but what is the case, for example, with Windows settings (such as, keyboard layout, date/time format settings, appearance settings, etc.) as well as settings of different apps, such as Outlook? (I have done a lot of fine-tuning in Outlook.) Will they stay?

This information would be highly appraciated.

Thanks,

Sandor
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.
Was this answer helpful?

2 people found this answer helpful.

0 comments No comments