Hi everyone, and sorry for my strong language, but I am really fed up with the new Outlook Search on the title bar, that appeared a couple of months ago in the Insider build. Outlook Search used to work perfectly well for years, why did MS have to touch it really? Does anyone else feel so annoyed as well with the latest changes? Just an example from today: The new search bar, that has unfortunately been moved to the title bar, not only is it no functionally positioned - compared to how useful it was - but also does not work correctly: I am used to typing "to:" of "from:" and the name of the person whose mail I am looking for. No autocomplete for the names here I am used to typing "hasattachment:yes"; not only the autocomplete is gone (it used to come up after typing "has"), but no search results show up, even if there are emails sent to the particular person with attachments the same as #2 happens when I use the "has attachments" button of the ribbon. No results are shown, although there are messages with attachments for the particular person the new filter options (the ones you get when you click on the "Current folder" option at the title bar) are not consistent with what you have already typed in the search filter. E.g. I already have typed "hasattachment:yes" and I can still select "yes" in the attachment filter, so I end up for two "hasattachment:yes" options in the search bar, which of course doesn't work (not that it worked with one statement) What a big scr*!@up of the Outlook search feature! Please revert to the previous one!

I despise the new change, but according to the User Voice Portal, looks like we can't get the good one back: Search At The Top Option Please allow users to choose whether to use Search at the Top or keep the search bar in the legacy location. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/search-at-the-top-96fee452-80cd-492d-a35c-5c37584b416b 3,644 votes Vote 1679 comments · User Interface · Flag idea as inappropriate… DECLINED · Desktop Outlook 2016 UserVoice (Customer Support Agent, Outlook.com) responded Thank you to everyone who provided feedback through UserVoice, Coming Soon, in product feedback, and on related blog posts. We investigated adding an option to support search in the old location. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot support making the search box location configurable. Future Microsoft Search updates are incompatible with the old location. There is also significant risk in maintaining the old search component due to increased complexity that leads to a higher rate of bugs. As one of the most used controls in Outlook making sure that we provide a stable and reliable search experience is one of our top priorities. While it won’t address the feedback of having the search box in a new location, we do have fixes coming soon to address specific feedback about the new control. The first fix to arrive will be adding back the right click Copy\Paste menu. After that we have a fix coming to make changing scope easier by adding a more prominent scope changing control. You can read more details about these fixes in our blog post. While our search success data is showing that the majority of users are having more success with the new search experience, we understand that moving the search box is a big change that can be disruptive. From the product team, thank you for your patience as we continue to learn how to make Outlook changes easier going forward and continue to work on improving the search experience.

Yes they told me the same thing, but it's not true. My coworker had her outlook updated several weeks ago, and it completely screwed up all her contacts. So the tech helped her roll it back to a previous version, and the search was back to the good one just above the emails. So it 'can' be done, they just won't do it.

Agreed. Of course they can change it, they've simply decided not to despite ongoing complaints from users. My IT department was also able to help me revert to the older view.

This just appeared on my system today (I thought I was bleeding edge, so I don't understand why I didn't see it sooner - I open Outlook (desktop through Office365) over 50 times a day on 3 different computers). I am VERY upset. This is a terrible change. Who decided "Let's make sure that the product returns inaccurate data." I specified "search in this folder" and, to no one's surprise, that's what I wanted. If I meant "search this mailbox" that's what I would have said. If I meant "search all outlook items" that's what I would have said. So, if I search a folder, and there are no results, the correct result is NOT "Here is what you didn't want." This is going to cause SERIOUS data errors (a message at the top saying "the data below is the wrong stuff" (in so many words) is not acceptable. And the data it produces isn't even useable because, in my normal search, I don't have room for a "Folders" field. (Yes, I know how to add that field to my view, and I do that when I am intentionally searching "current mailbox" or "all outlook items' - but I don't want that on my routine searches.) Now, if there had been a new option that said "When my folder doesn't have a match show me other stuff anyway" that would have been fine - I could have unchecked the box. Or if there was a box for "Expert Mode - I am not an idiot so please just do what I tell you" that would be fine. But they didn't offer those options. Instead they just decided to produce the WRONG data in response to a search request.

"New" Outlook search at the title bar - anyone else fed up?

Anonymous

Hi everyone, and sorry for my strong language,

but I am really fed up with the new Outlook Search on the title bar, that appeared a couple of months ago in the Insider build.

Outlook Search used to work perfectly well for years, why did MS have to touch it really? Does anyone else feel so annoyed as well with the latest changes?

Just an example from today:

The new search bar, that has unfortunately been moved to the title bar, not only is it no functionally positioned - compared to how useful it was - but also does not work correctly:

I am used to typing "to:" of "from:" and the name of the person whose mail I am looking for. No autocomplete for the names here
I am used to typing "hasattachment:yes"; not only the autocomplete is gone (it used to come up after typing "has"), but no search results show up, even if there are emails sent to the particular person with attachments
the same as #2 happens when I use the "has attachments" button of the ribbon. No results are shown, although there are messages with attachments for the particular person
the new filter options (the ones you get when you click on the "Current folder" option at the title bar) are not consistent with what you have already typed in the search filter. E.g. I already have typed "hasattachment:yes" and I can still select "yes" in the attachment filter, so I end up for two "hasattachment:yes" options in the search bar, which of course doesn't work (not that it worked with one statement)

What a big scr*!@up of the Outlook search feature! Please revert to the previous one!

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

133 answers

Deleted

This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

Comments have been turned off. Learn more
Anonymous

2021-01-21T15:48:26+00:00

I despise the new change, but according to the User Voice Portal, looks like we can't get the good one back:

Search At The Top Option

Please allow users to choose whether to use Search at the Top or keep the search bar in the legacy location.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/search-at-the-top-96fee452-80cd-492d-a35c-5c37584b416b

3,644

votes

Vote

1679 comments · User Interface · Flag idea as inappropriate…

DECLINED · Desktop Outlook 2016 UserVoice (Customer Support Agent, Outlook.com) responded

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback through UserVoice, Coming Soon, in product feedback, and on related blog posts.

We investigated adding an option to support search in the old location. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot support making the search box location configurable. Future Microsoft Search updates are incompatible with the old location. There is also significant risk in maintaining the old search component due to increased complexity that leads to a higher rate of bugs. As one of the most used controls in Outlook making sure that we provide a stable and reliable search experience is one of our top priorities.

While it won’t address the feedback of having the search box in a new location, we do have fixes coming soon to address specific feedback about the new control. The first fix to arrive will be adding back the right click Copy\Paste menu. After that we have a fix coming to make changing scope easier by adding a more prominent scope changing control. You can read more details about these fixes in our blog post.

While our search success data is showing that the majority of users are having more success with the new search experience, we understand that moving the search box is a big change that can be disruptive. From the product team, thank you for your patience as we continue to learn how to make Outlook changes easier going forward and continue to work on improving the search experience.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-01-21T18:37:12+00:00
Yes they told me the same thing, but it's not true. My coworker had her outlook updated several weeks ago, and it completely screwed up all her contacts. So the tech helped her roll it back to a previous version, and the search was back to the good one
- just above the emails. So it 'can' be done, they just won't do it.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-01-21T18:55:38+00:00

Agreed. Of course they can change it, they've simply decided not to despite ongoing complaints from users. My IT department was also able to help me revert to the older view.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments
Anonymous

2021-01-24T22:51:40+00:00

This just appeared on my system today (I thought I was bleeding edge, so I don't understand why I didn't see it sooner - I open Outlook (desktop through Office365) over 50 times a day on 3 different computers).

I am VERY upset. This is a terrible change. Who decided "Let's make sure that the product returns inaccurate data." I specified "search in this folder" and, to no one's surprise, that's what I wanted. If I meant "search this mailbox" that's what I would have said. If I meant "search all outlook items" that's what I would have said. So, if I search a folder, and there are no results, the correct result is NOT "Here is what you didn't want." This is going to cause SERIOUS data errors (a message at the top saying "the data below is the wrong stuff" (in so many words) is not acceptable. And the data it produces isn't even useable because, in my normal search, I don't have room for a "Folders" field. (Yes, I know how to add that field to my view, and I do that when I am intentionally searching "current mailbox" or "all outlook items' - but I don't want that on my routine searches.)

Now, if there had been a new option that said "When my folder doesn't have a match show me other stuff anyway" that would have been fine - I could have unchecked the box. Or if there was a box for "Expert Mode - I am not an idiot so please just do what I tell you" that would be fine. But they didn't offer those options. Instead they just decided to produce the WRONG data in response to a search request.
Was this answer helpful?

0 comments No comments