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!

Exactly. Lots of results that have nothing to do with the search term. Everytime microsoft updates to ‘make things easier’ all they do is screw things up. contacts are messed up cant easily move items from mail to their own OneDrive search doesn’t work constantly tells me i cant access Outlook because my credentials are wrong It is pitiful. they should at least notify us of changes and give us the option to opt out!!! Or, at the leadt, revert to original. and, to top it off, when i posted this message (which DID post) it came up and told my my password was wrong!! Uh, it signed me in. Wth??

Kimberly, while I agree with you, I think you are just talking about the "Search at the top" change. I don't like that either, but I have learned to live with it. I am talking about the fact that in the last 48 hours (for me - others saw it earlier) they have intentionally changed the search functionality to return INVALID data. That is, if you search a folder, and if the valid response should be "none found" they automatically, without your permission or control, return data from OTHER folders (that you are not searching). And, using a normal view, you can't even see which folder holds which items. I'm sorry that I did not address the separate but even more frustrating issue with which you're now having to deal--I can truly empathize! I've experienced the reverse, actually, most recently: I know there is an e-mail or meeting with an exact title or word/words within a title but a search will yield no results. I'm forced to go through hundreds of entries manually looking for something that should have taken seconds to find. Not sure what is going on there at Microsoft but they are certainly not making things easier for us, are they?

Kimberly, while I agree with you, I think you are just talking about the "Search at the top" change. I don't like that either, but I have learned to live with it. I am talking about the fact that in the last 48 hours (for me - others saw it earlier) they have intentionally changed the search functionality to return INVALID data. That is, if you search a folder, and if the valid response should be "none found" they automatically, without your permission or control, return data from OTHER folders (that you are not searching). And, using a normal view, you can't even see which folder holds which items.

This is a terrible "upgrade" or "enhancement". It has rendered the Search function less functional and less user-friendly. How does one change it back to the way it used to be? Will the reversion be another "upgrade" or "enhancement"?

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. Microsoft's reply is that 1) "...most users..." are happy with this change and 2) they cannot (not will not, cannot!) revert to the previous view. I have never heard nor seen any user that finds this new format helpful and prefers it over the previous version, and to say they cannot undo their own upgrade that is clearly not working for their users is ludicrous. I am grateful to my IT team for reverting my view to the previous version so that I can continue to be as productive and efficient as possible while supporting our executive team.

"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.

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133 answers

Anonymous

2021-01-25T16:19:35+00:00

Exactly. Lots of results that have nothing to do with the search term. Everytime microsoft updates to ‘make things easier’ all they do is screw things up.

contacts are messed up

cant easily move items from mail to their own OneDrive

search doesn’t work

constantly tells me i cant access Outlook because my credentials are wrong

It is pitiful.

they should at least notify us of changes and give us the option to opt out!!! Or, at the leadt, revert to original.

and, to top it off, when i posted this message (which DID post) it came up and told my my password was wrong!! Uh, it signed me in. Wth??
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Anonymous

2021-01-25T16:06:41+00:00

Kimberly, while I agree with you, I think you are just talking about the "Search at the top" change. I don't like that either, but I have learned to live with it. I am talking about the fact that in the last 48 hours (for me - others saw it earlier) they have intentionally changed the search functionality to return INVALID data. That is, if you search a folder, and if the valid response should be "none found" they automatically, without your permission or control, return data from OTHER folders (that you are not searching). And, using a normal view, you can't even see which folder holds which items.

I'm sorry that I did not address the separate but even more frustrating issue with which you're now having to deal--I can truly empathize! I've experienced the reverse, actually, most recently: I know there is an e-mail or meeting with an exact title or word/words within a title but a search will yield no results. I'm forced to go through hundreds of entries manually looking for something that should have taken seconds to find. Not sure what is going on there at Microsoft but they are certainly not making things easier for us, are they?
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Anonymous

2021-01-25T15:52:14+00:00

Kimberly, while I agree with you, I think you are just talking about the "Search at the top" change. I don't like that either, but I have learned to live with it. I am talking about the fact that in the last 48 hours (for me - others saw it earlier) they have intentionally changed the search functionality to return INVALID data. That is, if you search a folder, and if the valid response should be "none found" they automatically, without your permission or control, return data from OTHER folders (that you are not searching). And, using a normal view, you can't even see which folder holds which items.
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Anonymous

2021-01-25T14:33:58+00:00

This is a terrible "upgrade" or "enhancement". It has rendered the Search function less functional and less user-friendly. How does one change it back to the way it used to be? Will the reversion be another "upgrade" or "enhancement"?
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Anonymous

2021-01-25T14:29:56+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.

Microsoft's reply is that 1) "...most users..." are happy with this change and 2) they cannot (not will not, cannot!) revert to the previous view. I have never heard nor seen any user that finds this new format helpful and prefers it over the previous version, and to say they cannot undo their own upgrade that is clearly not working for their users is ludicrous. I am grateful to my IT team for reverting my view to the previous version so that I can continue to be as productive and efficient as possible while supporting our executive team.
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