Outlook search bar moved to the title!?

The location of this search bar renders it absolutely useless. One of our techs has been trying to remedy this for about an hour to no avail. 

Microsoft needs to fix this!!!!

This is truly the worst thing for my productivity. I use search constantly and miss the drop down. Not sure why mine just flipped on 6/11 - but an extremely irritating downgrade to outlook. Looks more like the completely lame search capabilities of iOS.

Hello eddablin,

Have a good day. Thanks for your post in forum.

Regarding your description, kindly try this following suggestion for resolving the issue and please feel free to contact us with updated result about the issue.

1.       Please try to open outlook in safe mode and check the result. For opening outlook in safe mode > press Windows +R key and Type outlook.exe /safe.

Note: There is a space between outlook.exe and /safe.

2.       Kindly try to reset the Outlook view. For resetting Outlook view > Press Windows R Key and type outlook.exe /cleanviews.

Note: There is a space between outlook.exe and /cleanviews.

3.       If the issue still persist, please try to repair an Office application online and check the result. For repairing office application https://support.office.com/en-us/article/repair-an-office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b

If the issue still persist, could you please provide us detailed screenshot of your Office and Outlook desktop client version? For knowing Office and Outlook version, kindly see article https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-version-of-outlook-do-i-have-b3a9568c-edb5-42b9-9825-d48d82b2257c

Regards,

Darpan

This is not a bug, this is a "new feature" that the latest update gave.

But it's very annoying actually, when you try to search something it brings a dropdown that  hides the top results of the search.

What we want is:

"How Can We Restore The Search Bar, as it was before (and for future changes, ask the users) "

This is really baffling me: I keep on stumbling upon postings like this about this topic all over the net?

Already in April 2019 when this Outlook Search change was announced, the general consensus was negative.

Again with the introduction of the insiders build: mostly negative. And I keep on finding more and more like this. Yet, Microsoft seems to have ignored all the feedback .... correction: Microsoft has ignored all the feedback.

And now that it is rolled out, all the comments that were made are coming true: seldom I did see so many complaints on a Outlook change (besides the ribbon then).

The Microsoft idea is clear and (for them) logical: the desktop experience has to be universal, so the desktop Outlook is going to look the same as the online Outlook (so Search on top). Also in making the Search the same for all the Microsoft 365 applications seems logical: 1 place for Search in all the programs including (almost) all the same functionality. I can see the logic behind it all.

But with Outlook it is another story: Outlook has become some kind of standard and is used worldwide. From simple users like me till mega companies. But somehow Microsoft is thinking that everybody is using ALL the features and that we ALL need them.

And that could not be further away from reality. The great power behind the Search in Outlook was it's ease: small movement, Search box, start your search, mails are already selected while typing the search and find your result in e-mails or contacts. For the more advanced users there was the Search part in the Ribbon.

But now is has become a unlogical, counter intuitive, non-productive and confusing thing.

Personally I don't get it at all: I do a search for for example "calculator" and I get a huge drop down with also Suggested Actions like Ruler or COM-apps. What?? Why? What has the Ruler to do with calculator??

And also "Suggested Searches" .... again What?? As if I do not know that I am searching for calculator in an e-mail? What is Search going to suggest: "Oh, he is looking for calculator, lets suggest other stuff because he doesn't seem to know where he is searching for!". Really?

A company like Microsoft has to have a certain amount of healthy arrogance, that is what made them make great software. But in this case the arrogance is just unbelievable. Acting innocent is not possible now anymore: "Oh, you all are having difficulties with the new search? We are so sorry, we thought that it would help all of you." ... while looking at all the negative feedback that has been around for 14 months now.

Okay, <rant off>  :)

Crazy isn't it? I have to believe there are folks that just do this stupid stuff, like break perfectly normal and working GUI items, just to show they are "working".

MS this change to search is absolutely one of the worse changes ever, and only suggests you have major problems in design and testing. It should have never been released.

This is a terrible move........ Everyone in my company hates it, put the search back where it was please