Did February 2017 Office 365 update break Outlook Search?

Anonymous
2017-03-14T00:36:33+00:00

I upgraded 2 computers to the Office 365 February update: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-s-new-and-improved-in-Office-2016-for-Office-365-95c8d81d-08ba-42c1-914f-bca4603e1426?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Ever since then search is broken in Outlook on both computers - any search returns no results.  Windows 10 search outside Outlook works fine.  I've rebuilt the index, used ScanPST.exe and tried other things at https://lookeen.com/blog/how-to-fix-outlook-2016-search-problems and https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Reset-indexing-by-rebuilding-your-Instant-Search-catalog-213a2728-0ef4-427a-9bb2-aed329a59b17 but the problem remains on both computers.  

Did February 2017 Office 365 update break Outlook Search?

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Anonymous
2017-03-28T14:37:06+00:00

Hello everyone,

There is an updated build that was just released. Please turn auto updates back on, install the latest build & confirm that it fixed the issue.

Gen

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-03-17T10:37:38+00:00

    Hi Rhonda

    Yes, I had found the same "solution" in my quest... I reverted to 16.0.7766.2060 and recovered instant search, but this is not a proper fix as I am now stuck to this build number :-(  But this is the risk with using Insider Version, isn't it ?

    Thanks

    jfp

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-17T13:57:50+00:00

    I got the private message, but it gave the same information as here, leading to recommendations of low-relevance articles and to an opportunity for someone generic technician to call in 10 minutes.  There was nothing about filing a report or a non-generic person contacting me.

    The Microsoft people with access to those private messages have an email address and a phone number for me.  No one has contacted me to explore this problem.  Since there is now a report of the problem being fixed by rolling back to another version I will do so over the weekend unless Microsoft contacts me today (I'm gone after 2 PM Pacific time).  But this means Microsoft will get no information other than another data point demonstrating there is a problem.  

    Have things gotten so bureaucratic at Microsoft that they can't treat a loss of functionality in their main money-making product as urgent to fix before many people are affected?

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-03-17T14:37:01+00:00

    Hi jfp,

    Thank for your sharing the information in private message. We are checking the information and further investigating the issue. I suggest you use the previous version currently.

    Thanks,

    Chris

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-03-17T15:17:15+00:00

    I promised myself I'd just revert without messing with it. Before I did that, though, I needed to open an old PST to look for an address that Outlook apparently misplaced in my current default PST. I then discovered search apparently did not know where to look for my emails.

    The usual location for the PST files is Documents->Outlook Files. I don't keep mine there, because my Documents folder syncs to Dropbox.

    All is as it should be in File->Info->Account Settings. All the PST files show the location to which I moved them, and I receive all my mail.

    When I went to File->Open & Export->Open Outlook Data File, however, Outlook opens the Outlook Files folder in the Documents folder, not the Outlook Files folder where I have relocated it.

    That was when I realized that on my most recent laptop, I had not changed the default location of the PST files.

    This link has instructions to fix that for PST and OST files:

    https://www.msoutlook.info/question/370

    Nonetheless, search worked before the February update even though I had not changed the registry entry, so clearly Microsoft did something wonky in the update.

    For me, search is back to normal. Perhaps this will be useful to others who have lost search for the same reason I did.

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