Outlook 16.23.1 not searching correctly on Mojave 10.14.4

Anonymous
2019-04-04T21:28:30+00:00

I've had intermittent problems where the search function in Outlook on my Mac would stop working. In the past, I had a reliable fix that I found somewhere online; I ran the following in Terminal:

mdimport -g ‘/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.mdimporter’ -d1 ‘/Users/USERNAME/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/Main Profile’

... where USERNAME was the home directory name on my Mac. This took a while to run, but worked like a charm every time.

But I recently upgraded to Mac OS 10.14.4 (Mojave), and apparently this command is no longer supported in Terminal. Now when I try to run it, I get the error:

'-g' no longer supported. Importers may only be tested by installing them.

To be honest, I don't really know what the "-g" parameter means. Any ideas on how to resolve? I'm a bit out of my depth here and don't want to do something that makes things worse.

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-04-11T12:31:25+00:00

    I interacted with MS's dedicated Outlook for Mac support team via the Contact Support feature on the Help menu in Outlook. I was told to do the following, 

    Quit Outlook completely and then open Terminal on the Mac and then copy and paste the command

    sudo mdutil -E / 

    It would prompt for your Mac Password please enter it and wait for it to complete and then give it some time and then re-launch Outlook and check if that helps. If you still face issues. 

    Quit Outlook completely by click on Outlook Menu > Quit Outlook and then try the steps 

    1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.

    2. Click the Privacy tab.

    3. In Finder:

    a. On the Go menu click Go to Folder...

    b. Copy and paste the following location into the "Go to the folder:" dialog box and click Go:

    ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/

    4. Drag the ‘Main Profile’ folder to the Privacy tab. Once added, remove the folder, and Spotlight will re-index the folder. Note: You must perform this step for any additional profile folders you may have.

    See the following article from Apple to learn more: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

    This appeared to work - messages were appearing in search results. But unfortunately, the fix was short-lived. Newer mail is still not appearing in search results. (I can be looking at a message just received in my inbox, search for it, and get no results). So there's still a problem. But at least I temporarily have some kind of search capability. 

    I have posted this back to the Outlook Support team and will update this thread if they respond with helpful suggestions.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-04-11T03:30:11+00:00

    Hi yobelow,

    We have recently received several similar reports on this problem. It is suggested that you report this issue to our dedicated Outlook for Mac support team to get targeted assistance. You can click on Contact Support feature on the Help menu to find them. Your time and understanding will be highly appreciated.

    Best Regards,

    Huni

    Guys, this is a pretty impactful, significant functionality issue...please prioritize accordingly...

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-04-09T09:10:44+00:00

    Hi yobelow,

    We have recently received several similar reports on this problem. It is suggested that you report this issue to our dedicated Outlook for Mac support team to get targeted assistance. You can click on Contact Support feature on the Help menu to find them. Your time and understanding will be highly appreciated.

    Best Regards,

    Huni

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-04-07T16:36:56+00:00

    I don't see how I can continue to use Outlook if I can't search my mail.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-04-06T20:17:27+00:00

    Huni - the article you posted above says Microsoft has been aware of this problem since Nov 2018. That’s 5 months ago and still no fix? Search is a critical function in Mail. How can it be unresolved after 5 months?

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