Indexing problems Outlook - Windows 11

Oh nice tipp, and why you answer so late? A bunch of requests about this issue since a couple of time and now, we see a work-around.

DD,

Were you able to get the workaround enabled? I posted the documentation links with the same workaround on 2/3/22 in this thread. Prior to that we did not have a good handle on what the root cause was. We got Windows engaged and they are now working on a fix. I don't have a firm ETA for the fix yet, but I will post back when I know for sure.

Now please don't get me wrong. I am a professional and certified MCSE and have worked in IT for 35 years and have clients who have encountered this issue from time to time.

It's not like this particular issue is new, nor is it limited to Windows 11. I remember that this problem has existed in various versions of Outlook and Windows and has been for almost near a decade.

The fact that this cannot be solved in such a long period of time is inexplicable to me.

I understand that in most cases the background details are much more complex than the problem sounds like.

But I think that Microsoft should learn to understand that companies or single customers have to be able to rely on these systems.

It doesn't matter to them whether the edges of the windows are rounded or square. They don't care that with every new version of Office or Windows they soon find a completely different system or Outlook that they can no longer handle.

I still remember Microsoft's presentation on Windows 11, where the designers (they looked less than 30 years old) explained their reasons for redesigning Windows and Office. Quite honestly - they would have been kicked out of Steve Jobs. Just because an interface is now 10 years old, does it have to be made so unproductive and unwieldy? What are these reasons and priorities?

And now, i come to the criticized fix of yours.

I'm annoyed that I can't find anything on Microsoft's support page that introduces this easy-to-roll-out solution. This is quite better than kicking Outlook completly out of the indexing. That the keys are not ideal follows the nature of workarounds. But, it's better than the three-minute pause every time you start Outlook.

Why can't you find such solutions at Microsoft?

That the issue will ever be fixed is hope at best, but it's definitely not a sure thing.

A good example of promised fixes is called WSUS server. All admins have been waiting for it for 20 years. Outlook's issue is on place two.

Despite all the criticism - Windows is probably unparalleled in terms of integrity. Anyone who has ever developed appreciates this.

Well, no other system i know is faster deployed than Windows.

I'm not just thinking about a simple workstation, but about a system with high availability and redundancy. Very complex scenarios can be implemented in a very short time.

That could be even easier, if fixes didn't repeatedly paralyze entire systems (Hafnium, print server leak).

I know ,that there is nothing you can do about it and that you are only trying to ask for help. Not only am I very grateful to them for that. I am appreciate for that. But - do you know what I mean?

I had the same issue. I did Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the task manager. Clicked on the Service tab. Found 'WSearch' service. Then right clicked to get pull-down menu, selected 'Restart'. That got the indexing restarted. Hopefully I will not have to do this a lot - I just kicked this off so do not know how long it will run and if it will pause again.

I understand DD. The best I could do to help with the KIR is document what an Outlook Escalation Engineer worked out with a customer. I added it to the Windows 10 section of this article, Outlook Search not showing recent emails after Windows update KB5008212 (microsoft.com). This should no longer be necessary though.

Windows just updated me that for Windows 10, the issue should now be mitigated as of the Windows updates that went out on 2/8/22. In those updates they disabled the changes that caused the issue. I am working to publish a status update to the Known Issue article linked above and long-term fix status.

For Windows 11 the bug was in there since RTM so there is no rollback. The only good workaround is the Outlook reg key option and I acknowledge that is not great if you have big data files to index. It will be slow. I am working to get the Win 11 fix date and will share as soon as I get confirmation.