This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I have a new MBP M1, with fresh Monterey. I moved my data with the assistant from the old MBP, I have all the letters in Outlook (v15.46), but search in Outlook not works, it gives a "No results found" message in all folders. Old methods for reindex Spotlight is not working (eg. add and remove Main Profile to Spotlight). How can I solve this problem? Thanks
Today I deleted the Main Profile, remove all mail accounts, and made a new profile, and add a mail address. But the search still not works.
Using older versions of Outlook for Mac for personal email and calendar
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.
I'm so glad this worked for you. I've been able to search in old outlook (I used to be an entourage girl too!). I also have years and years of files from my business and if I couldn't search them I'd be lost. I don't know why they have to make things so complicated. I appreciate your posting this for the next time!
Lucy - How did you know when the computer was done re-indexing? I've tried the same process, but still don't have search ability, however, I don't know how long it takes to complete the re-indexing. How did you know when it was done?
Thanks.
Hi Jankowsky,
I let it work overnight (I've got 20 years of messages), so not sure how long it actually was. I tested it in the morning and all was back to normal. Although I didn't recheck the below areas to see it was still going.
Here's how I could tell that it was indexing... I clicked the Spotlight Search icon (top right corner) and typed in random text. I saw the 'Indexing...' process bar running as the below example.
There's also another way to check if Indexing is working... Open Activity Monitor (Utilities Folder). Look at the '% CPU' column (it should be in descending order), to the left of it there should be a 'Process Name' called 'mdworker' (metadata server worker) taking up a relatively high percentage of CPU. It'll go up and down percentage wise.
*Some pixie dust I used to ensure the plus/minus to Privacy worked... after I added the Main Folder to Privacy, I closed the System Preferences then reopened it to delete it. =)
I hope this helps.
Lucy,
Thanks for your response. This information is super helpful. By checking Activity Monitor it told me that I'm not re-indexing anything. I tried your pixie dust of restarting System Prefs before deleting the Outlook Profile folder, but no luck. Out of curiosity, when you dragged and dropped the Outlook Profile folder into Spotlight/Privacy, did it disappear from the Outlook folder where it was originally located? Mine doesn't, it just seems to copy the folder into the Privacy box. Can't for the life of me tell what I'm missing!
Thanks so much.
Follow up from the post above - I carried your pixie dust to a farther extreme and restarted the computer after I added the Outlook Profile folder to the Spotlight/Privacy box before I tried deleting it. This seemed to do the trick...I can now see mdworker process taking up anywhere from 0-12% of my CPU. But there are clearly times when it goes from a high % CPU usage to nothing. I'll follow your lead and let it run overnight. Like you, I have 15+ years of emails for it to sort through.