Search not working on Outlook 16.79 on Mac Sonoma

Some of us are stuck with the new outlook. The spotlight solution does not appear to work. My search results are incomplete and inaccurate. Searches conducted by entering someone's name and using the autofill feature in the search bar come back with partial results. Same thing is I use the person's email address.

How do you go back to legacy mode? What a pain in the butt!!!

I don't even have the option for Preferences? Where is that? And under general there is no search option? Running Microsoft Outlook for Mac - 16.81.2

Actually, no, the first post didn't mention Outlook Legacy or New. Both have the same version numbers. The next few posts were about the New Outlook. It was hijacked after that.

Thank you for sharing deepblue666's fix that you found. Solved this perplexing issue. Should be published as a KB by MS Support.

Thanks to a post by "deepblue666" I solved it.

Original Post URL: Outlook search not works in Monter… | Apple Developer Forums

I am reporting the procedure as it was posted on the Apple Developer Forums below

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In my case (Ventura/Outlook 2016) the following fix did solve the issue:

Step 1) sudo mdutil -a -i off

sudo mdutil -a -i on

Step 2) Re-Index your HDD

1. Open System settings and select Siri and Spotlight.
2. Scroll down and click the Spotlight Privacy.
3. Click on Go - Computer.
4. Drag the Macintosh HD to the Privacy tab and wait for some time.
5. From the Privacy window, select the HD and then click the minus (-) button near the bottom left of the window.

Step 3) Enable && Disable "New Outlook" Feature

Step 4) Have fun with the search feature

Seems to be a new "New Outlook" feature :)

By the way, I tried a lot fixes including

mdimport -r "/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.mdimporter" -d1 "/Users/my_user/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles"

no effect :)

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I hope this works for you as well let me know.