Search not working on Outlook 16.79 on Mac Sonoma

Hi Jerry,

I stumbled across a solution that worked for me. In system settings -> Siri and Spotlight. I went to Privacy at the bottom. Entered the entire HD into "Stop Spotlight from searching these areas". Some say to reboot your Mac before you remove it again. That didn't seem to work for me. So, I did it one more time. Added it, and then removed it. After around 3 hours Outlook worked fine. (May have done before, but that's when I checked).

Maybe this will help. Some say to just add/remove Documents - you might try that first.

Best

Kirsten

PS - there is a version 16.79.2 out. So you should probably also update?

THANK YOU P Kaufman! I got a new Mac and used Migration Assistant to move everything off an old Mac. Outlook started up normally and seemed to work fine, except for Search not working (as everyone in this chain is experiencing). If you have a new Mac situation like mine, this worked great (note it does take some time to rebuild Spotlight but I started seeing search results about 30 minutes later):

HERE IS WHAT WORKED:

I went to SYSTEM SETTINGS/Siri and Spotlight/Spotlight Privacy (way down at the bottom), There I chose to exclude "Macintosh HD" (my internal SSD) and restarted the computer. I then removed "Macintosh HD" from the exclusion list and again restarted the computer. It's all good now.

I had upgraded to a new MacBook Pro 14" with M3 Pro Chip and Spotlight stopped working, which I initially noticed only in Outlook but later realized was all of Spotlight. What worked is at the very bottom, but I did the 2 steps below first, which might have made a difference.

THESE 2 STEPS ARE WHAT I TRIED WHICH WORKED INITIALLY THEN DID NOT WORK

I got my search reindex working by doing 2 things, one suggested by 3zabb and the other by Barbara Brannon (in this order).

3zabb

I am running Sonoma 14.2.1 and Outlook Legacy.

I fixed this problem by:

1. Click on Outlook on the toolbar [NOTE: I think 3zabb meant “Click on the Outlook menu”]
2. Hover over Services
3. Click Services Settings
4. Open the Searching tab
5. Checkmark Spotlight
6. Click Done  

Barbara Brannon

To all those who have suffered this problem AND the lack of clear response from Microsoft Support about it -- 

I came upon some instructions from a few years ago when I first faced this issue. This method IS working, and it's worth remembering how to trick Spotlight into re-indexing a database (in this case, the Outlook 15 Profiles folder).

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences
2. Click Spotlight
3. Go to the Privacy tab
4. Click the plus sign (+) to add a folder to the list of non-indexed folders
5. (Here, search your computer for the Outlook 15 Profiles folder, which is located deep within a Library folder)
6. If prompted for confirmation, click OK
7. After a moment, select the item you just added to the list and click theminus sign (-) to remove it
8. Close Spotlight preferences
9. Rebuilding will take some time so make sure you leave your computer on for a while. You can use the computer while the search index builds.

In my experience this time, after a restart of my Mac and a relaunch of Outlook, the re-indexed items began reappearing little by little in a new search!

After numerous attempts over recent years to retain my carefully curated folder structure for an enormous database of emails, I do NOT recommend the method of selecting New Outlook and then immediately reverting to Legacy Outlook. Too much risk of corrupting the OLM database. 

NOTE:

I did not restart my computer

I did not switch to “New Outlook” and back

The index initially rebuilt then disappeared the next time I woke my computer. It did not have search results in Outlook after a restart.

HERE IS WHAT WORKED:

I went to SYSTEM SETTINGS/Siri and Spotlight/Spotlight Privacy (way down at the bottom), There I chose to exclude "Macintosh HD" (my internal SSD) and restarted the computer. I then removed "Macintosh HD" from the exclusion list and again restarted the computer. It's all good now.

Update:

I think I managed to solve my issue with this by --> Preferences --> Siri and Spotlight --> Spotlight Privacy --> add by using + choosing "MacIntosh HD".

Directly afterwards I deleted "MacIntosh HD" from the very same list, shut down and started the computer again and then search works in Outlook, ver 16.80

//T

Hi, David

Good day!

Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to assist you.

According to your description, I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with the search function in Outlook for Mac. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can try:

1. Check for updates: Make sure that you have the latest version of Outlook for Mac installed. To do this, open Outlook and go to Help > Check for Updates.
2. Rebuild the search index: Sometimes the search index can become corrupted, which can cause issues with search. To rebuild the search index, go to Outlook > Preferences > Search > Indexing > Rebuild.
3. Check your search settings: Make sure that your search settings are configured correctly. Go to Outlook > Preferences > Search and make sure that the correct folders are selected for search.

In addition, please give it a shot by creating a new profile and see if it can make any differences - Manage profiles or identities in Outlook for Mac - Microsoft Support.

Note: Please be kindly to backup your important data in case of losing it.

Thanks for your attempts and looking forward to your new updates.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Alex | Microsoft Community Moderator.