Search not working on Outlook 16.79 on Mac Sonoma

What worked for me is just switching back to legacy, and then back to the new outlook version.

I went through the cycle of adding and removing the HD from the "do not search" list twice. It did not work.

Highly recommend!

Everything worked out the same way, the solution was suitable.

Outlook for Mac in legacy mode V16.82. Sonoma V14.3.1

Settings > Siri & Spotlight > scroll to bottom > Spotlight Privacy > + > Macintosh HD > Choose

Hi running Outlook 16.79 on Mac Sonoma 14.0 (23A344) and search function doesn't work at all. Any tips would be much appreciated, thanks

Please follow the steps below and let me know if they help:
First

1. Please click on the Finder icon on the Dock and, click on the Go menu at the top of the Apple menu. Now click on Go to Folder.
   a. 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/Main Profile/Data/Messages/
2. Open one of the folders under the Messages folder, right-click on one of the files, and select Get Info in the pop-up, or press Command+I keys on the Keyboard, or choose Get Info on the File menu.
3. Click Open With if the section isn't already expanded, click the dropdown list of applications, and choose Microsoft Outlook.
4. Check the box that says, 'Always open with'.
5. Select 'Add', and then choose 'Change All'.
6. Select Continue when asked, "Are you sure you want to change all similar documents to open with the application "Microsoft Outlook".

Second

1. Open the Apple menu.
2. Select System Settings, and then choose Siri and Spotlight.
3. Then scroll down, and click Spotlight Privacy on the right-hand side.
4. Now click on the Finder icon on the Dock:

a) On the Go menu at the top of the Apple menu bar, choose Computer at the top of the Apple menu bar.

5. Drag "Macintosh HD" to the Privacy tab. Once added, wait a couple of minutes, and then remove it. Spotlight will re-index the complete Hard drive, which will take a couple of hours, depending on the size of the data that you have on your Mac. So please wait for some time (you'll need to wait for a more than a few hourse based on the size of the data!!) and, then check if Search is working.

You can refer to the link below for more information on how to re-index on a Mac:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716 

Depending on the size of the data and configuration of the Mac, it took me about between 5 to 6 hours (it took me about 6+ hours). You can click on Spotlight(small magnifier lens) icon towards top right and type any word and it will show the status of re-indexing. In addition, please do not shutdown/restart your Mac and do not let the Mac go to sleep mode till the re-indexing is complete.

It worked for me without any issues.

In my case :

The legacy outlook has no "search" item in the preferences.

The new outlook has a "search" item in the preferences.

Search is indeed a drama in the legacy outlook. Emails I know I have received this week are impossible to find back searching on eg. name of sender.

I switched to the new outlook, and there the search works fine, I find specific mails back. So far I don't understand the "refuse" to new look and feel of outlook.

However, one thing I must admit, in the old version I could search into mails from +10 years back (Exchange server), in the new outlook, nothing to find back older than 2019. I am not capable enough to know who or what has caused this....