Search not working on Outlook 16.79 on Mac Sonoma

There's no "Check for Updates" under Help....

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

The suggested solution which worked for me is this 11 Jan 2024 reply by 3zabb:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/search-not-working-on-outlook-1679-on-mac-sonoma/ca662883-fffd-44ba-aeb1-706ae27fb8ba?page=4

The key insight in this suggestion was to:

5. Checkmark Spotlight

Search no longer works in my MS Outlook for Mac (v16.83). The above suggestion does not work due to instructions that don't apply to my version of MS Outlook.

When I try to follow the instructions to "go to Outlook > Preferences > Search > Indexing > Rebuild" I find there is no "Preferences" listed under the Outlook menu.

I will continue to search for a solution to this perplexing problem.

RKD

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.