Search no longer works in Outlook.

Symptom: Clicking in the Search Box of outlook doesn't work, cursor won't stay put. BROKEN.

I believe we were all chasing our tails, I don't think the problem is the windows indexing nor is it the outlook desktop app. I think it is a caching corruption in our Microsoft accounts. The reason I think it is the account and not the software or operating system is because I tried almost everything in the past two days.

• Indexing Options: rebuild the index
  • Still broken
• Repair Outlook via windows settings, installed apps, modify
  • Still broken
• Uninstall / Reinstall outlook
  • Still broken
• Upgrade in place (clean install of windows and preserve data) with brand new copy of office 365
  • Still broken
• Grabbed old unused laptop from work that I never logged in to before, downloaded NEW windows installer, added brand new copy of office 365
  • STILL broken!!!!
  • The only way I should see the same broken feature on a brand new machine is if it was a universal bug that every single person was experiencing (which it is not) or it had something to do with my Microsoft account
  • As I was installing windows, the outlook app on my iPhone was also acting up and not autofilling addresses in the TO fields. This was when I was when i realized this headache was all related to the Microsoft account

Click your Account Icon from the top of your desktop Outlook App, click My Microsoft Account

Click on the Privacy icon on the left (you will need to authenticate again), then click on Browsing and search

I left browsing history alone, and clicked on Search history, then CLEAR ALL ACTIVITIES

My search box is now working on all my devices again.

I think clearing the search cache in the Microsoft account did the trick. It took me 2 days and a spare computer to do it.

I don't know how fast the fix took after the clearing, but it wasn't instant, it could have been 5 minutes or 1 hour, (it was unattended so i'm not sure). I assume microsoft azure or whatever controls the Microsoft account ecosystem must take some time to replicate the change to the devices.

What i'm saying is if it isn't instant, close and re-open outlook again in a few minutes and see if this did the trick. Anyone else still stuck, give this a try and post a reply to let others know i'm on the right track.

Same here (search functionality broken and verified on multiple Windows machines). I am running the latest Windows/Office updates (unfortunately/apparently as this used to work).

Tried recreating the OST files (from hotmail) and reindexing on one machine but it did not make a difference. I suspect an issue with a recent update to Outlook.

Nir

I think I've tried everything and it's still broken.

I'm going to see if I can get help from MS support, as this appears to be an issue with 365.

So again to recap, the quickest work around that I have found currently is to have another email that isn't "outlook.com" server hosted. I have found Office 365 emails or AOL emails have worked in my case specifically.

You click on the email that allows you to search, then select "All Mailboxes", run the search. The information will not show up immediately, you have to then click on the "Find more from Server" HYPERLINK ... make sure the "ALL MAILBOXES" are checked ... then the Outlook program/mail exchange will search the unsearchable outlook.com email and provide results.

A bit redundant, but hey it works in a pinch! Better than logging onto the internet explorer, Edge, or Chrome to search online ... Which is the only other way that I found to search through the email that is having the problems, with what I am now led to be a OST problem.

1. I have restarted windows. I have Updated the OS, I actually came back this morning to a fresh version of Windows 11 Pro. I was running Windows 10 Pro yesterday. However the same exact error exists in 11 Pro and 10 Pro. I ran the troubleshooter, and clicked all 5 options within the troubleshooter, Just be make sure I wasn’t missing something.

   2. Re-Indexing is complete. And has been completed 2-3 times over the past few days, and troubleshooting with different people.
   

3. I am a bit perplexed and confused about this step. I think this is different than the indexing I performed above, but maybe it’s the same?

4. I did create several different Outlook Profiles, to no change with the existing problem.
   

5. Repaired the program, then completely uninstalled the program and started with a new Fresh install of the program and none of this has worked.