Search no longer works in Outlook.

Anonymous
2024-09-25T04:52:04+00:00

Search no longer works in Outlook. When I try to type something in the search field, it 'flashes' and nothing is entered. This morning there was both an Outlook and a Windows update.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-10-21T02:59:08+00:00

    First of all, there is no "Update and Security" button in settings. There is an "Windows Update" button and there is Privacy and Security. No update and security. So there is no troubleshoot to find, search index and so on. So it would appear none of your suggestions applies to my situation. I have rebooted Outlook and Windows and "repaired" 365 without effect.

    Windows tells me I am up to date. I am running Windows 11, version 23H2 and MS 365 Outlook. I get the same message over and over:

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-10-22T19:36:11+00:00

    So, I renamed all four of my outlook .ost files, restarted outlook and waited for the files to be rebuilt.

    Search is working again.

    Now, my question is what happened at Microsoft that corrupted the ost files for many people.

    It seems clear that my problem was not caused by anything on my end, as there were many people with similar symptoms.

    Thank you to everyone who contributed to a resolution!

    I have not done anything with search history. Rebuildong my most files, as mentioned in my post of 10/22 is what fixed mine

    It's still working.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-10-22T03:41:53+00:00

    I have the same problem. Using 365 Desktop. I have three Outlook email accounts set up. One from Hotmail works fine. One from my business email works fine. The one created from Outlook has broken search box. While I await the fix, I found that this works for me:

    Ctrl+Shift+f

    Brings up a search box which is working (it has 3 hard-to-notice tabs for additional search criteria).

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-21T15:13:49+00:00

    The Search function in Outlook is doing the same for me "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later." in both the new and old versions on Window 10. It works fine from the Outlook app on my android phone. If this many people are having the same symptoms, it's obviously a bug in the Outlook desktop app.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-10-19T16:51:27+00:00

    I have the same problem. I tried the new Outlook, and it allowed me to type in the search box, but after I clicked search/hit enter, it came back with "Something went wrong. Please try again later."

    So I tried Outlook.com from a Firefox browser and that search worked for me.

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