Forum Discussion
Outlook for Mac 2019 - Search not working :-(
Hi there
New contributor - I have just upgraded Office 2016 for Mac to Office 2019 for Mac. The Spotlight Search option in Outlook no longer works - I get no results, even when I am looking at an email, and searching for a word or phrase or sender in that email ... I have downloaded the OfficeSearchRepair.app which is supposed to reindex and fix, but still not working. I am running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 - any help appreciated - thank you.
I connected with MS support and here is the reply I got that worked for me MAC 2019 Stand alone Office.
Hi, thank you for contacting Outlook for Mac support. My name is Chaithra and I will be assisting you today. Please note this is an Offline support and the responses will be delayed.
Before proceeding, I would like to keep you informed that Outlook for Mac does not have its own search engine, rather it take the help of spotlight to search. So, let’s try re-indexing the spotlight search and check if the search works fine.
Referring to your concern, please follow the below steps and run the provided command:
1. Restart the computer and log into the user.
2. Make sure Outlook is quit after the restart.
3. Launch Terminal found within the Applications folder.
4. Make sure the user you are logged in as is an administrative user. If not you can use the "su" terminal command to switch to an admin user.
5. In Terminal type the following.
sudo mdutil -E /
(Note: The volume name must be changed to the name of your startup volume.)
It will prompt for your Mac password. Please enter it and wait for it to complete. You will see 'Indexing enabled' message. Once this is done, re-index the Outlook data folder once again and check if it resolves the issue. Please, Quit Outlook completely by click on Outlook Menu -- Quit Outlook and then try these steps:
1. Choose Apple menu -- System Preferences -- Spotlight -- Privacy.
2. In Finder menu under the Go menu click "Go to Folder...". Copy and paste the following location dialog box and click Go:
"~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/"
3. Drag the ‘Main Profile’ or if you have created any profile and made a default profile folder to the Privacy tab. Wait 5 seconds then remove the folder, and Spotlight will re-index the folder.
4. Launch Outlook and perform a search. Wait for at least 10 minutes as the search results should start to slowly appear as each email in the profile is indexed. Note there is no status indication for the re-indexing. The re-index will just silently finish in the background.
Let me know if this helps.
Thanks!
- Dont work, the microsoft teams now de bug and work to fix
How can I confirm this? Because suddenly I have this problem too. I tried every suggestion in the thread. The most result I got is that Outlook gives results again *while* rebuilding its index, but as soon as the outlook.sqlite file no longer changes/updates it comes up with zero results again. Btw, searching with spotlight directly in Finder does actually return the results I want. Quite frustrating.
ShamitKhemka this is a great solution to resolve my problem.
The following got me search results for the first time in months:
- Select Outlook -> Services -> Services Preferences from the top menu
- Scroll down to 'Searching' and check the box next to 'Spotlight' if it is unchecked
After doing so, I was able to search again in Outlook
- I was able to resolve this issue by Spotlight re-indexing the Profiles folder while Outlook is open. The key for me was Outlook had to remain open during the entire re-index of my profiles folder. Instructions I followed where...
1. Open Outlook if not already opened.
2. Choose Apple menu -) System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
3. Click the Privacy tab.
4. In Finder:
a. On the Go menu click Go to Folder...
b. 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/
5. Drag the ‘Main Profile’ folder to the Privacy tab. Once added, remove the folder from the same Privacy tab, and Spotlight will re-index the folder. Note: You must perform this step for any additional profile folders you may have.
See the following article from Apple to learn more: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
6. Allow some time for the re-index, as this is happening in the background, with no visible indication and the duration depends on the amount of content.
A few hours should be about enough for a re-index and then try searching again. correct. That works there. However, I have problems with the subfolders. They are empty there. The subfolders are also not displayed in one folder, but all one below the other.
E.g.Main folder-A
_Subfolder-1A
_Subfolder-2A
_Subfolder-3AMain folder-B
_Subfolder-1B
_Subfolder-2B
_Subfolder-3B
there it is displayed like this:
Main folder-A / _Subfolder-1A
Main folder-A / _Subfolder-2A
Main folder-A / _Subfolder-3A
Main folder-B / _subfolder-1B
Main folder-B / _subfolder-2B
Main folder-B / _subfolder-3B
Do you have any idea why the folders are displayed one below the other and how I can solve that?timsharpe What happens is that "New outlook" has no local storage whatsoever. So it always searches on the server.
So, as long as all your email is on the server and you're online, search will work.
If you need to search historic inboxes in your local machine or you need to search while in offline mode, then New outlook is dead in the water for search.
Essentially it's equivalent to open outlook web and searching there (which already worked).
Tried any of the method listed but nothing fixed the issue (including complete reinstall). The worst part is that I can find Outlook email (kind: Microsoft Outlook mail message) in my Spotlight or search work in "New Outlook" GUI (that btw is plenty of other problems). Any additional suggestion is appreciated.
- I tried a lot of methods, this one worked for me
1. Check if Spotlight indexing is working on the outlook folder
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/
Search with spotlight in this folder directly, if results are returned, then spotlight is working properly. If not, try the methods mentioned above to force Spotlight to re-index the "Main profile" folder
2. The problem is probably due to an issue with Outlook index
Quit outlook
Go to folder:
~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/
In the "Main Profile" folder, move the "Outlook.sqlite" to your desktop. This will force Outlook to re-index all messages, when you relaunch it
Be patient, mine took 3 hours to re-index all my emails (important to plug in power and disable computer sleep in System preference)
You can follow the re-indexing by looking at the same "Main Profile" folder. A new folder (rebuilding) will be created during this process. Files will be updated as the indexing goes on
Rimsky Thanks for the tipp- that solved the problem...
I got the same problem with Big Sur and indeed I tried once the "New Outlook" but as I didn't liked it switched back to the previous look. Obviously this caused the trouble, as with switching to the new Outlook search worked.
Btw, switching back results in search not working. I don't know whether this I a trick to force users into the New Outlook, or a bug, but definitely a miserable performance from MS...
- Right. Further info:
* New Outlook can search new and old email just fine.
* Old Outlook can search new email (since OS upgrade) but not old email.
My workaround is to use OWA when I need to search old email. :-s
- Good tip. Worked right away for the mailboxes that support New Outlook. Alas, most of mine don't. Also for me: spotlight reindex didn't help; stealing the Outlook database file did get Outlook's attention, but after it recovered still no Search.
I had the outlook indexing problem after I migrate to my new MacBook pro. (Mac OS 10.15.6 and Outlook 16.40) Almost two days I was going through blogs and trying many things like re-building spotlight index, re-install Outlook, install some Microsoft tools, re-create profile etc. etc.
After the long, frustrating hours I went to “Outlook – help – Contact support” option, first time it give me generic documents, second time I was able to get in touch with a technical support. They give me the following solution. I did exactly as mention. my problem resolved… Thanks to Microsoft support. (I am copying exact instructions, it may help someone frustrated like me.
While using the Search, please check if the search scope is set to “All mailboxes”. Also, check if you are able to search for the items using Mac Spotlight. If it works on the Spotlight search, then quit Outlook completely by click on Outlook Menu > Quit Outlook and then try the steps given below.
Please open Terminal from the Spotlight search and type in the below mdls commands:
sudo mdutil -E /
It would prompt for your Mac Password please enter it (when you type, the password field will not show anything. Just type the right password and hit Enter on the keyboard) and wait for it to complete and then give it some time. Once done, follow the steps given below to re-index, Outlook profile.
1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
2. Click the Privacy tab.
3. In Finder:
a. On the Go menu click Go to Folder...
b. 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/
4. Drag the ‘Main Profile’ folder to the Privacy tab. Once added, remove the folder, and Spotlight will re-index the folder. Note: You must perform this step for any additional profile folders you may have.
See the following article from Apple to learn more: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
5. After re-indexing is completed, launch Outlook and check.Struggled with this issue for a customer on Catalina macOS 10.15.5 (19F101), Outlook Build 16.39 (20061000).
Tried all re-indexing steps, new Outlook Identity, new Mac User profile, removing and reinstall Office, moving profile folders out and back into default Group Containers directory, nothing worked.
Only fix that was able to get search working was to switch Outlook to "New Outlook" GUI (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/the-new-outlook-for-mac-6283be54-e74d-434e-babb-b70cefc77439). This immediately fixed search. User needed to acclimate to the layout, but that was manageable.
Hope this helps.
kcourtney The challenge with this is I can't move any of my GSuite items to the Microsoft account. I'm slowly migrating, so right now I have to choose between the ability to move emails in my inbox (Gsuite) to my MS Outlook folders OR Search my contacts.
Switching to the Outlook "New Outlook" fixed search for me:
Hope it helps your situation too.
nvtanh according the steps, you shall add and remove for outlook to reindex. wonder why were to delete Outlook.sqllite?
after the reindex, Quit (right click and Quit) your outlook completely. and you probably gonna repeat this frequently as the new incoming emails might be facing the same issue again.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/outlook-for-mac/useful-tools
Dmtiry_Demidov personally i think is Outlook indexing issue. as i'm using both windows and macos platform. both platforms facing same issue of indexing. whereby if i'm using OWA, this isnt an issue at all. The available solutions on the website are works, just probably for a period of time or your existing emails. any new incoming emails shall be reindex again. means you're gonna reindex (repeating the steps) once you facing the issue again until it solves by Microsoft.
nvtanh I just bought a new laptop. Previous the search under Mohave and Outlook 365 (16.35) was decent but had been spotty (suddenly it just worked). But now I get nothing. I've tried all that you have to no avail. Given that this is a microsoft product on a Mac platform, where do you think the problem lies - with outlook or Catalina?
I have tried everything for a month, also MS support has tried to help. Found this program Freeware. https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html
APPLE certified.
Selected delete existing mail index, and after that, I can search in all e-mails have 100Gb.
So now I can work again 😉