Outlook Search

Thomas Gatto 21 Reputation points
2022-02-01T06:59:45.177+00:00

Hi everyone,
since a few days I did the security patch update on my Exchange 2016 server

and suddenly in the clients with outlook 2016 or later versions the search has stopped working,

practically if the user searches for an email after a few seconds the message "there are problems to retrieve the search from the server - try instead to search in the computer" appears

if they search for a contact in the address book nothing appears, instead the contacts are there;

I have tried, several times, to recreate the index and also to recreate the .pst file but nothing happen

I tried to disable the windows search but always without results

the problem occurs even if I do a search with outlook disconnected from the server.

On PCs with Outlook 2013 or previous versions there is no problem,

I tried to configure an imap account and there the search seems to work fine.

do you have feedback of similar problems?

SharePoint Server
SharePoint Server
A family of Microsoft on-premises document management and storage systems.
2,221 questions
Outlook Management
Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
4,887 questions
Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server: A family of Microsoft client/server messaging and collaboration software.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
7,350 questions
0 comments
Accepted answer
  1. Aaron Xue-MSFT 2,581 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-02-02T06:33:31.817+00:00

    Hi @Thomas Gatto ,

    You said that outlook 2013 works fine. I guess you haven’t disable the windows search on the outlook 2013 client. Right?
    So the issue may occur with the index.

    Try to rebuild the index from scratch.

    Run the following commands to stop the Microsoft Exchange Search and Microsoft Exchange Search Host Controller services.

    Stop-Service MSExchangeFastSearch
    Stop-Service MSExchangeFastSearch

    Navigate to the location of the database file (edb) and there would be a folder with a long GUID.
    170473-22.png
    3. Delete or rename the folder.
    4. Start the above services and let it crawl.

    Here's a document for you reference.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/reseed-the-search-catalog-exchange-2013-help

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    0 comments

2 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Aaron Xue-MSFT 2,581 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-02-01T08:47:52.197+00:00

    Hi @Thomas Gatto ,

    Did the client install the windows 10 update KB5008212?

    According to your information.

    The outlook search doesn’t work on outlook 2016. But it works fine in outlook 2013.

    Have you tried to switch the account to online mode?

    If you haven’t. Try to switch it from cache mode to online mode and check if the issue still persist.

    If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

  2. Ricardo Oliveira da Silva 1 Reputation point
    2022-02-16T01:29:11.373+00:00

    Did you tried to rebuild the local index?

    On Outlook got to:

    • File
    • Options
    • Search
    • Indexing Options...
    • Advanced
    • Rebuild

    Regards.

    Ricardo.

    0 comments