Outlook search won't highlight keywords in search results

Question

Outlook search won't highlight keywords in search results

Azazel90 396

When searching for anything in outlook on a Windows Server 2016 terminal server, all users (with O365 accounts) are complaining about their search key words not being highlighted in the results. Here's what I've tried so far:

Installing Windows Search from Server Manager and restarting the server
Checking if a highlighting color is set in outlook settings
Updating Windows and Office
Repairing Office
Doing a full repair on Office
Reinstalling Office
Recreating Outlook profiles

These are the possible solutions I've found online. Can anyone suggest anything else I can try to fix this?

Miles 1,281 Reputation points

2021-07-22T05:26:53.927+00:00

Hi

Here is a link who has similar questions.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/outlook-2013-wont-highlight-search-results/65b008e5-7bee-46a8-90c6-7da98bbcb962
We could try to create a new profile and do a test search.
Create an Outlook profile
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-an-outlook-profile-f544c1ba-3352-4b3b-be0b-8d42a540459d?ocmsassetid=ha102749460&correlationid=ffa59a23-ee13-49f7-93d4-fd81e1c07bd3&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

Best Regards
Azazel90 396 Reputation points

2021-07-22T09:42:53.57+00:00

Thank you, but the linked topics suggest creating a new outlook profile. I have already tried doing that.
Miles 1,281 Reputation points

2021-07-23T07:05:52.973+00:00

Hi

Then what about using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) for advanced diagnostics to check the problems.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/about-the-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant-e90bb691-c2a7-4697-a94f-88836856c72f

This tool will generate the details report about your Outlook configuration to troubleshoot this issue.
How to scan Outlook by using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/outlook/troubleshoot/performance/how-to-scan-outlook-by-using-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant

Hope this information could be helpful.

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Miles 1,281 Reputation points

2021-07-22T05:26:53.927+00:00

Hi

Here is a link who has similar questions.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/outlook-2013-wont-highlight-search-results/65b008e5-7bee-46a8-90c6-7da98bbcb962
We could try to create a new profile and do a test search.
Create an Outlook profile
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-an-outlook-profile-f544c1ba-3352-4b3b-be0b-8d42a540459d?ocmsassetid=ha102749460&correlationid=ffa59a23-ee13-49f7-93d4-fd81e1c07bd3&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

Best Regards
Azazel90 396 Reputation points

2021-07-22T09:42:53.57+00:00

Thank you, but the linked topics suggest creating a new outlook profile. I have already tried doing that.
Miles 1,281 Reputation points

2021-07-23T07:05:52.973+00:00

Hi

Then what about using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA) for advanced diagnostics to check the problems.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/about-the-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant-e90bb691-c2a7-4697-a94f-88836856c72f

This tool will generate the details report about your Outlook configuration to troubleshoot this issue.
How to scan Outlook by using the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/outlook/troubleshoot/performance/how-to-scan-outlook-by-using-microsoft-support-and-recovery-assistant

Hope this information could be helpful.

Answer 1

Azazel90 396

...it was the windows search service not running. I was stupid enough not to set it to auto-start after installing the service so it was there but it was never started. After starting windows search service and setting it to auto-start, it started to work properly. Now keywords in outlook searches are highlighted. Just an advice if you wanna use it on an RDS server: it will consume a lot of resources until it's finished the first time. Then it won't be bothering your users anymore in the future. Thank you for the suggestions though.

Alexander Scholey 0 Reputation points

2024-09-09T14:33:56.8466667+00:00

This is the fix

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Outlook search won't highlight keywords in search results

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