Outlook has stopped searching a shared mailbox, but only for some users. Outlook is connected to an on-premises Exchange Server. I ran a script to check the indexing error on the shared mailbox, and did find errors. I repaired the index on the Exchange Server, and it now has no errors. This did not fix the Outlook search issue. Things I've tried: Setting Outlook to disable cached mode for the shared mailbox using the Windows registry. No change. Set Outlook to only use the local index through the Windows registry. No change. Reset Outlook views. No change. Removed and recreated Outlook profile. No change. In fact, it was even worse with no emails showing in the shared mailbox even when not searching. I removed the user from the shared mailbox delegation on the Exchange Server, adding the user back, and the emails reappeared. Search still did not work. Ran full Online Repair of Office Apps for Enterprise. Search now works for the shared mailbox, but only if the Inbox of the shared mailbox is selected, and the search scope is set to "All Mailboxes". If the search scope is set to "Current Folder", search does not work. It did before this issue arose. Other issue is if I select the user's personal Inbox, and run search, the "All Mailboxes" search option is missing. Ran search with the Outlook Web App. Works fine. I have to conclude that there is some issue with Outlook. Any help would be appreciated.

We have also come to the conclusion it is the version of MS Office. When we install an old office version (for example 2302) and disable office updates it works. Our main issue however, is that office eventually updates itself despite our company wide policy to disable office updates. We assume this is updating via Teams updates (which is not currently disabled). We cannot expect to keep rolling back Office versions however as a work around. Please can anyone comment if they have engaged MS directly via support?

Hi, can confirm we got the same issue on multiple locations. Exchange Server 2019 with multiple versions of Outlook (Office 2019 Home and Business / Office 2019 Standard / Office 365). Both in domain and externally connected. The search through the webmail is working fine. Virusscanner is also excluded as cause. Not everyone in our org has this issue.

This fixed it for us. In Windows, right-click Start, and then select Run. In the Open: box type regedit, and then click OK. This will open the registry editor. In the registry editor dialog box, find this subkey in the registry, and then click it: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search Click Edit > New > DWORD Value. Type DisableServerAssistedSearch for the name of the DWORD, and then press Enter. Right-click DisableServerAssistedSearch, and then click Modify. In the Value data box, type 1 to enable the registry entry, and then click OK. Close the registry editor, and then restart Windows.

G'day everyone, The latest Microsoft 365 version 2312 (Build 16.0.17126.20190) fixed our issue. Cheers, Martin

Outlook Not Searching Exchange Shared Mailbox

Michael Adams 366

Outlook has stopped searching a shared mailbox, but only for some users. Outlook is connected to an on-premises Exchange Server. I ran a script to check the indexing error on the shared mailbox, and did find errors. I repaired the index on the Exchange Server, and it now has no errors. This did not fix the Outlook search issue.

Things I've tried:

Setting Outlook to disable cached mode for the shared mailbox using the Windows registry. No change.
Set Outlook to only use the local index through the Windows registry. No change.
Reset Outlook views. No change.
Removed and recreated Outlook profile. No change. In fact, it was even worse with no emails showing in the shared mailbox even when not searching. I removed the user from the shared mailbox delegation on the Exchange Server, adding the user back, and the emails reappeared. Search still did not work.
Ran full Online Repair of Office Apps for Enterprise. Search now works for the shared mailbox, but only if the Inbox of the shared mailbox is selected, and the search scope is set to "All Mailboxes". If the search scope is set to "Current Folder", search does not work. It did before this issue arose. Other issue is if I select the user's personal Inbox, and run search, the "All Mailboxes" search option is missing.
Ran search with the Outlook Web App. Works fine.

I have to conclude that there is some issue with Outlook. Any help would be appreciated.

Mohammed Nagib Adam 50 Reputation points

2023-11-15T12:08:22.7366667+00:00

Greetings,

Kindly, to solve the issue you need to navigate to File -> Account Settings -> Account Settings -> Double click on the user's email -> A window will pop up, Select More Settings -> Navigate to Advanced and uncheck "Download Shared Folders".

Restart Outlook and you shall be able to find related emails from the shared mailbox in the search field.
Luiz 10 Reputation points

2023-11-21T18:53:27.6433333+00:00

Hi, all! 20+ people in my company are having the same problem. So far, our tech team hasn't found a solution... I'm beyond frustrated as searching e-mails is basically 70% of my job.
BasLi 0 Reputation points

2023-12-05T09:56:19.8366667+00:00

Since the last Office update (with the visual change) and followed by a reboot. The search in shared mailboxes seems to be working again. (I am on version 2311 17029.20068)
Jax Planet 91 Reputation points

2024-01-24T16:42:02.03+00:00

WORKAROUND: Turn off Outlook cached mode, close Outlook for 30-seconds, and re-open. Still hoping for a solution before more users require this workaround. Online mode is eating up our Internet bandwidth and I don't like not having a local copy of mailboxes.

14 answers

Barry Watson 0 Reputation points

2023-11-23T12:58:48.9133333+00:00

We have also come to the conclusion it is the version of MS Office.

When we install an old office version (for example 2302) and disable office updates it works. Our main issue however, is that office eventually updates itself despite our company wide policy to disable office updates. We assume this is updating via Teams updates (which is not currently disabled).

We cannot expect to keep rolling back Office versions however as a work around. Please can anyone comment if they have engaged MS directly via support?
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BasLi 0 Reputation points

2023-11-28T09:40:19.32+00:00
Hi, can confirm we got the same issue on multiple locations.

Exchange Server 2019 with multiple versions of Outlook (Office 2019 Home and Business / Office 2019 Standard / Office 365).

Both in domain and externally connected.

The search through the webmail is working fine.

Virusscanner is also excluded as cause.

Not everyone in our org has this issue.
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Patrick van den Berg 66 Reputation points

2023-11-28T10:06:52.4133333+00:00

This is really annoying problem with outlook 365, we had this problem already for 3 years, now 3 years further and still the same problem. Please solve this problem or hire new people at Microsoft
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Hannes Siitas 0 Reputation points

2023-11-29T07:54:18.25+00:00

This fixed it for us.

In Windows, right-click Start, and then select Run. In the Open: box type regedit, and then click OK. This will open the registry editor.

In the registry editor dialog box, find this subkey in the registry, and then click it:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Search

Click Edit > New > DWORD Value.

Type DisableServerAssistedSearch for the name of the DWORD, and then press Enter.

Right-click DisableServerAssistedSearch, and then click Modify.

In the Value data box, type 1 to enable the registry entry, and then click OK.

Close the registry editor, and then restart Windows.
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BasLi 0 Reputation points

2023-11-29T10:52:26.5266667+00:00

This still does not work with the new key. Did you perform any actions after the reboot? Resetting the Windows index did not help. Thanks.

Update: This must be a local Outlook issue, after enabling this registry key, searching in my personal mailbox doesn't work either. (Confirmed it relied on the server search)
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Blum, Martin 0 Reputation points

2024-02-20T09:10:10.0833333+00:00

G'day everyone, The latest Microsoft 365 version 2312 (Build 16.0.17126.20190) fixed our issue.

Cheers,
Martin
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Outlook Not Searching Exchange Shared Mailbox

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