Outlook Search Has Stopped Working

Question

Outlook Search Has Stopped Working

HFHO 20

Good evening everyone,

If this question is duplicated, I would like to apologize.

I've been facing problems with Outlook's search returning incomplete results or not returning results at all in a Windows Server 2K16.

Description:

Searching for e-mails has never returned errors or inconsistencies up until some weeks ago, and now when a user tries to search for any e-mail or a keyword in a "file.pst" we get no results, as if the "file.pst" was empty, but it's not. Also, important to note, this is not a isolated issue to a single user, since, it's been happening to all the users in the server.

I belive this issue has been caused by a Update, because we've never experienced this type of issue, however I'm not sure about that. Regarless, I disabled automatic updates to prevent futher problems and errors.

Other important details, all of the "file.pst" are being accessed on a remote server via GPO mapped drive J: (\\server\share) and both servers are Virtual Machines running on VMware Server.

Windows and Outlook Specs:

Windows Server =

SO: Windows Server 2K16 Standard

Version: 1607 (x64 Bits)

Build SO: 14393.6167

Last installed update: KB5029242

Outlook =

Version: Office 2019 (initially was 2016) - 1808

Build: 10401.20025

Below is the list of procedures I tried to fix this issue (In order):

Update Windows
Update Office 2016
Upgrade from Office 2016 to 2019 (and also, activate the product)
Restart Windows Search Service (was already enabled by default)
Reboot Windows Server (tried several times)
I ran this commnd: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth (no errors returned)
Stopped Windows Search Service and defragged the Windows.edb with the following command: EsentUtl.exe /d C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb (didn't work as well)
Rebuild the indexes in "Indexing Options".
I ran the: sfc /scannow (no errors returned as well)
I ran the Trobleshooter. It retuned saying that the Windows Search directories had wrong permissions and thus I added "Authenticated User" to the permissions. However, it didn't work and when I ran the trobleshooter again I retuned the same permissions error.

I would like to know if there is anything else I can do to solve this issue, because none of the things I tried above worked or caused some sort of positive change. Please, at least let me know if there are any new updates that have fixed this, so I can enable the automatic updates again or if I need to do something again.

Thanks in advance.

Faery Fu-MSFT 19,751 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-19T07:39:26.6566667+00:00

Hi @HFHO , Welcome to our forum!

From your description, the issue has been happening to all the users in the server. it is recommended you try the following troubleshooting:

Check if the PST files are corrupted or damaged. You can use the SCANPST.EXE tool to scan and repair the PST files. You can find the tool in the Outlook installation folder, usually in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16. For more details on how to use the tool, please see this article.

Check if the PST files are indexed by Windows Search. You can go to File > Options > Search > Indexing Options in Outlook and make sure that the PST files are included in the list of locations to index. If they are not, you can add them by clicking the Modify button and selecting the PST files from the list of folders. For more details on how to configure indexing options, please see this article.
HFHO 20 Reputation points

2023-09-20T20:37:10.0866667+00:00

Thanks for the answer, I haven't tried this method yet. I'll try as soon as I can.
Faery Fu-MSFT 19,751 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-26T07:37:59.07+00:00

Hi @HFHO ,

Is there have any update from you? If yes, please feel free to let us know.
HFHO 20 Reputation points

2023-09-26T21:47:34.97+00:00
Hi, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, I was busy with other thing on the mean time.
Even though scanpst.exe found and repaired errors on the ".pst" files, it still wasn't able to find e-mails on the Outlook Search. However, I manage to find a workaround, I've already used the same solution for corrupted users. I was skeptical at first, but it worked.

First, I copied all the data from C:\Users\JohnDoe to another folder.

Afterward I deleted the C:\Users\JohnDoe folder.

And lastly, I deleted the user's registry from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

PS: I didn't deleted the Domain User, I just erased the files and registry, as if the user had never logged in the server.

Since, we use a DOMAIN here, we didn't need to rebuild the permissions because the domain user was intact. All the user had to do was to login again with the same password, and when I added his e-mail account the Outlook search was working again. So all I have to do now is to repeat this step for all the users.

Thanks for the help

Accepted answer

0 additional answers

Your answer

Faery Fu-MSFT 19,751 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-19T07:39:26.6566667+00:00

Hi @HFHO , Welcome to our forum!

From your description, the issue has been happening to all the users in the server. it is recommended you try the following troubleshooting:

Check if the PST files are corrupted or damaged. You can use the SCANPST.EXE tool to scan and repair the PST files. You can find the tool in the Outlook installation folder, usually in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16 or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16. For more details on how to use the tool, please see this article.

Check if the PST files are indexed by Windows Search. You can go to File > Options > Search > Indexing Options in Outlook and make sure that the PST files are included in the list of locations to index. If they are not, you can add them by clicking the Modify button and selecting the PST files from the list of folders. For more details on how to configure indexing options, please see this article.
HFHO 20 Reputation points

2023-09-20T20:37:10.0866667+00:00

Thanks for the answer, I haven't tried this method yet. I'll try as soon as I can.
Faery Fu-MSFT 19,751 Reputation points Moderator

2023-09-26T07:37:59.07+00:00

Hi @HFHO ,

Is there have any update from you? If yes, please feel free to let us know.
HFHO 20 Reputation points

2023-09-26T21:47:34.97+00:00

Hi, I'm sorry to keep you waiting, I was busy with other thing on the mean time.
Even though scanpst.exe found and repaired errors on the ".pst" files, it still wasn't able to find e-mails on the Outlook Search. However, I manage to find a workaround, I've already used the same solution for corrupted users. I was skeptical at first, but it worked.

First, I copied all the data from C:\Users\JohnDoe to another folder.

Afterward I deleted the C:\Users\JohnDoe folder.

And lastly, I deleted the user's registry from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

PS: I didn't deleted the Domain User, I just erased the files and registry, as if the user had never logged in the server.

Since, we use a DOMAIN here, we didn't need to rebuild the permissions because the domain user was intact. All the user had to do was to login again with the same password, and when I added his e-mail account the Outlook search was working again. So all I have to do now is to repeat this step for all the users.

Thanks for the help

Answer 1

Hi @HFHO ,

Thanks for your feedback above which shared more information and glad to know that your issue is resolved now! Since our forum has the policy that the question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others, and according to the scenario introduced here: Answering your own questions on Microsoft Q&A

I would make a brief summary of this post so that other forum members could easily find useful information here:

[Activating lagged copies - Summary]

Issue Symptom:

Outlook Search Has Stopped Working

Solution:

Deleted the corrupted user's registry from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

You could "Accept Answer" for this summary to close this thread, and your action would be helpful to other users who encounter the same issue and read this thread. Thanks for your understanding!

Share via

Outlook Search Has Stopped Working

0 additional answers

Your answer