Unable to search in subfolders of shared mailboxes in Outlook

Question

Hello! This week our customers were migrated from MS Office 2019 to MS Office 365. The switch was very smooth and we had no major issues with the installation. But when the customers started working with the "new" Outlook, they realised that the results of the search (no matter which search option, etc.) do not contain the mails of the subfolders of shared mailboxes. How can this problem be fixed? And why does this function work in O 2019 but not in O365?

Answer 1

Hello Leandro,

The issue could be for different reasons:

• Search Scope: Users need to click on the search bar and select the appropriate scope.
• Adding Shared mailbox as a secondary account: That's a good workaround for issues with shared mailboxes. You would need to add the shared mailbox as a secondary mailbox. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/troubleshoot/profiles-and-accounts/add-shared-mailbox-as-additional-account
• Indexing issues: Check if the shared mailbox is included in the indexing options in Outlook.
• Create a new outlook profile: In some cases, creating a new profile can resolve search issues. This should be your last resort and always make sure to back up data if using .PST files.

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Answer 2

I found two workarounds that have been consistent for the past 2 months.

Here are the steps:

1. Select the Inbox for the email area you want to search in, make sure it's highlighted in bold meaning you're searching that email inbox.
   For example, I use 3 different emails, 1 personal and 2 shared.
   I was previously having issues with the shared mailboxes, so I'll use one in this example.
2. Next, rather than using the main "Search" text field at the top of Outlook, use the lower "Search" menu item below it to the left:
3. Next, select "Look in" to the far right and then "Current Folder":
4. Next, select the category that will most likely narrow the search, for this example, I'm using "subject." After selecting keyword "subject", the "Search" area highlights and has "keywords" in parentheses, leave the parentheses and input the word, I'm using "121027" (see next screenshot)
5. These are the results, note the Inbox at the bottom is highlighted in bold:
6. Or, if you want a more detailed search by looking for a word in the body of the email, don't use the "subject" or any other option in the sub-menus.
   Follow all steps above except after selecting "current folder" make sure the Inbox is still bolded, then go to the main "Search" area at the top and type in the search word.
   In this case, I'm using "approval."
7. You have to practice it a bit as if you don't get the steps in the correct order, you'll get results from your personal email inbox. Good luck!

Answer 3

Hello guys, I think I find an answer. So technically, it is the design limitation. Here are some findings that I find in Microsoft articles. Note Other types of secondary stores, such as those added via Open these additional mailboxes or those that are automatically configured via AutoMapping, are still limited to WDS.

How Outlook 2016 utilizes Exchange Server 2016 FAST Search - Microsoft Community Hub