How do I fix search and indexing issues with an Outlook PST file ?

Question

I have continuing issues with being able to search my OUTLOOK.PST file on my Windows 11 laptop, but the same PST file and the archives files I have associated with it can be searched on my other laptop running Windows 10 Home. On the Windows 11 machine searches now don't work at all on the current PST file but items can be found in the archived files. I had tried re-building the indexes yesterday (which has been done may many times), and the total number of items indexed had reached over 259,000, but now it is back to just over 12,000 items. Indexing keeps on telling me it is Paused, but it obviously isn't as the number of items keeps increasing.

I have done the SFC / SCANNOW, DISM RESTOREHEALTH, repaired Windows 365, restarted WSEARCH etc. all to no avail.

Not being able to search my Outlook file is a significant issue. Why does it work on the Windows 10 machine and not on Windows 11 ? A fix to this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Dear John,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A community!

After upgrading to Windows 11, Outlook searches may not return results for PST files. This issue occurs because the search index is deleted during the upgrade and needs to be rebuilt. To check the indexing status:

1. In Outlook, select the Search box. 2. On the ribbon, select Search Tools, and then choose Indexing Status.

If the indexing is taking too long, you can set a registry key to use Outlook's built-in search as a temporary workaround. For detailed steps, refer to the article under the temporary workaround.

No search results for POP, IMAP, or Exchange accounts - Microsoft Support

 

Answer 2

Hello Jayce,

Thank you for answering my question. I have modified the registry which seems to have solved the problem, at least partially. (I have a number of archived PST files which should also be searched but so far search only seems to be looking at one of those. I have searching set to 'All Mailboxes')

I note that this was not an upgrade. I am running on a new Windows 11 laptop which has had a number of issues, including corrupting my PST file, which cannot be repaired by SCANPST or a couple of third party 'solutions' that I have tried. However I note that when I have the same PST files on my Windows 10 Home laptop all works as it should, even with the corrupted files.

While I appreciate that this is an Outlook forum is there a way to completely reset my searches / indexing that works ? I have tried rebuilding them numerous times without success. I was told over 200,000 items had been indexed yesterday and then the system reverted back to zero and started all over again.

Thanks for your advice.

Regards

John Docherty