Hello, I have already posted this question in the Dutch Community forum but one of the members suggested to bring this question to the English forum as well. There will be some Dutch words in my post but I will try to provide explanation when necessary . Here I go... As far as I know it is possible to use the search term mentioned below in Outlook to look up an email from a specific person. van: Naam van afzender (in English: from: Name of sender) In Outlook 2016, in combination with Microsoft 365, it would seem that this option is no longer supported and now only works as follows. afkomstigvan: Naam van afzender (in English: originatedfrom: "Sender's name") In Outlook Online, again in combination with Microsoft 365, the search term - van: Naam van afzender - still works. Could it be that something needs to be adjusted / configured to make searching via the search term - van: Naam van afzender - possible again? I hope you can help and I look forward is seeing your reactions! Sincerely, CL

Hi @CL ZRTI ， Welcome to our forum. I understand that you are working with Microsoft 365 account in Outlook 2016, is it right? If so, what's the version of your Outlook 2016(File>Office account>about outlook), please first ensure that you have updated to the latested version of Outlook. As I know, we could usually search the message from a specific users via type From: "sender name" in search field, which has been declared in the official documentation: Search reference tables . Due to I haven't had a Dutch version of Outlook , I have just tested on my English client and found it could work normally there, it's suggested to kindly check if it could also work for you. Also, for your requirement of searching the messages from a specific sender, as a easier way, we could also search the message via click the "From" button like below, which may help us search these messages more fast. Hope that would be helpful to you. If the response is helpful, please click " Accept Answer " and upvote it. Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Question about search in Outlook in combination with Microsoft 365

Accepted answer

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-03-19T06:43:36.887+00:00

Hi @CL ZRTI ，

Welcome to our forum.

I understand that you are working with Microsoft 365 account in Outlook 2016, is it right? If so, what's the version of your Outlook 2016(File>Office account>about outlook), please first ensure that you have updated to the latested version of Outlook.

As I know, we could usually search the message from a specific users via type From: "sender name" in search field, which has been declared in the official documentation: Search reference tables. Due to I haven't had a Dutch version of Outlook , I have just tested on my English client and found it could work normally there, it's suggested to kindly check if it could also work for you.

Also, for your requirement of searching the messages from a specific sender, as a easier way, we could also search the message via click the "From" button like below, which may help us search these messages more fast.

Hope that would be helpful to you.

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
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CL ZRTI 21 Reputation points

2021-03-19T11:47:57.313+00:00

Hello JadeLiang,

Thank you for responding to my question.
I included some snips in regards to the version:

This is of course not the latest version but it's close and I am guessing that most businesses follow a 1 minus 1 update pattern in order to avoid release issues :-)

The Dutch reference tables suggest that the search term that I am expecting to work should work; van:"berend otten" is equivalent to from:"bobby moore".
Unfortunately this is not the case.

CL ZRTI 21 Reputation points

2021-03-19T11:52:16.943+00:00

In addition when i use the 'From' button I also get the 'wrong' search term, as you can see below:

As you can understand I am in loss. All documents suggest that searching with 'From/Van' should work but even the button in Outlook generates 'afkomstigvan' instead of terms mentioned in the documents or even shown on the button.

To conclude I would like to mention that this has been an issue for at least the latest 3 versions of Outlook 2016 so I am starting to think that there is something fundamentally wrong in our configuration.

CL ZRTI 21 Reputation points

2021-03-22T07:42:07.503+00:00

Little bump for attention :-)

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-03-24T08:29:41.947+00:00

Hi @CL ZRTI ,
Thanks for your update and sorry for delay, I'm still researching for your issue. I have tried to install the same bit, version and language of Outlook 365 with yours for testing, but when I click the "van" button, it works like below, which seems to I couldn't reproduce your issue.

Did other users in your organization have the same issue? If it only occurred on your client, in order to avoid the interference of corrupted outlook profile, it's suggested to re-add your account in a new profile to check(control panel>mail>show profiles>add>readd your account)

Also, as I know, some third party add-ins may also cause the search field couldn't work normally, it's suggested to disable any add-ins to check if the issue has any difference.

CL ZRTI 21 Reputation points

2021-03-25T07:55:54.17+00:00

Hi JadeLiang,

Interesting suggestions (re-adding my account and disable add-ins) so we are definitely going to give that a go.

Since every user in our organization has this issue I am hoping it's an add-in issue. I should probably mention that we are in the process of migrating to Microsoft 365 and even our brand new test accounts have the same issue so I am guessing it's not a corrupt profile :-).

Thank you for trying to reproduce the issue with a Dutch version of Outlook. I am curious though as to why the search box in the snip shows from:"Naam van afzender" (thus English & Dutch terminology) instead of van:"Naam van afzender" (full Dutch terminology).
Kinda of a strange Dutch-English mix don't you think?

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-03-29T11:55:19.327+00:00

Hi @CL ZRTI ,
Thanks for your update and notice about the difference between my "from" and "van", I have continued to research a lot about it. Due to the feature of instant search in Outlook is based on Windows seaerch, I guess the difference may be related to the windows language, which was confirmed after I changed the windows language, and I reproduced your issue in my client like below,In order to avoid the interference of version, I have tried to update my Outlook to the latest version, but it still displays the same field there,:

So I think this field may be more related to windows instead of Outlook feature or language, and it may be invalid to perform more operations on Outlook.

Hope that would be helpful to you :).

CL ZRTI 21 Reputation points

2021-03-31T13:27:30.123+00:00

Hi JadeLiang,

Thanks again for your response and I must say I find your take on this issue very interesting and quite plausible from were I am standing.

Could you make a suggestion as in how to proceed? Shall I make a new thread in Windows 10 general or is there a way to migrate or link this thread to a new sub-forum?

Jade Liang-MSFT 9,951 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2021-04-01T06:53:54.407+00:00

Hi @CL ZRTI ,
You're welcome, I'm glad my answer could help you.
Considering here we have discussed a lot in the point of Outlook client, if you still would like to need more suggestion about windows, it would be better to post a new thread and retell it in windows, which may make the issue more clearer there.
By the way, in order to close this thread normally, would you mind marking the helpful post or your post to an answer?

CL ZRTI 21 Reputation points

2021-04-07T07:28:07.297+00:00

Also check @Jade Liang-MSFT reaction on the 29th of March 2021.

Blockquote

Due to the feature of instant search in Outlook is based on Windows seaerch, I guess the difference may be related to the windows language, which was confirmed after I changed the windows language, and I reproduced your issue in my client like below,In order to avoid the interference of version, I have tried to update my Outlook to the latest version, but it still displays the same field there.
So I think this field may be more related to windows instead of Outlook feature or language, and it may be invalid to perform more operations on Outlook.

Thanks for the assistance/guidance @Jade Liang-MSFT ; from my POV this thread can be closed.
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Question about search in Outlook in combination with Microsoft 365

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