Outlook Classic Suggested Search Box Translating "From"

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm having an issue, suddenly one day, with the searches on Outlook Classic 365.

When I search messages from a specific mailbox, it changes the "from:" to "de:", basically translating the word "from" by the word "de", which is the translation from English to Spanish. The same happens when searching from the sent folder: it translates "to:" by "para:", which is the translation to Spanish of the word "to". The situation is that it won't bring any results (no matches found).

If I type it directly, for example, from:"[Moderator note: personal info removed]", it does the search and bring up all messages from that mailbox/address. But If I type the user, the suggested search searches show de:"[Moderator note: personal info removed]" and the search is blank (no matches found).

In Outlook --> Options --> Language --> the "Office Display Language" is as follow:

1. English <preffered>
2. Match Microsoft Windows [english]
3. Spanish [español]

The Office Authoring Languages and Proofing are:

1. English (United States) <preffered>
2. Spanish (Spain)

Both installed.

I also went to my web account and checked that I have English selected too.

My Windows language is in English too.

Copilot is telling me to create some DWORDs at the registry and restar Outlook resetting lots of settings but that can be the solution. If at my organization that start to fail, it would be catastrophic. Imaging going that way with more than 3,000 users.

I need to know:

1. Why it stopped working?
2. How can I fix this without making drastic changes as modifying the registry?

Evidences:

If I type the username it suggest the address/mailbox:

If I hit enter or click it, it does not bring results. Note that on the search box it use the word <from:>

If I type directly, it works:

Hope to get some help.

Regards,

Answer 1

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.

Hi Caonabo Jaquez N

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum and sharing your experience.

At this time, continuing to manually type the search operators (from: and to:) is a valid and supported workaround.

In addition, you may try the following checks:

1, Temporarily remove Spanish from Office display languages

• In Outlook > Options > Language, remove Spanish from Office Display Language (not authoring), restart Outlook, and test.
• This does not affect spell‑check or proofing if Spanish remains under Authoring Languages.

2, Windows regional format

• In System Settings, go to Region settings.
• Check the Regional format setting: If it is set to Spanish (or “Recommended” based on location), change it to English (United States) or English (United Kingdom), then restart Outlook.

3, Outlook cloud‑synced settings

• In Outlook, go to File > Options > General
• Under Cloud Storage Options, uncheck Store my Outlook settings in the cloud
• Restart Outlook and test

Note: We do not recommend broad registry resets or undocumented DWORD changes, especially in enterprise environments. Such changes can reset user profiles, search behavior, and other Outlook settings. At this time, there is no official Microsoft documentation confirming that registry modifications are a supported fix for this specific issue.

Please let me know how things go on your side as your update can also assist others in the community who may be facing the same issue.

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