Outlook search CTRL+SHIFT+F no longer working

Question

I am already spending hours a week due to your disastrous changes in the 24H2 update that destroyed alt+tab and alt+esc and now it seems that you have altered the outlook search popup that is available with CTRL+SHIFT+F.

This search used to operate as a full text search, it did not use the windows search indexer which is a ridiculous waste of resources.

I am searching for an old email, which I finally found manually, and this screenshot is showing the search value not found by the search, and the email that should have been found right there on the screen. How am I supposed to find anything now?

Answer 1

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Hi @John Welch

May I ask which Outlook version are you using? I am testing on version 2603 (Build 19822.20114), and it is working fine. You can update your Outlook if you are not on the latest version.

First, go to File > Account Settings > Choose your email address > Change > Set the slider to all right to download all past emails. This will store all emails offline and will enhance search performance. Then restart Outlook.

If the issue persists, you can try rebuilding your indexing.

Close Outlook and open Control Panel > Search Indexing Options > Advanced> click Rebuild.

Note: A Rebuild Index dialog box opens warning that the "index might take a long time to complete." Choose OK to start rebuilding the index.

Please try and let me know if it works for you.

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Answer 2

Advanced Find (Ctrl+Shift+F) now relies on the same Windows Search index that Outlook uses for normal search. After recent Windows/Outlook updates, that index can be incomplete or rebuilding, which causes Advanced Find to miss items that are clearly visible in the folder list.

To restore the ability to find messages, there are two supported options in the provided documentation:

1. Let Windows Search finish rebuilding the index
   • This is expected after some Windows 10/11 updates or upgrades.
   • In Outlook, click in the Search box.
   • On the ribbon, select Search Tools > Indexing Status.
   • If the dialog shows that items are still being indexed, wait until it reports that indexing is complete, then try Ctrl+Shift+F again.
2. Temporarily bypass Windows Search and use Outlook’s built‑in search
   • This disables Windows Desktop Search for Outlook only and forces Outlook to use its internal search engine instead of the Windows index.
   • This is a registry change and should be done carefully; back up the registry first as described in How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.
   • Steps:
     1. Right‑click Start, select Run, type regedit, and select OK.
     2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
     3. Select Edit > New > Key and name it Windows Search (if it does not already exist).
     4. Select the new Windows Search key.
     5. Select Edit > New > DWORD (32‑bit) Value.
     6. Name the value PreventIndexingOutlook.
     7. Double‑click PreventIndexingOutlook and set Value data to 1, then select OK.
     8. Close Registry Editor and restart Outlook.
   • With this setting enabled, Outlook shows a notice like “Search performance will be impacted because a group policy has turned off the Windows Search service,” but search (including Advanced Find) uses Outlook’s own index and can return results that Windows Search was missing.
   • To revert to Windows Search later, set PreventIndexingOutlook back to 0 or delete the value.

If the issue started immediately after a specific Windows 10 update (for example KB5008212) or after upgrading to Windows 11, the behavior matches the documented regression where recent emails or locally stored items (POP/IMAP/OST) are not returned until indexing is rebuilt or Outlook is switched to built‑in search via the registry key above.

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References:

• Outlook Search not showing recent emails after Windows update KB5008212
• Outlook search does not return results after upgrade to Windows 11