Legacy Outlook search stopped working after update to Outlook 16.111.2 on macOS 26.6

Question

Legacy Outlook search stopped working after update to Outlook 16.111.2 on macOS 26.6

Lehar Lindre 0

I believe I have encountered a regression in Legacy Outlook search.

Environment

macOS 26.6 (Tahoe)
Microsoft Outlook for Mac 16.111.2 (Build 16.111.26072617)
IMAP account

Symptoms

Search works correctly in New Outlook.
Search returns no results in Legacy Outlook.
All email is present and accessible manually.

Diagnostics already performed

Spotlight indexing is enabled.
Finder search works correctly.
Spotlight privacy settings were checked and the system drive was removed from Privacy.
Spotlight index was rebuilt.
mdimport -r executed for Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.
mdimport -i executed for the Outlook profile.
Outlook Spotlight Importer is installed and registered (mdimport -L).
Outlook database exists and is healthy (Outlook.sqlite).
mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.microsoft.outlook16.email"' returns no results.
New Outlook search works correctly using the same profile.

Conclusion All diagnostics indicate that Spotlight itself is functioning correctly and the issue appears to be isolated to Legacy Outlook search.

Could you please confirm whether this is a known regression in Outlook 16.111.x / macOS 26.6 and whether a fix is planned?I believe I have encountered a regression in Legacy Outlook search.

Environment

macOS 26.6 (Tahoe)
Microsoft Outlook for Mac 16.111.2 (Build 16.111.26072617)
IMAP account

Symptoms

Search works correctly in New Outlook.
Search returns no results in Legacy Outlook.
All email is present and accessible manually.

Diagnostics already performed

Spotlight indexing is enabled.
Finder search works correctly.
Spotlight privacy settings were checked and the system drive was removed from Privacy.
Spotlight index was rebuilt.
mdimport -r executed for Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.
mdimport -i executed for the Outlook profile.
Outlook Spotlight Importer is installed and registered (mdimport -L).
Outlook database exists and is healthy (Outlook.sqlite).
mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.microsoft.outlook16.email"' returns no results.
New Outlook search works correctly using the same profile.

Conclusion
All diagnostics indicate that Spotlight itself is functioning correctly and the issue appears to be isolated to Legacy Outlook search.

Could you please confirm whether this is a known regression in Outlook 16.111.x / macOS 26.6 and whether a fix is planned?

Lehar Lindre 0 Reputation points

2026-08-01T07:30:54.7+00:00
Additional technical findings

After further investigation I found the following:

Spotlight indexing is enabled and Finder search works correctly.

Outlook Spotlight Importer is installed and registered.

The importer schema contains the Outlook message type:

com.microsoft.outlook15.message

However, both Spotlight queries return no results:

mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.microsoft.outlook15.message"'

mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.microsoft.outlook16.email"'

New Outlook gradually started finding newer and then older messages (2025 and later), suggesting it is rebuilding its own local cache/index.

Legacy Outlook still returns no search results.

New Outlook Advanced Search using the exact sender email address in the From field takes about 15 seconds and then returns 0 results, although those messages definitely exist in the IMAP mailbox.

These findings suggest that Spotlight itself is functioning correctly, but Outlook search indexing for IMAP mailboxes appears to be inconsistent or incomplete.

Your answer

Lehar Lindre 0 Reputation points

2026-08-01T07:30:54.7+00:00

Additional technical findings

After further investigation I found the following:

Spotlight indexing is enabled and Finder search works correctly.

Outlook Spotlight Importer is installed and registered.

The importer schema contains the Outlook message type:

com.microsoft.outlook15.message

However, both Spotlight queries return no results:

mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.microsoft.outlook15.message"'

mdfind 'kMDItemContentType == "com.microsoft.outlook16.email"'

New Outlook gradually started finding newer and then older messages (2025 and later), suggesting it is rebuilding its own local cache/index.

Legacy Outlook still returns no search results.

New Outlook Advanced Search using the exact sender email address in the From field takes about 15 seconds and then returns 0 results, although those messages definitely exist in the IMAP mailbox.

These findings suggest that Spotlight itself is functioning correctly, but Outlook search indexing for IMAP mailboxes appears to be inconsistent or incomplete.