Exchange 2019 Search Issues

Question

Hi,

I'm in the process of migrating my orgs email infrastructure from Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2019
All new Exchange servers are running 2019 CU6, the Outlook client is the latest Office 365 click to run version, latest updates applied.

I'm 600 mailboxes into the migration, and I'm starting to get users complaining about being unable to search Outlook.
All of the Outlook clients are in cached mode by default.

During my investigation I'm seeing that whilst in cached mode performing a search eventually times out with the "Something went wrong and your search couldn't be completed", "It looks like there is a problem with your network connection"
Clicking the "Let's look your computer instead" link will return results contained in the local .ost file, but only going back as far as 3 or 4 months ago.
Cached mode is set to have all mail downloaded it is worth noting.

Putting Outlook in Online mode instead of cached mode does not improve things, exactly the same results are experienced when searching.

After reading a few threads I have restarted the following services on all new mailbox servers "Microsoft Exchange Search", MIcrosoft Exchange Search Host Controller" with the hop that the database search indexes will be refreshed/rebuilt. I did this yesterday and left the servers overnight, but there is no improvement in searching in my testing.

Has anyone had simliar experiences with their setup, and more importantly being able to fix these issues?
Considering Exchange 2019 is now on CU6 I find that this issue still being apparent is really poor.

Thanks

Matt

Answer 1

Hello,

We are also experiencing this issue at our company. We just migrated from Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2019 CU9. We use Outlook in online mode. We cannot use Outlook in Cached Mode.

When you do a search in outlook it only returns the past couple of weeks then skips 4 months then returns the rest of the results.

CU 9 did not fix the search issue.

I also upgraded to Outlook 2019 from Outlook 2013 which did not fix the issue.

I tried some suggestions to move the mailbox to another database which did not work.

When you run the powershell command for big funnel everything appears to be fine.

We do not have Software Assurance so Microsoft will not speak to me.

It's funny Microsoft will take your money for a purchase but if their product is broke they will not warranty it.

Microsoft fix this issue. It is still broke.

Provide some warranty support for your product.

Answer 2

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one STILL running into this issue. It's been a problem since we migrated in mid-2020.

It's really hard to find any consistencies regarding this issue but I think I might have found one relating to forwarding mails - Would anyone mind testing it for me so we know we're experiencing the same problem?

When receiving a mail, we'll be able to find it just fine by using the Search functionality in Outlook. However, once we've forwarded the mail to any address and then try to find the original mail again, it will not pop up in the search results. However the forwarded version of this mail will be searchable in the Sent Items folder. It almost seems like the search is built on a mail conversation as opposed to separate mails.

Obviously, A user might forward a mail and then try to find this mail again in the future - which will prompt an issue cause they can no longer find it after forwarding. I'm curious to know if others are experiencing the same behaviour when forwarding mails.

Answer 3

Hmm,

I don't get it that this problem is ignored.
this bug mentioned here
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/60aab333-0a33-4568-b2e7-a3ab0cedfc1d/search-bug-with-exchange-2019?forum=Exch2019

IS STILL NOT FIXED!!!!! all our customers migrated or started with new forrest with(from) exchange 2019 cu3 and now are on CU6 have still this search issue problemen.
De search in OWA and Outlook in Online mode have the problem that not all results will be showed when you search for emails with specific words.

the only solution is to enable Outlook cached mode so windows search handles the search in outlook for you.
this is not acceptable by any means. You can't run cached mode in VDI envoirments etc..... for the sake of expensive diskspace usage

also moving mailboxes between databases will not resovle the issue.. it wil come back for new emails. the search index does not correctly index or repair itself.

the new search engine in exchange 2019 is not working as expected. That microsoft removed to rebuild the search index... we have no options to repair it ourself. also the search services are running on exchange 2019 ...

my advices for you is to not migrate, let the mailboxes stay on your exchange 2013/2016. and migrate when microsoft fixes this.
no worth the complaints from your end-users and that you need to disappoint in the end.

Give us an solution please in exchange 2019 CU7 build

Answer 4

the same here, i relink you to my post here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/208204/migrated-from-msdn-exchange-devexchange-2019-does.html

and here: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2323341-exchange-2019-on-terminal-outlook-online-mode-search-problem?page=1&source=subscribed-topic#entry-9211308

we are still search for someone who can open a case with microsoft

Answer 5

Do users have the same search issue when use OWA?
Do all user mailboxes moved to Exchange 2019 have this issue? Please try to create a new user mailbox on Exchange 2019, check if the search issue can be reproduced on it.

Try to create a new Outlook profile for one migrated mailbox, then test the search again with Outlook cached mode and online mode.
If you have other databases on Exchange 2019, you can move some mailboxes to a new database. Verify if something can be fixed during the migration.
Please also check event logs for any related error information. Since "It looks like there is a problem with your network connection" is displayed, don't forget to check your network connection and network-load performance.