Outlook 365/Exchange date searching - do terms like "lastweek" no longer work?

Question

Outlook 365/Exchange date searching - do terms like "lastweek" no longer work?

Adam Kessel 66

Outlook 365 2204 (Build 15128.20178).

For years, I have done Outlook searches like "from:someone received:>=lastweek" to get emails from someone that came in over the last week. Recently that stopped working. It appears that the "received" syntax no longer should have a : if you are also using < or >, but also words like "lastweek" no longer work. Is there some workaround, or is my only option to manually enter the date, like, "received>5/10/22". I haven't found any documentation indicating the colon was dropped or that word-form dates no longer work.

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Answer 1

Faery Fu-MSFT 19,721 Moderator

Hi @Adam Kessel ,

Welcome to our forum!

It appears that the "received" syntax no longer should have a :

That's right, according to my test on my Outlook, when I type from:"Sender name" received=<last week, and the result can be shown.

But when search for a date range, the : is necessary, just be like: from:"Sender name" received:2/8/2022..5/17/2022

In addition, you can also create a search folder for repeatedly searching, here are the steps:
Right click on the search folders, select New search folder

At the bottom of the New Search Folder dialog, you can select to create a custom Search Folder.

Specify a name for this search folder, make sure the search scope is the whole mailbox, then press the "Criteria…" button.
List item
Go the Advanced tab, click Field > All Mail fields > Received, select the on or before from the Condition drop down list, in the Value box, type the certain date, click the Add to List button.

Do the same steps, then click OK.

Hope this can help you!

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Adam Kessel 66 Reputation points

2022-05-18T15:13:03.227+00:00

received=<last week isn't working for me (nor is received=>last week or switching to >= or <=). It ends up just searching for messages that have the word "week" in them. If I do received=<lastweek instead, I get no results. Is it no longer possible to use terms like "last week" and "last month" for message searching?
Faery Fu-MSFT 19,721 Reputation points Moderator

2022-05-19T02:28:31.217+00:00

Hi @Adam Kessel ,
Thans for your reply!
Based on my Outlook version, when using "last week" or "last month", which works well. Please check your Outlook version and upgrade it to th elatest version via File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now

Besides, you can refer to this article to troubleshoot: https://www.msoutlook.info/question/47
(Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.)
Adam Kessel 66 Reputation points

2022-05-19T14:36:17.857+00:00

I'm already on Version 2204. It turns out if I search locally (e.g. when Outlook is offline), "lastweek" and "lastmonth" work. But if I search on Exchange, those search terms no longer work.
Faery Fu-MSFT 19,721 Reputation points Moderator

2022-05-20T09:20:12.307+00:00
Hi @Adam Kessel ,

It turns out if I search locally (e.g. when Outlook is offline), "lastweek" and "lastmonth" work. But if I search on Exchange, those search terms no longer work.

According to your description, this may be a problem with the search settings, please allow search to show all results:

Open Outlook.

Click File > Options, and then select Search.

Clear the Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown checkbox, and click OK.

Restart Outlook.

Besides, have you intalled the windows updates recently? As far as I know, after you install Windows 10 update KB5008212, or upgrade to Windows 11, recent emails may not appear. Try the following methods :

Rebuild the Search Index

disabling Windows Desktop Search I will appreciate if you can get back to me at your earliest convenience.
Adam Kessel 66 Reputation points

2022-05-20T13:00:05.733+00:00

I tried disabling "improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown" and it made no difference.

I don't think this is an issue with indexing of recent emails. If I do a search for "received>5/13/22" it works fine, but if I do a search for "received>lastweek" I get no results.

Also, if I go offline, so that it is forced to search the local message store rather than online via Exchange, it also works fine. So it seems like this is something about Exchange search syntax having lost the ability to search on date terms like "lastweek."
Faery Fu-MSFT 19,721 Reputation points Moderator

2022-05-30T07:16:55.887+00:00

Hi @ AdamKessel-0270 ,
Thanks for your update and sorry for delay, I'm still researching for your issues.

Actually, according to my search, Outlook could work normally when I enable windows search, so I think the issue may be related to Windows search instead of Outlook client. In this case, it's recommended to enable the windows search to get a better experience in outlook instant search.
Adam Kessel 66 Reputation points

2022-05-30T15:44:06.737+00:00

Why do you mean by enable windows search? Windows search service is running, and I'm able to search for files in Explorer. Is there something more I need to do to enable Windows search in Outlook?

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Outlook 365/Exchange date searching - do terms like "lastweek" no longer work?

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