The Outlook email program is trusted by millions of private users and companies for emailing, organizing messages, and setting appointments in the Outlook calendar. The outlook search feature allows users to find their email items based upon the keyboards. A user can add filters to their search function on Outlook to find the specific email item faster. It is an incredible feature that makes the user’s search task simpler and faster. Although, issues like “Outlook search not working” anytime and may have a user experience.

What will you do if the outlook search feature suddenly stops functioning? How will you eliminate the problem? 

Well! If you are also experiencing the “Outlook search not working” problem, this post can help you. Keep reading, and discover the simple steps to troubleshoot the issue.

Possible reasons behind Outlook search feature not working:

There are different reasons due to which the Outlook search function can stop working on your device. Problems associated with the MS Outlook search function are:

• The user is unable to check the search results.
• The search is canceled.
• The search program shows results for a specific time.
• Search results are missing.
• Outlook search unable to find any matches.
• Outlook search not showing all the results

How to troubleshoot Outlook search problems?

To use your Outlook search function again as soon as possible, you can try the following troubleshooting solutions and fix the problem. If the following troubleshooting steps do not help you to fix the issue, you must contact the MS Outlook professional for expert advice:

Restart MS Outlook

Restart is the most simple and effective solution to fix the “Outlook search feature not working” problem. You can restart the outlook program by closing it once and opening it again. Although, you need to be careful as the program may set up by default, and in that case, closing the program does not mean you exit it. The program will continue to run in the background but no longer visible to you directly.

• To check whether the program is properly closed or not, access the system tray. If the MS Outlook program is active in the system tray, then it means that the program is not properly closed. To exit the outlook program permanently, look for the hidden and visible icons. Right-click on the icon, and choose the ” exit” option.
• After that, click on the “File”>> “Exit” in the menu. This will restart your program and fix the problem.

Narrow the search

Your MS Outlook program may have become overwhelmed due to the excess storage of data and emails in it. If this is the reason behind your Outlook search problems then you can simply narrow down the search terms. Let’s take an example; if you are using multiple email accounts on MS Outlook, you must choose the relevant user account before you begin the search. This can also help you to restrict your search to a particular folder. If the outlook search function is not working after restricting the search, you can restart the computer.

• Use repair function
• If none of the above steps help you to troubleshoot the issue, you can Virtually repair the program.
• Go to the ” control panel”>>” programs” category.
• From here, click on ” uninstall” or ” modify” the program option.

Generally, where users select the complete MS Office Package for repair because the “MS Outlook program” comes as a part of the ” MS Office Package”.

• Click on ” change”>> ” repair” option. Once the repair task is complete, you can close the window and restart your computer.

If something was wrong with the repair tool access area, then your Outlook search program will start working again. 

Check Outlook for updates

To troubleshoot “Outlook search not working problems“, check the program and make sure it is up to date. The outdated Outlook program can be another possible reason that you are unable to use the outlook search feature. The outdated Outlook version may not be compatible with the latest version updates running in the background, thus it causing you trouble. So keep the Outlook program up to date.

To check the updates:

• Go to the “Settings”.
• Click the ” update and security” option.
• Choose ” advanced option”.
• Click on ” install updates for Microsoft product”.
• Get back to the previous section, and run the updates with a click on “check for updates”.

This way, you can update the software and fix the problem.

Check the outlook indexing

MS Outlook comes with an index having a structure like ” data catalog”. This index has all the important terms saved in an email and users can easily find a particular email or message by typing the search term.

So if you are having Outlook search issues it can be because of incorrect program settings due to which the important details are not being collected. To fix the problem, you can check Outlook indexing. Here are the steps to follow:

• In your Outlook program, go to the “File” section.
• Open the ” Options” tab.
• A popup window will appear on your screen.
• Choose the ” search” or ” browse” option.
• Click on the ” indexing options” field, and it will direct you to the window having all the outlook indexed locations.
• Here, you need to check whether MS Outlook is listed or not.
• If the outlook is not listed, click on “Change”>> ” Indexed places”.
• Choose the “Microsoft Outlook” box.
• Click on the search button for the confirmation. 

So here are some simple troubleshooting steps that can help you to fix the “Outlook search function not working” problem. Carefully, check for the points we have mentioned above and fix your concern. However, if you are still unable to search for a particular item using the search feature on your MS Outlook, you need to contact the MS Outlook support expert. The professionals can help you to identify the possible root cause behind the issue and then share the troubleshooting steps accordingly to fix the problem. Get it started with the team now, and discover the immediate solution to your issue. 

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