Scroll down and find the MSG extension and choose it. Choose Advanced, and click on the File Types tab. If you opened Outlook again and it still doesn’t work, close Outlook and go back to the Indexing Options section of the control panel. If it’s not, choose Modify and click to enable it. Find Indexing Options and make sure that Microsoft Outlook is included in the locations section. Exit Outlook, then go to the Windows control panel. Still not working? Make sure Outlook is selected as part of your indexing. If it’s not Running, click the Start button to run the service. Make sure the Startup Type is set to “Automatic (Delayed Start)” and check to see what the Service Status says.

Find the Name column and find the Windows Search service. In the Windows Start menu, click in the Search box and type in “services.msc” and hit enter. If you disabled Windows Search for some reason, or if something else disabled it, Outlook search won’t work properly. If this still doesn’t help, verify that Windows Search is running. In particular, double-check that all data files and data stores are selected. Click on Locations to Search, and make sure everything is checked. Once again, click in the search box, then click on Search Tools. If it says there are items remaining to be indexed but it’s not making progress on indexing them, proceed.Ĭheck that data files are selected. If it’s actively indexing, wait for it to complete. Make sure that it has fully indexed your account and that there are zero items remaining. In Outlook, click in the search box, then click Search Tools. If that doesn’t work, verify that your index is complete. In Windows 8.1 it’s in Settings under Troubleshooting, and on Windows 10 you have to go to Settings and then Update & Security to find the Troubleshoot menu. Run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter. On Windows 7, it’s in the Control Panel under Troubleshooting. Outlook search is based on Windows’ search built into the operating system, and as such, the first troubleshooting step is usually to run their automatic error-checking app.

Worried, you open up a recent email and search for a phrase you know, 100%, is in that email. You know what you’re searching for, but your search has zero results.

Related posts: Problem: Outlook Search Returns No Results

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