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Managing a multitude of Outlook emails presents a formidable challenge, particularly for those inundated with daily messages. This scenario is increasingly common among individuals utilizing Microsoft Outlook to serve their diverse business needs.
There are occasions when you must access an email received days or even months ago. However, sifting through a substantial email stack, with newer messages piled on top, isn’t the most efficient approach.
In such situations, the natural instinct is to rely on Outlook 2016’s built-in ‘Search’ option. But what happens when the file or item you’re seeking doesn’t surface in the search results?
Encountering search problems in Outlook 2016 can be a source of frustration. It may manifest as Outlook failing to locate emails you know are in your inbox or experiencing sluggishness when searching through your email history.
Resolving improper or malfunctioning search functionality in Microsoft Outlook 2016 requires employing the correct approaches. In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to effectively address the aforementioned search issue.
Before we explore methods to address the Outlook search problem, it’s crucial to examine the indexing status in Outlook. Ensure that no specific Outlook file types have been omitted from indexing. To check the Indexing Status within the Outlook application, follow these steps:
If the Search tab is missing from the menu bar of your Outlook application, you can add it yourself as below:
Now that you’ve verified the indexing status within Outlook, let’s proceed with the troubleshooting method. If the Outlook file type is still left unindexed or if the search isn’t yielding the expected results, consider rebuilding the index using Advanced Indexing Options.
Perform the following steps for doing so:
Even after confirming the indexing status and rebuilding the index, if the search results remain unsatisfactory, it’s essential to check if the Outlook 2016 application is listed in the Indexing Options. Follow the steps below:
If rebuilding or indexing the Outlook application did not provide a solution, it’s possible that the issue lies within the Outlook Data file (PST). Repairing it could potentially resolve the problem.
For doing so, you can make use of the native repair Outlook inbox tool provided by Microsoft which is SCANPST.
Using the tool is super easy, locate the tool and proceed, but for different versions of Outlook the location/path of the utility is different:
For this method to work, you would also need to know the location/path of Outlook PST file; for users of Outlook 2016 the path would be:
Once you’ve found the SCANPST utility and the location of the PST data file, perform the steps:
If Outlook search is still not working after trying these methods, you can try troubleshooting search and indexing.
Restart Outlook and check if the issue still persists. In case the problem still persists, your corrupted Outlook PST files can be a reason. To get an easy fix for the PST files, give Outlook PST Repair a try.
Opting for a professional Outlook repair tool becomes worthwhile when the built-in utility SCANPST falls short in resolving PST file issues. Kernel for Outlook PST Repair is a specialized tool designed to comprehensively address all Outlook PST file-related issues.
This versatile tool excels at recovering all items from corrupted PST files, encompassing emails, contacts, attachments, tasks, notes, journals, and more. Additionally, it can restore deleted items from damaged PST files. Furthermore, this advanced utility boasts compatibility with all Microsoft Outlook versions.
The PST Repair tool combines a range of top-notch features to deliver optimal results with maximum efficiency. Here are a few of its advanced attributes:
Search is an invaluable tool for locating critical information, but it can become frustrating when it breaks or fails to yield the desired results. With the correct strategies and solutions, resolving Outlook Search Problems can be a straightforward task.
This article was extremely helpful. I had a problem with Outlook search not working for a few weeks and I was about to give up. I followed the steps outlined in the article and my search function is now working again! Thank you so much for the great advice!