Issues searching emails in Outlook 2010 after index rebuild

1

Users issue: when searching for any text query in any mailbox in Outlook 2010 (even if the text string is visible in an email shown in the current mailbox), nothing comes up after entering the text in the search field.

Example: there are a few emails that I can see in the users inbox with the word "Samples" in the subject line. I enter the word "samples" into the search bar and I see the message "no matches found". If I click "try searching again in all folders" the search process will run indefinitely and not find any results.

Additionally, emails are only appearing from after a certain date range. nothing older than 1 year is visible, though nothing was deleted.

Attempts to resolve: I rebuilt the search index and rebuilt the .ost profile twice. Each time in a different order.

EDIT: After trying to reinstall Office 2010 completely, I am still having the problem. See the picture below for an example of my issue.

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Jacob K

Posted 2015-11-20T20:56:28.167

Reputation: 503

What kind of email account are you using? (Exchange, POP3, IMAP?) If Exchange, do you have caching turned on, or off? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-11-20T21:34:09.940

Office Exchange 2008 Server. I haven't talked to our server team to see if they have caching turned on. Since Searching works on each other users Outlook, I would assume yes. – Jacob K – 2015-11-20T21:41:55.380

The Exchange caching mode is an option in your Outlook, you should be able to enable or disable it under your email account settings. disabling it should give oyu a live view of the Exchange server, which can/will help you (or you mail admins) diagnose where the problem lays. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-11-20T21:43:36.883

Answers

0

Its the software thats failing you not the mail cache.

If restoring to default settings wont cut it, a reinstall may be in order.

As for no old mails ... There are there you just have to ask for them. in 2013 there is a button at the bottom of the folder. Don't know for 10. In any case they never keep all the mail on hand. In 2013 they don't even keep it if i just took it out. So i search for "blah" > no results > search in old email > find it > open it > as soon as i move on its gone again and you can't find it any faster than repeating the search steps.

helena4

Posted 2015-11-20T20:56:28.167

Reputation: 308

I'm currently running a repair on Office ProPlus 2010 through appwiz.cpl. I'm going to see if this repairs the problem. I'd prefer not having to re-image the machine but I can if necessary. – Jacob K – 2015-11-20T21:43:25.283

Repair mostly looks for damaged file integrity. I you are in some setting cache mixup it won't go away until you delete the software then delete all its leftovers and all temp files on the pc via disk cleanup. Though i try accessing my stuff via another computer before i take that step. Servers go to crap occasionally. – helena4 – 2015-11-20T22:16:23.377

repair did not fix as you suspected. I'm going to attempt to uninstall and reinstall Office. – Jacob K – 2015-11-20T22:19:02.897

Repair is less helpful than reset to default state and rebuild profile. Repair's business is to keep your data and settings undisturbed which is where this kind of crap usually occurs. I had a profile reset today :) 2013 version they had me running over to regedit to fix the crap. That wasn't enough. Some leftover in %appdata% kept giving the software enough to start rebuilding from half point and that froze it in mid air. Then i got fed up and cleaned all app data for it. Lucky enough they didn't store anything they can't rebuild with a new account setup. It started like freshly installed. – helena4 – 2015-11-20T22:30:34.100

leave the software be, just totally clear the account and app data. (back it up for fast return or if your net speed is low and don't want to wait a bunch of emails to come along) – helena4 – 2015-11-20T23:16:38.620

Asked: 2015-11-20T20:56:28.167

Viewed: 555 times

Active: 2017-11-17T08:19:29.127