Windows 10/Outlook 2016 Search Index Broken

I have a user who can no longer use the search function in outlook 2016. It doesn't give an error, it just wont return results.

After extensive googling, I have found and tried the following solutions to no avail.

Rebuild windows search index
Delete windows.edb file and rebuild search index
Remove outlook from the search index, reboot and add it again
Full repair of outlook
Scanpst to fix corrupted PST files (they weren't corrupted)

I have loaded the PST files into my outlook and I can search them, and there is no issues with any other computers in the office, so it is computer specific and not related to the PST file.

Does anyone have any other suggestions short of a full reinstall of windows? I am literally banging my head on the desk...

UPDATE

After more tinkering, I removed Outlook from the Search Index and tried searching for emails within outlook, and it worked... just really slowly. When I added Outlook back into the search index, it stopped working.

Also, searching is working for local drives, just not Outlook

DavePenn

Posted 2017-06-02T09:02:59.073

Reputation: 328

Add a new account (like a dummy email account) and see if the issue persits with another account. Try with POP and IMAP. If the same issue continues, then I'm thinking the re-installation is probably the best bet :( – Dave – 2017-06-02T09:37:21.603

You can try creating a new outlook profile and if that doesn't work, create a new userprofile on the computer. – LPChip – 2017-06-02T09:38:17.697

Answers

I resolved the issue by removing the accounts from Outlook, rebooting and adding the accounts again.

This was the last thing I did and it worked, however it may have been a combination of the above attempts plus this one...

I hate Outlook

UPDATE:

I have been advised by someone that the easiest solution to this problem is to just create a new folder called "index" and point the windows index to that location instead. It will then rebuild the entire index from scratch

DavePenn

Posted 2017-06-02T09:02:59.073

Reputation: 328

Yep, one of the things is to rebuild/recreate Outlook configuration. However, you should hate not Outlook but Windows Search instead - it's highly buggy. – Vesper – 2017-07-07T08:45:35.443

I will hate that also :-). I am also trying to create a newsletter that looks good in outlook, I'm creating tables like it's 1995... – DavePenn – 2017-07-07T12:03:33.430

None of the above worked for me. – NamSandStorm – 2017-10-31T07:45:40.367

The only thing that seems to fix this for good is to go to Windows Explorer, look for the folder where your PST/OST file is stored and open its properties. Go to advanced properties and enable the contents to be indexed. After that search will be fast and error free.