Forum Discussion
Outlook for Mac 2019 - Search not working :-(
Hey,
Try this any one of the approach mentioned below works for you on your Mac.
Check Whether the Outlook Profile is Stored at the Default Location.
Try to Install all Updates from Microsoft
In this approach, open any of the applications offered by MS Office like Outlook, Word or Excel to troubleshoot “Mac Outlook 2019 search not working” error
From the top menu bar, click the Help menu and select the Check for Updates option.
Re-Index the Hard Drive in Spotlight
- Firstly, open the System Preferences and click on Mac Spotlight
- From the Search Results tab, make sure to tick Mail Messages option and select the Privacy tab
- Also, ensure that the Outlook profile or any one of its parent folder is not added to the Privacy tab
- Now, to eliminate the current index, from the desktop drag and drop the hard drive icon into the Spotlight to fix Mac Outlook 2019 search not working error
- At last, highlight the hard drive, which you recently added and remove it using the minus button. This will allow the Spotlight to create a new index
- Now, wait for some time until the spotlight indexing the drive is completed
Once the indexing is done, restart the system and try to use the Outlook search to ensure it is working perfectly now.
Execute Outlook 2019 Mac Search Troubleshooter
If the above workarounds did not help you to fix Outlook 2019 Mac search not working issue, then try to run Microsoft Outlook Search Troubleshooter. For that, first you need to close the Outlook 2019 application, which is working on Mac OS and run Outlook Search Repair Troubleshooter. This will allow to fix the issue after which you can find the desired result quickly.
Transfer Messages to New Outlook Folder
- Initially, launch Outlook application and create a new folder. For instance, Inbox-New1 in the Outlook profile
- Now, select and transfer all the messages to the newly created folder
- Once the messages are transferred, move back the emails to the original folder. This will enable Outlook to re-index the emails in order to show the search results
- After completing these steps, delete the temporary folder, which was created earlier.
Re-Index the Search Database for Mac Outlook
We all are aware that Mac Outlook uses OS X Spotlight to search the data from the mailbox. If in case the Spotlight index itself is damaged, then a user might encounter an error message i.e., Mac Outlook 2019 search not working. Under such instance, a user must re-index the Mac Outlook 2019 search database. To implement the same, follow the step-by-step process mentioned below,
- To begin with, first you need to restart Mac and navigate to Finder>> Applications>> Utilities>> Terminal and type mdimport -L
- If you find more than one MS Outlook Spotlight Importer. Mdimporter, then remove the Outlook profile, which is not in use. Also, try to delete it from the trash. Once it is done, restart the Mac machine and execute the first step
- Now, without closing the terminal window, launch Outlook and implement the search function. If the searching gives you the relevant results, then the problem is resolved. If not, then follow the below step
From the terminal, re-index the Outlook database using the below command,mdimport -g "/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.mdimporter" -d1 /Users//Library/Group\ Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook\ 15\ Profiles/Main\ Profile
- In the above command, the path after -g is the default Outlook path location and the path after -d1 is the default location of your profile. Here, you need to replace these paths with your actual path
It will take some time for re-indexing. Once it is done restart Outlook.
Delete and Reinstall Office for Mac
- Before executing these steps, copy your Outlook profile or Outlook data to any other location
- Then, uninstall Office 2016 for Mac and reinstall the same to solve Outlook 2019 Mac search not working error
- Now, open Mac Outlook and transfer the copied Outlook data using the Import command
- After that, follow the steps of Approach #6 from above so as to reindex the Outlook search database and implement the Outlook search function.
Rebuild Spotlight Index and Troubleshoot Spotlight Permissions
- Launch the Terminal from Applications>> Utilities to fix Mac Outlook 2019 search not working issue
- Now, press Enter after typing each command as listed below,
sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight* sudo rm -rf /.metadata_never_index
- Restart the system and also type the below commands in the terminal
sudo mdutil -i on / sudo mdutil -E
- Then, wait until the Spotlight reindexes the entire drive. Once the indexing is completed, try to use the MS Outlook search.
Regards,
Akshay
Office 365 Admin | O365CloudExperts
Akshay_Mane I am having same issue on a MAC OS High Sierra (10.13.6) running Outlook for MAC (16.38). I have tried all above fixes and still no outcome. All search and filtering functions in Outlook fail 100% in multiple MAC profiles.
Search works from within spotlight and terminal. There seems to be a communication mismatch between Outlook and the Spotlight function.
This is a restored build from Time machine after an HD failure.
I have been communicating with Outlook support over 3 months still with no outcome. I was hoping to avoid rebuilding OS form scratch.
Any suggestions would be grateful!!
Thanks, CAMGILLY