Search not working in Monterey

Has this worked for emails in outlook in Office 2021 On Monterey on the new Macs?

I tried something similar from an earlier solution, and nothing changed. If it works for outlook, what files do I drag over and then delete? Nothing changed before.

thanks for the tip.

Same for me, but not MS Office related. New iMac 24, Monterey, all up to date.

Searching for files in finder only works for "This Mac" and not for "this folder". Doesn't matter which folder I choose. Non-finder search, ie. Command+Space to bring up the Spotlight box, does find the files, but I guess this is the same as "This Mac"

I've done a safe recovery 'first aid' on the drive, tried the add/remove folders to the Privacy option in Spotlight settings. Tried a couple of Terminal hacks I found to supposedly get things indexing again, but nothing happens.

I presume this is a Monterey bug. I've had the mac for four days, leaving me 10 days of my 14-day return option until it goes back.

Ok -I was just on the phone with a wonderful Apple support lady (I asked to be escalated from Tier one support). In Outlook - we converted to the "New" Outlook. There is a toggle at the top of your screen. It did not take long. I did have to force quit Outlook, but the Search of Emails is now working.

The New Outlook looks a little different, but I'm just happy to have the ability to search.

OK, got mine working. Although I think others may have tried this and it didn't work. In my case finder search only worked for "this mac" and not for any specific folder. I tried various things (as per my previous post) and the following appears to have worked:

Go to Settings, Spotlight, Privacy. Add the whole 'Macintosh HD' to the privacy options. Ignore the message about apps not being able to search. Close settings, reboot. Now in my case I happened to leave it for an hour or more after reboot. Later I went back to the same Spotlight setting and removed Macintosh HD. After this I was able to search in a folder, pretty much immediately, with the right results. "This Mac" and folder searches now working OK in Finder.

But will it work for you...?

same problem here but finally found what works for me. I reindexed, I removed my account and added it again, I even migrated my laptop all over again and nothing. Finally what worked was to reindex the entire hard drive. I spent 2 long days trying to get this figured out.

1.Make sure outlook is closed, click on apple icon>system preferences>spotlight>click on privacy tab

2.then add "Macintosh HD" to the list by either dragging it or clicking the + button

3.close the window and restart computer.

4.go back to click on apple icon>system preferences>spotlight>click on privacy tab and select Macintosh HD and hit the -minus button to remove it.

5.leave laptop on for about an hour, make sure it doesn't turn off and hopefully it works for you like it did me.

I am using MBPro 16" Monterey 12.0.1 M1max chip 16.55 version outlook. and I kept the old outlook, not the new one.

Glad I am not alone. Same issue with the latest Outlook version 16.56 (Outlook 365 subscription) and macOS 12.1 with Exchange accounts and local folders. Brand new installation.

Spent 2 days on fixing Outlook search. I have reindexed and I rebuilt the Outlook's sqlite database multiple times to no avail. It's a bug. I'm highly interested in any workaround.

Outlook search is showing "No results" and moving to the New Outlook isn't a workable option because it doesn't allow me to bring all of my contact folders along with me. This is very problematic because it is a major hinderance to productivity. Can't search emails or contacts!

I have had similar problems with Spotlight since updating to Monterey.

I have isolated my problems to external SSD drives.

If I have no external SSD drives attached, Spotlight and Finder searches work as normal.

If I attach an old external 5T hard drive, search still works.

Monterey seems to have trouble with SSDs.

Before updating to Monterey 12.1, I could not format new 4T Sandisk SSDs to APFS. Now I can.

Here is your solution to Outlook search not working.

Preferences> Spotlight > Privacy. Add your entire "Macintosh HD" into the privacy area (by clicking the +). Restart your computer. Once computer reboots, reverse what you did above (Take the Macintosh HD out of Spotlight>Privacy). After about an hour, (you can monitor the progress by just clicking the spotlight and typing anything) your computer's and Outlook's search function will be completely restored.

Who's your buddy?

@kentalewis I can not confirm this. We all reindexed Macintosh HD a couple of times. Also creating a new macOS user does not solve this issue. Within Apple Finder Outlook messages show up in Spotlight search. However it remains completely empty in Outlook 16.56.

It's great that we're all coming together on this but I suspect that we're talking about 2 separate problems: The first with spotlight and the second with Outlook.

I can confirm that the privacy trick described many times above works when the problem is that outlook emails are not being included within the spotlight index.

But, where the problem is search not working within outlook, the solution is different. For those that are able to put up with the limitations of the new Outlook UI, I can confirm that for me the new UI fixes the search. Given that the new UI is still not (after how many months and years???) feature complete, you may not be able to migrate. ...in which case I can't find a solution yet!

for context: I have new 16" MacBook running Monterey, with a 'from scratch' install with no migration.

This is a pain in the arse Apple. For me and likely all of us - being able to search emails is the most important ability on a computer. How can such an important feature be dead for week now? Anyway, I have done the so called fixes and dragged the Outllook files on to Privacy, then deleted from Privacy and it indeed fixes in for around 5 mins then goes back to being dead. I have also reinstalled Outlook to no avail. Fix needed urgently Apple and Microsoft!

I have noticed the search does not work in Outlook, and in Spotlight and random folders. I've tried all the troubleshooting steps and can not resolve this. What a nightmare!! Wonder if anyone has tried rolling back to Big Sur? Does this fix it?

Unfortunately, the link you've shared redirects to <https://www.techradar.com/news/55-mac-tips-tricks-troubleshooters-and-time-savers>. I googled "how-to-fix-a-mac-s-broken-find-function" and got to a link, which... redirected to the 55 tips and tricks. I searched within Techradar and couldn't find the article.

Did you happen to keep a .pdf of it?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, the link Kvdm2021 shared <https://www.techradar.com/how-to/software/operating-systems/how-to-fix-a-mac-s-broken-find-function-1298964> redirects to <https://www.techradar.com/news/55-mac-tips-tricks-troubleshooters-and-time-savers>. I googled "how-to-fix-a-mac-s-broken-find-function" and got to a link, which... redirected to the 55 tips and tricks. I searched within Techradar and couldn't find the article.

Did you happen to keep a .pdf of it?

Thanks.