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Outlook for Mac returns no results on email search

New Mac Air Os 13.3.1

Office for Mac v 16.72.2 (2019)

Before migration to new Mac, search function in Outlook fine. Now delivers no results at all.

No error message, just no matches (when there clearly are).

What gives?

MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

Posted on May 1, 2023 8:28 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 8, 2023 8:44 AM

Same thing happened to me. They switched without my permission. Woke up and found the emails from the last 4 years were missing! I reverted to the "legacy" Outlook. If you haven't solved it yet, simply go up to the menu bar, click on "Outlook" for the drop-down menu. If you're still in the "new outlook," it will be checked. Click that to uncheck, and your legacy outlook will return with everything intact.


When this first happened, I actually got a hold of a tech person in Microsoft, and he was very honest! He said they're still working out the kinks in the New Outlook, so he advised me to revert to the legacy.


8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 8, 2023 8:44 AM in response to rreesj

Same thing happened to me. They switched without my permission. Woke up and found the emails from the last 4 years were missing! I reverted to the "legacy" Outlook. If you haven't solved it yet, simply go up to the menu bar, click on "Outlook" for the drop-down menu. If you're still in the "new outlook," it will be checked. Click that to uncheck, and your legacy outlook will return with everything intact.


When this first happened, I actually got a hold of a tech person in Microsoft, and he was very honest! He said they're still working out the kinks in the New Outlook, so he advised me to revert to the legacy.


May 1, 2023 10:30 AM in response to rreesj

I recall having issues with Outlook search a year or so ago when I was working remotely. It was intermittent. I discovered if I switched over to the "new Outlook" (there was a button in the upper left), it would suddenly work.


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/the-new-outlook-for-mac-6283be54-e74d-434e-babb-b70cefc77439


Sadly, the "new" Outlook was missing some features that I used (don't remember right now which). So, I would switch back and forth.

Jul 7, 2023 6:55 PM in response to rreesj

I've an iMac 24" M1 OS Ventura 13.4.1

First thing to do is follow the steps in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MolCR5-WOGQ

BUT in addition to adding the folders in the Outlook 15 Profiles folder (I had the Main Profile and New Profile folders) in the Spotlight Privacy box, ALSO ADD THE Mac HD ICON into the Spotlight Privacy box. Click Done. Then, as explained in this video, reopen the Spotlight Privacy box. TAKE EVERYTHING OUT -- ALL THE FOLDERS and HD ICON. Click Done. I then opened Spotlight in the Menu bar of my Mac and put "outlook" in the search field. Don't press "return" when you do that. Just let it be. A blue indexing "progress" bar should appear. For me it took 1.5 hours to index. When done, I opened the Outlook app. Did a test search on my emails and contacts. Voilà. Works like a charm! Hallelujah! Hope this helps.

Jul 8, 2023 8:31 AM in response to MsPrez

Thanks. I came up with a similar solution in the interim which worked.

Now dealing with Microsoft, without my permission, switching my Outlook to the "new" Outlook.

That prevents accessing or saving to email folders on my hard drive.

Seems like the best solution is not to use Microsoft products.

Outlook for Mac returns no results on email search

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