admin | October 18th, 2017 | Windows Outlook
Is your search in Outlook 2016 not working!! Want to know why Microsoft Outlook 2016 returns no search result??
Nowadays, it is quite difficult for everyone to understand and execute Outlook Search with all updated version of the application. Even if one just need to upgrade a desktop email program to the latest version, then, users get stuck and face many problems in Outlook 2016. Out of which one such error is MS Outlook 2016 Search Not Working. Besides this, Outlook is one of the most common email application being used for sending or receiving all messages in an organization and it should be maintained on the regular basis. In some scenarios, the Search algorithm will be integrated into Outlook but it does not work perfectly. For this, we are going to discuss some resolutions to let users understand how to fix Outlook 2016 search problems issues.
Before proceeding further read the following user query to understand the topic more clearly:
“I am using Microsoft Outlook 2013 at my office from last few months and it is working perfectly. Recently, I have updated to Outlook 2016. Since then, I am facing an issue that there no search results in Outlook 2016. Can anyone help that why Outlook 2016 returns no search results?”
Let’s see how to determine ‘No Search Results’ Error?
Indeed, the application provides a Search feature. It will not only help to perform a particular search but also helps to navigate email messages and other components appropriately. The search option includes various types of malfunctions like omitted or improper outputs and will return blank results.
Once, the tool has stopped working properly; it will display the search results up to the specific date or it will appear that all items are based on search criteria waiting to be indexed on the output pane. In that situation, there could be an error occur with Windows Indexing services. In fact, there are many issues in Outlook 2016 so we need to come up with various solutions.
If search action comes out with null or blank results or no results due to any reason, there are several possibilities that Outlook may not get to check the data files for indexing. Although, MS Outlook 2016 offers the easiest way to determine whether the mailbox is still being indexed or not. This can easily be done by following the given set of instructions:
First of all, navigate to ‘Search’ option by clicking on ‘File’ menu. Then, select ‘Options’ and click on the ‘Search’ button.
Now, click on the ‘Indexing Options’ and choose ‘Modify‘.
In the next step, an ‘Indexed Locations’ screen will pop up, you can enable if the Outlook data files are indexed.
Alternatively, you can select indexing option from Microsoft Outlook completely, or you can turn off an indexing option if needed.
Note: In the earlier version of Microsoft Outlook 2016, the end users are allowed to select a specific .pst or .ost files for indexing, whereas, in Outlook 2016 new version, you can select to index a complete application.
When you check if the Outlook data file is being indexed or not, you should disable and after that, enable that application from the ‘Indexing Options’ wizard. Unmark the Outlook by enabling the checkbox and then, close the application. Just wait for five minutes and open the Task Manager. Now, you need to check Outlook.exe process is still running. If yes, then, go back to the main menu and select Outlook for indexing.
Data corruption is one of the main reason why a Microsoft user gets Outlook 2016 search not working error. Next, you have to analyze a file and repair it by using ScanPST.exe utility. It is the most popular tool that can be integrated with all editions of Outlook email client. In Window File Explorer, open the ‘This PC’ and then, enter ‘ScanPST.exe’ in the Search field. This tool will help to recover any damaged or corrupted PST or OST files exists on the computer system.
Rebuilding an index may compel the search feature to work properly. The following procedure to rebuild the Outlook Search Index is given below:
Click on ‘File’ menu, choose ‘Options’ and then click on the ‘Search’ column on the left side of the screen.
Then, navigate to ‘Indexing Options’ and hit on ‘Advanced’ button.
From the ‘Advanced Options’ window, select the ‘Index Settings’ tab and press ‘Rebuild’ button.
The search option will not work temporarily during the index rebuild operation is in process. It is suggested that no need to interfere while running the applications
The rebuilt index task takes how much time, this simply depends on the system specifications, data files to be indexed and incorporate a large amount of data.
Once the index rebuilding operation is done successfully, restart an application and then, verify the ‘Search’ functionality.
The above-stated procedure is always there to restore data files from all corruption issues. Make sure that you must follow each step carefully to fix Outlook 2016 no search results error.
In the above blog, we have discussed corruption is the actual reason for the inappropriate functionality of Outlook Search or why MS Outlook 2016 returns no search results. Along with this, we have already covered a manual solution that will help to resolve Outlook 2016 search problems efficiently. So, it is crystal clear that after reading this write-up, one can easily troubleshoot Outlook 2016 Search Not Working issue