Microsoft Outlook email search is disabled by desktop search in Windows 11 and has issues with indexing and finding messages. This affects POP and IMAP accounts as well as offline Exchange accesses. Microsoft 365 users and Exchange accounts connected to the Internet will not be affected.
Email search crashes on Windows 11
As was the case after the December cumulative update for Windows 11 and Windows 10, a bug has now crept into Microsoft’s latest operating system, disabling email search and indexing in Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft already has an interview message about it Site Support chest.
When you search in Outlook Desktop on Windows 11, you may not see the most recent emails in the search results.
If you check the Windows indexing options in Control Panel, indexing may run slowly or may be paused.
This issue mostly affects users with offline POP, IMAP, and MS Exchange accounts because the search feature primarily uses the local Windows Search service to index email.
Email hosted by Microsoft 365 and connected Exchange accounts use the Find service for the majority of search domains, which is not affected by this issue.
Microsoft
The error has not yet been corrected. Microsoft is already working on a solution and willIn one of the following versionsProvides a matching update.
Microsoft is releasing a temporary solution
For now, affected users should be satisfied with a temporary solution. In order for Microsoft Outlook to use the integrated search of the email client under Windows 11 and not search in the operating system system, affected users should proceed as follows:
- Windows-Taste + R
- → Enter regedit
- → Start Registry Editor
- → Enter regedit
Then navigate to the following path in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
- Right click on Windows in the left directory tree
- → New → Key
Windows Search- → New → DWORD Value (32-bit) →
PreventIndexingOutlook- → Double click
PreventIndexingOutlook→ transcode = 1
- → Double click
- → New → DWORD Value (32-bit) →
- → New → Key
In order for the changes to be effective and to use the integrated search of the email client, you must restart Microsoft Outlook.
Windows 10 is no longer affected
After Microsoft provides a corresponding update, changes made to the registry can be reversed. Known Issue Return (KIR) was previously published on Windows 10, so the update is no longer needed.
