Outlook cannot perform your search? Does your Outlook search function is failing to fetch any of your searched messages? You received an error message that states something like “Instant search encountered a problem while trying to display search results. Modifying your query may resolve this problem”.
No worries! This is one of the most common issues encountered by numerous Outlook clients. And, there are certain things that will help you to fix this Outlook search indexing problem. Let’s go through one by one.
- Verify Your Outlook is Submitted for Indexing
In Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, and Office 365
Go to File menu, select Options then, click on Search. Under Sources, click on the Indexing Options button.
Check Index these location items and make sure Microsoft Outlook is listed. Click the Modify button.
Check Microsoft Outlook is enabled under Change selected locations category (In Indexed Locations dialogue box).
In older versions of Microsoft Outlook, Search Options window can be reached using below navigation paths.
In Outlook 2007:
Tools -> Options -> Search Options (here you can select data file to index).
In Outlook 2010, 2016:
File -> Options -> Search-> Indexing Options -> Modify-> expand Microsoft Outlook (here you need to select PST file or mailbox listed under Microsoft Outlook).
If your Outlook profile is marked for indexing, then try disabling it first. Then safely close Outlook and remove it from the Task Manager running processes. At last, open Outlook and enable it in Search options.
- Rebuild The Index
If index itself is damaged, then above technique doesn’t help you. So, you have to rebuild the index in order to solve this issue.
How to Rebuild Outlook Index?
Open Outlook, go to File menu, select Options and click Search. Click on the Indexing Options button located under the Sources section.
Choose Advanced option located next to Modify.
In the Index Setting tab, click the Rebuild button.
Say OK for the notification.
Close the window when the rebuilding process is completed.
- Check PST File for Corruptions
It might be a corrupt or damaged PST file that is causing search indexing problems in your Outlook. Yes! When a PST file gets constantly corrupt or damaged due to any reason, then it has a direct effect on the functionality of the Outlook including indexing.
To verify this, scan your Outlook data file- PST using the ScanPST (an inbuilt Inbox Repair tool offered by MS Outlook). You can find this scanpst.exe file in the same folder as your Outlook.exe.
Steps to Run ScanPST:
Double-click on Scanpst.exe file. Use the Browse option, select your Outlook PST file, and click the Start button.
If any errors are detected, check the checkbox make a backup of the scanned file and start the Repair process.
Note: Sometimes, Inbox repair tool stops working all of a sudden. Many Outlook users are also reported that ScanPST.exe not responding during repair. This is because the PST file is severely corrupted and it is beyond repair for the inbuilt repair tool. In such cases, it is suggested to make use of a result-oriented third-party PST repair tools available online.
In case, if none of the above troubleshooting techniques helped you in fixing Outlook search (Indexing) problems then it is recommended to repair your Office application or reinstall Outlook program.