Windows 11 may have patched up minor bugs this year but not according to Outlook users, as they once again, experience the Outlook Search issue that was previously fixed last January.
The Outlook Search Bug
Users of Windows 11 have been affected by a problem that interferes with Outlook search results in some situations. When doing a search in Outlook on Windows 11 PCs, the email program sometimes fails to provide results relevant to recent messages, this is as discovered by Bleeping Computer. The problem can occur with POP, IMAP, and offline Exchange accounts, in which Outlook typically utilizes the local Windows Search service to index emails.
However, it seems this bug is not widely experienced in other Microsoft applications. In fact, Online Exchange accounts and Microsoft 365 are unaffected since they rely on service search for the majority of their searches, which is not affected by the bug in issue.
"When searching in Outlook Desktop on Windows 11 you might not see the most recent emails in the search results," Microsoft explains.
Microsoft said it is looking into the matter and is "currently working on a solution," with an update on any fixes to be posted in the support article that flags the issue. As a remedy, Microsoft recommends that Windows 11 users disable Windows Desktop Search and switch to Outlook's built-in search engine.
To stop the Windows Desktop Search Service for Outlook, create a new PreventIndexingOutlook registry entry following Microsoft's instructions.
Not the First Outlook Search Issue
This is the second time Microsoft has alerted Outlook users about email search difficulties on Windows 11 PCs. Last year, Outlook users noticed search troubles in Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2019, and Outlook 2016 after upgrading to Windows 11.
According to users who were concerned, Outlook no longer displayed results when searching for specific emails on IMAP/POP accounts, leading the software to stall in certain situations. These issues were originally discovered in June 2021, shortly after the first Windows 11 preview releases were released, affecting emails and other information stored locally by POP and IMAP accounts in PST or OST files.
As a precaution, Microsoft advised users at the time to utilize Outlook's built-in search engine, which would eliminate the root source of the problem: Windows Desktop Search being disabled when the search index was wiped during Windows 11 updates.
When is the Next Update?
Nonetheless, software bugs are always assumed, even though they are unwanted and far too common since the release of Windows 10. However, the scenario has just recently returned, since the same type of Outlook glitch occurred last year when Windows 11 was originally released, before being addressed in January 2022. So the fact that the bug has reappeared does not bode well for Microsoft.
According to Techradar, this is similar to when Microsoft announced the bug originally surfaced last year. Given the past experience solving this problem, a solution should be available soon.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Thea Felicity
