Microsoft is investigating an issue with Outlook Search not showing recent emails in the Windows 11 desktop app. This issue affects POP, IMAP, and offline Exchange accounts because Outlook’s search feature uses the local Windows Search service to index email. Microsoft 365 and online Exchange accounts are not affected.
Microsoft explains: “When searching in Outlook desktop on Windows 11, you may not see the latest emails in the search results. If you check the Windows indexing options in Control Panel, indexing may be running slowly or may be paused “.
Temporary solution
The company is currently working to resolve this known issue and is sharing a temporary fix for affected customers until a solution is available. Microsoft recommends Windows 11 users mitigate Outlook search bugs by disabling Windows Desktop Search and switching to Outlook’s built-in search engine as a workaround. To disable Outlook’s Windows Desktop Search service, you must add a new PreventIndexingOutlook registry key using the steps outlined here.
This problem is not the first time
This is the second time Microsoft has alerted Outlook users to email search issues. After upgrading to Windows 11 starting last June, I’m experiencing search issues in Outlook for Microsoft 365, Outlook 2019, and Outlook 2016.
As the affected person stated, when searching for a specific email on an IMAP/POP account, Outlook no longer displays results, in some cases causing the application to freeze completely. The issues started appearing in June 2021, just after the first Windows 11 preview builds surfaced, affecting emails and other items stored locally in PST or OST files by POP and IMAP accounts.
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