Outlook search returns No matches found

Symptoms

When you use Instant Search in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010, or Microsoft Outlook 2013, you receive the following message:

No matches found.

Or, only some of the expected results may be returned. If you view the Indexing Status dialog in Outlook, you may see the following message:

Search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed.

This occurs even if you include search criteria for items that do match and Windows Desktop Search (WDS) is configured to index the Outlook Data (.pst) file or Offline Outlook Data (.ost) file.

Resolution

To troubleshoot Outlook Instant Search, follow these steps:

Make sure indexing is complete

Outlook 2007

In Outlook 2007, follow these steps to verify that indexing is complete:

1. In Outlook, click Tools, Instant Search, and then click Instant Search.
2. When the Microsoft Office Outlook dialog appears, you should see the following:
   
   Outlook has finished indexing all of your items.
   New items are indexed when they arrive.
   0 items remaining in "Mailbox -<username>"
   0 items remaining across all open mailboxes.

Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013

In Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013, follow these steps to verify that indexing is complete:

1. In Outlook, click in the Search box.
2. Click the Search tab, click Search Tools, and then click Indexing Status.
3. When the Indexing Status dialog appears, you should see the following:
   
   Outlook has finished indexing all of your items.
   0 items remaining to be indexed.

If Outlook has not finished indexing all of your items, note the items remaining to be indexed, wait 5 minutes, and then check again. If the number of items did not decrease, continue to troubleshoot by using the steps in the following sections.

Make sure Indexing Options are configured correctly

When Outlook is installed, the .msg file type is associated with the Office Outlook MSG IFilter. This filter lets WDS index items that are stored in Outlook Data (.pst) and Offline Outlook Data (.ost) files. Outlook only uses an Offline Outlook Data (.ost) file when the profile is configured to connect to a Microsoft Exchange account that has Use Cached Exchange Mode enabled.

If you already configured Outlook to use an Exchange account that has Use Cached Exchange Mode enabled or you are using a non-Exchange email account that uses a .pst file, follow these steps to make sure that the indexing options are configured correctly.

1. Exit Outlook.
2. Open the Indexing Options.
   
   In Windows 8:
   
   On the Start screen, type Indexing Options, click Settings under Search, and then click Indexing Options.
   
   In Windows Vista and in Windows 7:
   
   Click Start, type Indexing Options in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
   
   Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
   
   In Windows XP: 
   
   Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel. 
   
   Double-click Indexing Options.
   
   Note If Control Panel is in the Category view, click Performance and Maintenance, and then open Indexing Options.
3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced.
4. Click the File Types tab.
5. Scroll down until you find msg in the Extension column.
6. Click msg.
7. Make sure that the Index Properties and File Contents option is enabled.
8. Click OK.
9. Click Close.

Note Make sure the Filter Description column shows Office Outlook MSG IFilter. If the Filter Description column does not show Office Outlook MSG IFilter either the Windows Search service is not working correctly or Microsoft Outlook could not install the filters correctly. Contact Microsoft Support for help with this issue.

Make sure Outlook data is included in indexing

This section shows how to verify that Outlook data is being indexed. Try to use Windows Search to search for words or phrases that you expect to find in email messages.

Note This test does not apply to Outlook 2013. Outlook 2013 blocks the ability to search for Outlook items by using Windows Desktop Search.

If no email messages are returned, follow these steps to make sure Outlook data files are being indexed:

1. Exit Outlook.
2. Open the Indexing Options.
   
   In Windows 8:
   
   On the Start screen, type Indexing Options, click Settings under Search, and then click Indexing Options.
   
   In Windows Vista and in Windows 7:
   
   Click Start, type Indexing Options in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
   
   Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
   
   In Windows XP: 
   
   Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel. 
   
   Double-click Indexing Options.
   
   Note If Control Panel is in the Category view, click Performance and Maintenance, and then open Indexing Options.
3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, make sure that Microsoft Outlook is listed in the Included Locations column.
4. If Microsoft Office Outlook is not listed, click Modify, and then click to enable the check box next to Outlook.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Close.

To make sure that Outlook is configured to return results from the expected data files, follow these steps:

Outlook 2007

1. Start Outlook.
2. Click Tools, click Instant Search, and then click Search Options.
3. Click to add or remove data files.

Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013

1. Start Outlook.
2. Click in the Search box.
3. Click the Search tab, click Search Tools, and then click Locations to Search.
4. Click to add or remove data files.

Check the search scope

Even though Outlook can be configured to return results from specific data files, the search scope limits the search further. The search scope affects the immediate search that you perform. To check the search scope for your current search, follow these steps:

Outlook 2007

In Outlook 2007, follow these steps to check the search scope:

1. In Outlook, click the drop-down arrow next to All Mail Items.
2. Click to add or remove data files.

Outlook 2010

In Outlook 2010, follow these steps to check the search scope:

1. In Outlook, click in the Search box.
2. Click the Search tab.
3. The Scope group shows the current scope. This can be any one of the following:
   
   All Mail Items
   Current Folder
   All Subfolders
   All Outlook Items

Outlook 2013

In Outlook 2013, follow these steps to check the search scope:

1. In Outlook, click in the Search box.
2. Click the Search tab.
3. The Scope group shows the current scope. This can be any one of the following:
   
   All Mail Items
   Current Folder
   All Subfolders
   All Outlook Items

Additionally, Outlook 2013 lets you also change the scope by clicking the dropdown next to the Search box.

Outlook 2013 also lets you change the default scope. To change the default scope in Outlook 2013, follow these steps:

1. Click File, and then click Options.
2. In the Outlook Options dialog box, click Search.
3. Under Results, set the Include results only from: to one of the following:
   
   Current folder
   Current folder. Current mailbox when searching from the inbox
   Current mailbox
   All mailboxes

Indexing does not finish

If indexing seems to be stuck and is incomplete, rebuild the search catalog. To rebuild the catalog, follow these steps:

1. Exit Outlook.
2. Open the Indexing Options.
   
   In Windows 8:
   
   On the Start screen, type Indexing Options, click Settings under Search, and then click Indexing Options.
   
   In Windows Vista and in Windows 7:
   
   Click Start, type Indexing Options in the Start Search box, and then press Enter.
   
   Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
   
   In Windows XP: 
   
   Click Start, click Settings, and then click Control Panel. 
   
   Double-click Indexing Options.
   
   Note If Control Panel is in the Category view, click Performance and Maintenance, and then open Indexing Options.
3. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Modify, click to clear the check box next to Outlook, and then click OK.
4. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. In the Advanced Options dialog box, click Rebuild.
6. Click OK.
7. Click Close.

If indexing finishes without including Outlook data files, contact Microsoft Customer Support Services to request assistance with Outlook Instant Search.

If indexing does not finish, contact Microsoft Customer Support Services to request assistance with Windows Desktop Search.

Outlook errors in the Application log

Outlook can log certain events to the Application log that are useful in troubleshooting search problems. To view these errors, runeventvwr.msc to start the Event Viewer.

Compare any errors against the following list.

Event ID	Event	Description
29	Reindex mailbox	"The store <mailbox-name> is being re-pushed to the indexer for the following reason: <reason>." Outlook is completely reindexing a mailbox; one of the following reasons will be listed: First connection to the indexer This mailbox has never been run on Outlook 2007+ with indexing enabled Newly created store This is a newly created mailbox Index reset, re-push entire store Outlook detected the indexer catalog was reset; often occurs along with event 31 below MAPI Start Page deleted The user had previously elected to not index Outlook e-mail, or this is the first time Outlook has run for the user
30	Reconcile mailbox	The store <mailbox-name> is being reconciled with the indexer for the following reason: <reason>." Outlook is triggering “reconciliation” for a mailbox for the reason given; Outlook will find all items that are not currently indexed and ask the indexer to index them; one of the following reasons will be listed: The store was last opened with an older version This mailbox was last opened by an earlier version of Outlook; a change to the mailbox may have been made necessitating minor reindexing to patch The store was last opened on a different machine The mailbox was last opened on a different computer; now that it’s back on this computer, Outlook needs to discover if any changes were made to the mailbox Indexing was disabled and then re-enabled Indexing of e-mail had previously been disabled; now that it’s re-enabled, Outlook needs to discover if any changes were made while indexing was disabled Reconciliation in progress prior to upgrading, restarting Reconciliation was previously running when Outlook last shutdown; reconciliation will now resume where it left off
31	Catalog reset	The store <mailbox-name> has detected a catalog rebuild." The Windows Search index (aka “catalog”) has been rebuilt, forcing Outlook to reindex the entire mailbox; this can be triggered by a user going into the Indexing Options control panel and clicking the “Rebuild” button, or this can occur in rare conditions when the indexer catalog is unrecoverably corrupt
32	Catalog checkpoint	The store <mailbox-name> has detected a catalog checkpoint." Outlook has detected a checkpoint from Windows Search; this is normal and should occur on a regular basis (roughly daily)
33	Checkpoint rollback	The store <mailbox-name> has detected a catalog checkpoint rollback." Windows Search has requested Outlook to reindex all mails sine the last catalog checkpoint; the indexer likely was shut down uncleanly or encountered a minor corruption necessitating the rollback; if everything works out well, no mail items will be lost once the rollback completes
34	CSM connection error	Failed to get the Crawl Scope Manager with error=<error code>." Outlook was unable to access the Windows Search APIs to access the Crawl Scope Manager (CSM); errors here are generated by the indexer and often indicate a corrupt CSM, necessitating a complete reset/reinstall of Windows Search to repair; error 0x00000001 typically indicates a corrupt CSM
35	CSM lookup error	Failed to determine if the store is in the crawl scope (error=<error-code>)." Outlook connected to the CSM but was unable to ask whether a specific store should be indexed
36	Entering error backoff	Outlook Search has encountered an error and is temporarily disabling indexing for store <mailbox-name>(error=<error-code>)." Outlook has received a critical error from Windows Search and is protecting itself by temporarily stopping to push items to the indexer; Outlook will periodically check with the indexer to see if the error has cleared;Outlook 2007 SP1 only
37	Leaving error backoff	Outlook Search is re-enabling indexing for store <mailbox-name>." Outlook has detected that the previous error backoff event has been cleared and will resume normal indexing; Outlook 2007 SP1 only

Note Most of these events are mailbox-specific. Therefore, they may be logged multiples times, one time for each mounted mailbox. Additionally, some events provide a specific error code that is helpful duing debugging. Events 36 and 37 are only logged in Outlook 2007 SP1 and later versions, although Outlook 2007 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) also exhibits similar behavior.

Enable Outlook search logging

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

To enable search logging in Microsoft Outlook, set the following registry value in hexadecimal:

Path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\xx.0\Outlook\Search

where xx.0 is 12.0 for Outlook 2007, 14.0 for Outlook 2010, and 15.0 for Outlook 2013

DWORD: EnableLogging

Value: ffff0000

The log files are generated at the following location:

%TEMP%\outlook logging\

You may see a log file for all accounts or data files in the Outlook profile. The following list includes a description of the log files: 

Outlook.ost.log - where Outlook can be any store name, such as Archive Folders. This is the most useful log filefor indexing errors.

Outlook.ost-qp.log - this log file is useful for diagnosing errors encountered while querying.

Outlook.ost-reconciliation.log - this log file details the tasks that are performed during the Outlook reconciliation proceess.

SemThing.log - this log file is used to diagnose query syntax errors.

More information

For more information about how to troubleshoot Outlook search, visit the following Microsoft website:

Instant Search is not finding items

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/instant-search-is-not-finding-items-HA010198085.aspx

Searching for digitally signed or encrypted email

Because of the way Outlook packages the body text of a digitally signed or encrypted email message, only the envelope information may be indexed. In Outlook 2007, the body of digitally signed and encrypted email messages are never indexed. However, Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 do index the body of digitally signed email messages if clear-sign encryption technology is used. This does not apply to opaque-signed messages.

For more information about digital signatures and encryption technology, visit the following Microsoft website:

Understanding Public Key Cryptography

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/redir/XT010335711.aspx

Properties

Article ID: 2769651 - Last Review: 09/04/2013 09:00:00 - Revision: 4.0

Applies to

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010, Microsoft Outlook 2013

Keywords:

• KB2769651