Outlook 2007 search problem

OK, now I have seen everything. I have tried every remedy suggested to get my search to work. NOTHING!! Then, as a desparate last try I did unselect the data file to be searched. I couldn't believe it. IT WORKED. I had to do this a few times to believe it.

Tools >> Instant Search >> Search Options >> "uncheck" the data file you want to be searched

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Outlook 2007 search problem

markios

Sorry to say but did you read the last post carefully

- Checked mailbox to see if it is indexed

- The CPU always keeps indexing and already tried to rebuild index a couple of times.

I can finde e-mails but you should read my post to know. How can I trust finding e-mails if my Notes, Task...don’t even get accurate results

I am trying new approaches that I found tonight and I am going to test them.

Rene
Vishnuprasadh
Here are a few more troubleshooting steps you can take....

First, re-enable indexing of your mailbox. Go to Control Panel -> Indexing Options -> Modify -> Click the mailbox that you want indexed.

Next, boot Outlook to begin indexing your mail. Take a look at the Tools -> Instant Search -> Indexing Status dialog to see if the count goes up. (The dialog does not refresh automatically, so you'll have to close it and reopen it every so often.) Normal behavior is for this count to quickly increase as Outlook discovers all your mail that needs to be indexed, then the count should drop slowly as mails get indexed. For large mailboxes, it can take overnight for them to be fully indexed.

While you're waiting for indexing to complete, open the Indexing Options control panel and monitor the indexer's current status (second line). If it says indexing is paused (such as due to disk or CPU activity), then no indexing will take place until the other application relaxes its resource usage.

If the Outlook pending indexing counts do not drop after an hour, even though the control panel says it's indexing, then there's a problem. Likewise, if the count drops or stays at 0, then the items are immediately failing to be indexed, which indicates a separate problem. Another thing to check is the Application Event log to see if there are any errors from Outlook or WIndows Search.

A few more questions: Are you running XP or Vista Using Instant Search (with your stores selected to be indexed), can you find e-mails in any of your other mailboxes, or is mail indexing completely broken across the board

If this still doesn't help, reply back, and I have some more suggestions.

- Michael Hilsdale

Outlook Search Test Team
Behrooz PB
Thanks Mik! and whoever figured out this complete retarded problem and counterintuitive solution.
Thomas S. Andersen

Ok Michael,

When I started to try out your steps and let it index again until zero, I gave it a try again and did a search and Bingo! It works again.

What I suspect fixed the problem was the checking and unchecking in Outlook options. Maybe it fixes the index again in some other way other than manually rebuilding.

Ahh...or maybe it was this post that solved the problem and believe me people...if you are having problems with the Instant Search I suggest you try this.

It is rather long but read carefully:

"Hi,

Thanks for using Microsoft TechNet Managed Newsgroup. I'm Leon who will
assist you on this issue.

I have reviewed your post log carefully and concluded your issue as this:

When you perform a search in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, the search
returns no e-mail messages that contain the search criteria.

Is that correct

There are two main causes that this issue may occur. I've listed both for
your reference:

* Cause 1
========

This issue occurs if the following conditions are true:

1. You upgraded to Windows Vista from Microsoft Windows XP.
2. Then, you upgraded to a 2007 Microsoft Office suite from an earlier
version of Microsoft Office.
3. Outlook 2007 is configured to use the Rich Text Format (RTF) file type
for e-mail messages. Alternatively, you received many RTF e-mail messages.

When these conditions are true, the RTF file type is no longer registered
in Windows Vista. This behavior prevents Outlook 2007 from searching in any
RTF e-mail message.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. In the view pane, click Classic View.
3. Double-click Indexing Options.
4. In the Indexing Options dialog box, click Advanced.
5. On the File Types tab, locate rtf in the Extensions list.
6. If the Filter Description for rtf is either Plain Text filter or Null
filter, the RTF filter must be registered. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click
Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
b. Type regsvr32 rtffilt.dll, and then press ENTER.
c. When you receive the following message, click OK: DllRegisterServer
in rtffilt.dll succeeded.

Here is a KB article describes this:

927595 You cannot search RTF e-mail messages in Outlook 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx scid=kb;EN-US;927595

* Cause 2
=======

This cause is a known issue that this problem occurs if the following
conditions are met:

1. A computer that is running Microsoft Windows Vista has User Account
Control (UAC) turned on.
2. You run Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 by using elevated user rights.

In this scenario, you cannot index e-mail messages or search e-mail
messages because the SearchProtocolHost.exe process cannot open the same
handle to the personal folders (.pst) file that Outlook 2007 uses. Outlook
2007 uses this handle when you run Outlook 2007 by using elevated user
rights.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products.
If this is your situation, then I!ˉm afraid to say, this scenario won!ˉt be
fixed.

The reason why we don't fix this scenario is that in general, users should
never, ever be running Outlook "more elevated" than the rest of the
desktop; if they are (and they're using it for searching and other
day-to-day tasks), they're doing something that's now unsupported and has
reduced functionality as a result.

There is also a KB article which describes this:

923937 You cannot index e-mail messages or search e-mail messages when you
run Outlook 2007 by using elevated user rights on a computer that is
running Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx scid=kb;EN-US;923937

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Leon Hao"

Thanks to Leon Hao.

Maybe trying this solved the problem.

Thanks again
JungleMonkeyMike
I was unable to find any emails (even ones sitting right before my eyes failed to be found via search). I tried the unchecking bit and that does allow me to find stuff now, which helps. Before I did this, however, I tried this logging setting and looked through the log file. Every line has a FAIL status... It came back with log entries like the following:

2007/03/07|09:47:39:935|OnIndexStatusChange - Gatherer|2|2819332|Add||mapi://{removed}/Mailbox - mymailbox($70299a6)/0/Inbox/ ||||||0x80041206|FAIL

2007/03/07|09:47:45:447|Doc Not Found|2|531|||||||||0x8004010f|FAIL

2007/03/07|09:48:21:880|Exceeded retry count - DOC WILL NOT BE INDEXED|2|2819716|||||||||0x80040861|FAIL

I've tried forcing it to reindex everything, but the same results on the search side.

My system is XP SP2, Outlook 2007 (clean install - not upgraded), Exchange, Desktop Search 3.01

Ideas
BigT4446
This worked for me too.

Mach1

You are partially right but thanks.


I would like to share my version of the same problem that I think it is complicated and serious.

I am also using Outlook 2007 and waited a long time for it to index all items.
I use Notes Item a lot and have been collecting information there for a long 
time but now everytime I do a search it it’s contents brings back nothing. I 
try select indexing options from there but it hangs for 3 to 4 minutes and 
then it comes back but it says that no files need to be indexed.
I have a lot of important information on Notes but now I can’t find anything.
Using Windows Vista Business (Upgrade) + Outlook 2007 (from a 2003 version) - 2 GB of 
RAM and a Readyboost pen drive of 4 GB to speed things up.
PST files are all over 4 GB.
From what I have read on almost every post, forum and support files here is 
what I have tried and have not solved a SEVERE problem (I think):
- Rebuild Index;
- Fixmapi stuff;
- Repair Office 2007 (Final);
- Moving the PST to another PC and tried the same thing;
- Archive almost every e-mail to make my PST smaller although Outlook states 
it can be bigger than 2GB;
- Do a All Items search;
- Done an advanced search in contents of Notes and Tasks;
- Tried searching in All Notes Item Search and hangs ofr 30 minutes;
- Compacting PST;
- Left it to Index 2 days in a row;

- Used the Inbox Repair tool on my PST;

- Not using exchange

Well I can’t remember more things I have done from the searches I have taken.

I think that if I can’t rely on Instant Search for Outlook 2007 then for 
Windows Vista I am starting to give it a doubt. 

I really appreciate some help on this. And ask for someone to take this 
message to microsoft please if necessary.

PARTIAL SOLUTION!!

Hi again and again.

After taking all the steps above and rebuilding index like 50 times and testing on 5 or 6 different computers.

I decided to take the funny solution that a user called: "mar7aib" suggested and I unchecked all the Data files and it worked!

I call it a partial solution because searches are slower and I think it does not use Windows Desktop Search this way but until it gets corrected I am going to leave it this way.

I suggest everyone to do this also because a search option is VITAL in any application and we must trust it but if it does not work properly then we must wait for better days.

A good search option is important and it should return all results correct even if it is simple or advanced search.

Thanks for the help by now...if anyone has another solution to try please tell so we can try it.

Rene

Steve Criscuoli
So unchecking the Exchange mailbox allowed you to find messages in it

Are you using that Exchange mailbox in cached mode or not
jeopardy
I found a better solution. I uninstalled Vista and Outlook 2007 and went back to a reliable system like XP and Outlook 2003. I just had enough of the problems. Are we all lemmings and follow the almighty Bill Gates I, for one, had enough.
ChitownDotNet
Could one of you summarize the problem that you were having and what seemed to be the solution

Were you trying to search multiple PSTs and failing
quiklearner
Yes - many many thanks to TheMik for figuring out something I never would have even TRIED! I can stop relying on Google Desktop now for emails.
mig16
I have one MS Exchange mailbox and one IMAP mailbox. I was attempting to search my Exchange inbox for any messages. With the default configuration for the search in Outlook, I was unable to find any messages in my inbox. As an experiment, I took a message I had with Vista in the subject and in the body of the message which was in my Exchange inbox and searched for it. Search was unable to find it. I then changed the settings for Instant Search to remove my Exchange mailbox from the list of "Index messages in these data files" and was then able to find it. This was on my XP SP2 system. On my other desktop system which is runnning Vista Enterprise w/ Outlook 2007, I don't have this problem. The default settings work fine there. Not sure what the issue is with this. I have gone so far as to do a clean OS install, clean 2007 install (not upgrade) and pulled my Exchange account in and tried this just to make sure it wasn't a bad data file. Same results.

Hope this gives you what you were looking for.
johnny_no1_boy
Its running in cached mode and unchecking the Exchange mailbox under Instant Search allowed me to find items in the mailbox.
VBAddict
Ok, let's take this a step further....

1. Turn on Outlook logging (Tools -> Options -> Other -> Advanced Options -> Check "Enable logging" -> Reboot Outlook

2. Go to your Notes folder and modify a note. This will re-trigger indexing for that item.

3. Use Outlook's Indexing Status to wait for the count to get back to 0.

4. Go to "%temp%\outlook logging" and look at the log file for your store. It will have a recent timestamp and will have a name in the form "store.pst.log." Take a look at that log file, and reply back with any lines including URLs with the "Notes" folder in them.

5. Try to search for the modified item. From what you're describing, it doesn't sound like it will work, but it's good to be sure.

6. Turn off Outlook logging (since it has a performance impact) and restart Outlook.

It sounds like the items are failing to be indexed. If so, this should give us a clue to what's happening.
Outlook 2007 search problem

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