Hi,
I have been fighting WDS 3.0/Outlook 2007 for a good while now. I started with Outlook and BCM loaded, but have uninstalled BCM and re-installed Outlook alone with WDS 3.0. Everything seems fine, but my searches return no results.
On a whim, the other day, I turned off "use Exchange in cached mode" and voila, WDS started returning results! This is repeatable. I turn on caching, WDS does not return results. I turn off caching, it does.
I do not use a .pst file, but rather keep all my information on the Exchange Server. I wonder if it has something to do with either an Exchange Server setting, or something to do with my .ost (offline folder) file.
Anyway, I wonder if others that are having trouble getting WDS to return results can try to turn off cached exchange mode, and see if that helps them as well. And finally, if this info helps anyone at Microsoft figure out what is going on as it is my understanding that typically Outlook should be running in cached mode.
Thank you very much,
-John
WDS 3.0 w/ Outlook 2007 Beta - won't return results in cached mode, does when online.
arkiboys
John,
I've seen this problem a few times. The steps below will usually take care of the issue:
1. Make sure that instant search is open (the search box should appear in Outlook).
2. In the nav pane click the arrow next to All Mail Items and select your profile (or the profile you want to index).
3. WDS will start building an index of your Outlook items. Give WDS a few minutes to work on the index and then search on something pretty common like "this". You should start receiving results. It will probably take WDS a while to build a complete index so I would wait a full night before expecting to see complete search results.
Paul Nystrom - MSFT
Eric Cann
Unticking your mailbox simply causes the search box to revert to non-indexed search, not instant (indexed) search. Same problem here though. When I re-tick the box, it claims it's indexing all my items, but never results in success.
The only way I can get any search results is to turn off the index, and then obviously it's very slow to get the results... Any clues
Mr. SOAPitStop
I have the same problem. My problem only recently started though after i rebuilt my laptop. Ever since that time, i have the exact same issues as you guys have stated above. If I turn off indexing, the search starts working otherwise it doesn't. I would also appreciate if any one could shed some light on this as its driving me crazy.
As far as searching for items in WDS, it is refusing to find anything in my outlook emails (not even the archive file that I have saved locally). It does find items on the hard disk other than Outlook emails, even find stuff in windows live mail desktop.
FedorSteeman
I think John found the solution. This feature worked great when I installed beta 2 but after appling technical refresh it stopped. Now that I have tried John's solution its working again.
One note: the check boxes in the Search box settings John refered to and the settings for All Mail Items don't seem to corealate.
roeeoz
pappascd
I wasn't aware either until this happens. Of course I have no real proof that it was the installation of Visio & Project that broke the indexing, that's my assumption.
Here are the versions:
Windows XP Pro - 5.1.2600 - SP2 Build 2600 - Fully Patched
Outlook (part of Office Enterprise 2007), Visio & Project - 12.0.4518.1014 (all have same versions)
Hope this helps. Usually we get to see such problems during beta testing, I'm surprised this survived all the testing. I will be testing this scenario on a second machine (I have the same issue there too and Visio & Project were installed after Outlook) and I'll post the results soon.
Esprit
I found the solution! or at least a work around until a new version of WDS comes out.
I trolled through all kinds of forums when everything else failed and I found a thread (see link below) where it was mentioned that software like Exchange System Management Tools overwrite the MAPI that is installed by Outlook. Even though I had not installed Exchange System Management Tools, I figured that since I did install Visio & Project after the rest of Office, that might be the issue.
So I went to add/remove and did a repair of Office 2007. It took about 10 minutes and one reboot later my WDS is working fine and also the indexed search within Outlook is working fine too!
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx PostID=1109298&SiteID=1
ajliaks
I have the exact same issue now in Outlook 2007. I swear Instance Search *was* working for some time after installation (I installed about 1 month ago).
Now though, to get instant search working i have unticked the check box next to my mailbox. Instant Search works.
With the tick box in place, and in cached mode... no results.
Wth the tick box in place, and in online mode... good set of results.
Anyone else experiencing this in RTM
wleizero
Prince of Dhump
I also noted that when I use the Desktop Search Toolbar, I get no result returned no matter what I search for (filenames, keywords, emails).
Larry Surat
The repair worked on the second machine also. Same versions as previous machine.
Please keep us posted if you find the definitive problem.
LucLuc
Paul,
Thank you for the response. I thought we might have something there, but after using the search all afternoon, I rebooted a bit ago and now search is returning zilch again.
I will try and explain what I did, and what the results are. I am sorry if my terminology is not correct.
1. I made sure I could see the Instant Search menu bar in Outlook.
2. I am not sure what the nav pane is. I made an instant search for "this," and it returned no results. I went to the place (pane ) that was highlighted orange like the instant search menu bar, and titled "All Mail Items" and clicked the down arrow. Where I am supposed to be able to select a profile I want to index, the only option, is "Mailbox: John B. Sobernheim." I cannot unselect it... it is selected all the time as it is the only area I have for it to search as I have no personal folder file. I just use Exchange Server to hold all my email. I clicked this a number of times, but as I say, it remains selected and I cannot unselect it.
2a. I went into my data file management screen and told it to run in "cached mode" against Exchange Server.
3. My searches were working!
but...
4. I stopped Outlook and restarted it. My searches no longer worked.
5. Since I was confused about whether I had followed your instructions properly, I looked around some more at where I might be able to tell it to search my profile or not. I found that if I click the down arrow next to where I type in the phrase to search for, that I had a "search options" menu item. In there, I found a place where it says "index messages in these data files." In there, it has a checkmark next to "mailbox: John B. Sobernheim." (JBS) Here's where it gets good. If I turn OFF index mailbox JBS, my search starts working again! If I turn it ON, my search STOPS working. So weird!
6. So, anyway, at some point this afternoon, I was able to get the search to work, with the checkmark checked next to index mailbox JBS. However, here before I left work for the day, I rebooted my machine one last time to see if Outlook/Instant Search were finally happy, and going to stay happy. I'm sorry to say they are not. At this point I have Outlook back up and when I do a search it does not return results. It has had plenty of time to index some simple things.
7. I'm going to try a search right now. A simple word like "this" returns no result.
8. Now, I am going to go turn off the checkmark next to index mailbox JBS.
9. Now I will try another search.
10. That did not work. I fiddled around a bit more and was still unable to get search to work.
11. It is now morning. 12 hours later. I left outlook up all night. Searches are still not returning results with either the mailbox checked or unchecked. I am going to leave the mailbox checked and shutdown and restart outlook.
12. Restarted Outlook, nothing. The Mailbox: JBS is checked.
13. Unchecked the box. Shutdown and restarted Outlook. Search is now working.
So, I don't know. You certainly got me past the problem of thinking I had to work with Exchange in Online Mode versus Cached Mode. However, when the mailbox I want to index and search is checked, my search does not work. When the mailbox in unchecked, my search works.
Any other ideas
Thank you very much.
-John
PareshGheewala
Well, this problem has settled down into another repeatable (and resolvable) issue for me. Instead of being related to caching now, it seems to be related to whether I start Outlook up with my "Mailbox - John B. Sobernheim" checked or un-checked in Search Options.
If I start Outlook up with it checked, Instant Search won't work no matter what I do. Un-check it, re-check it, etc.
If I start Outlook up with it un-checked, it works. I can then check it, and it continues to work.
That is the state of John's little Outlook 2007/WDS 3.0 world. :)
-John
Sabbadin