Fix 1 – Ensure Windows Search Service is Started. Select “ Start” and type “ CMD“. Right-click “ Command Prompt” then choose “ Run as administrator“. If prompted, enter a username and password that grants admin rights to the computer. Type “ sc config wsearch start= auto“, then press “ Enter“. You should get a “SUCCESS” message.
Outlook 2010 instant search not working The instant search function on my outlook 2010 has stopped working. I have previously had and then repaired this issue after the initial install of office 2010.
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Type “ net start wsearch“, then press “ Enter“. You should receive a message that the service was started. Fix 2 – “Hide Messages” Setting This tip seems to commonly help people.
In Outlook, select “ View” “ Change View” and ensure you don’t have “ Hide Messages Marked For Deletion” selected. Fix 3 – Reset Indexing If Fix 1 didn’t do it, try to perform these steps to reset Outlook Indexing. In Outlook, go to “ File” “ Options” “ Search” “ Indexing Options” “ Modify” and uncheck “ Microsoft Outlook“. Select “ Close” when done. Go to “ File” “ Account Settings” “ Account Settings“.
Select the “ Data Files” tab. Write down the “ Location” for where each “ OST” file is located. We will need to go to the folder(s) specified. Close Outlook.
Using “ Windows Explorer” navigate to the folder(s) where the OST file(s) is/are located. These are the folders you wrote down in step 4.
The location is usually “ C: Users yourusername AppData Local Microsoft Outlook“. Highlight all the OST files in the folder. You can hold the “ CTRL” key to click and select each one. Right-click a highlighted file, then select “ Properties“. Select the “ Advanced” button. Check the “ Allow this file to have contents indexed in addition to file properties” option if it isn’t checked already, then select “ OK“. Now Open Outlook, then go back to “ File” “ Options” “ Search” “ Indexing Options” “ Modify” and recheck “ Microsoft Outlook“.
Select “ Close” when done. Fix 4 – Rebuild Search Index Note: This could take several hours to complete. In Outlook, select “ File” “ Options” “ Search“.
Select the “ Indexing Options” button. Select “ Advanced“. Select the “ Rebuild” button. Select “ OK” to start the rebuild. Give Outlook a few minutes to index items. The search feature should start working eventually.
Filed Under: Tagged With:, Reader Interactions. I’m adding to the answer I posted on 1/26/2017: For some reason Outlook search suddenly stopped working again. I redid the steps I had originally followed: 1) Go to Control Panel/Indexing Options, click Modify, and deselect Outlook (it had become selected again) 2) Select the folder that contains my PST files. 3) Rebuild the index (Indexing Options/Advanced/Delete and rebuild index). That didn’t do it — I also had to go to Outlook’s Tools/Instant Search/Search Options menu and uncheck the mailboxes listed in the Indexing section. (This is how it works in Outlook 2007.) As soon as I restarted Outlook the search worked again.