Aug 2

Written by: Stephen Frost
2/08/2010 2:43 PM 

Noticed a few days ago that quick searches in Microsoft Outlook 2007 had stopped returning results.  I went into Control Panel, Indexing Options, Modify to confirm that the correct Outlook-related items were still selected ... they were.  I also went to My Computer, right-click, Manage, Services and Applications, Services to confirm that the Windows Search service was running ... it was.

Back to Control Panel, Indexing Options, Modify, to de-select the Outlook-related items, then clicked on the Advanced button and selected the Rebuild button (Delete and Rebuild Index) in the Troubleshooting section.

After waiting about 5-10 minutes for the rebuild to complete (it showed "Indexing Complete") I then went back in and re-selected the Outlook-related items (my Inbox and also my archive .PST file) and then selected the Rebuild option again from the Advanced dialog.

This time it took quite a bit longer and indexed twice as many items.  Opened Outlook and ... voila ... all my Inbox and .PST content was properly indexed and the quick search facility was working again.