Instant Search not working in Outlook

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim

I performed a fresh install of Vista Business and Office 2007 and imported
my old PST file. Everything works fine except that neither Outlook's
"Instant Search" nor the Windows Search will find anything having to do with
Outlook email.

When that didn't work, I installed Google Desktop Serach. It also will not
work at all from within Outlook 2007 but will find email if I use Desktop
Search from the system tray.

I have verified that my PST file is selected for indexing, I've run
scanpst.exe, I've re-indexed, I've followed all sorts of suggestions from
various postings in the internet. all to no avail.

I own a computer service company so know my way around computer but this one
has be compeltely bumfuzled.

I'm right on the verge of paying the $49.00 to call Microsoft for help on
this one but am afraid the nice Indian will tell me to simply erase and
start all over. Before I do, does anyone have suggestions?

TIA,
Jim
 
We're investigating several of these unexplained failures to index
internally, but I don't have a definitive suggestion to make. Normally
running ScanPST or re-indexing fixes the issue, but here's a few other
suggestions ...

- What happens when you open the indexing control panel and go to Modify
.... - is the PST listed there under Outlook? What does the status message on
the control panel say?
- Running Outlook as elevated when UAC is enabled will cause problems
indexing - you need to run Outlook as a regular user, not as Admin for
indexing to work.
- It may be worth completely resetting the index by going to the Control
Panel, Advanced and selecting Restore Defaults and rebooting. This does more
than just rebuild the index and can restore certain kinds of corruption.
- Does the event log have any messages from the search service?
- Are you running an older version of eTrust or the Adobe Acrobat PDF
viewer? Upgrading to the most recent versions can avoid certain
incompatibilities with Vista Search.

Let me know if any of this helps. Sorry I can't give you a 'magic bullet',

Dave Wood
 
Thank you, Dave. My comments interspersed:

Dave Wood said:
- What happens when you open the indexing control panel and go to Modify
... - is the PST listed there under Outlook?
Click to expand...

The PST file is included in "Included Locations"

What does the status message on
the control panel say?
Click to expand...

14,658 items indexed. Indexing Complete

- Running Outlook as elevated when UAC is enabled will cause problems
indexing - you need to run Outlook as a regular user, not as Admin for
indexing to work.
Click to expand...

I havn't seen that suggestion yet. I've re-set my account back to UAC
enabled. Will report back if that worked.

If not, I'll try the following. I'm off to restart my computer. Thanks!
 
Just to avoid any misunderstanding, it's absolutely fine to run Outlook
either with UAC enabled OR with it disabled.

It's just that running with UAC enabled, but then launching Outlook with the
"Run As Administrator" option can cause problems for indexing. Not sure why
you would want to do that but there you go ...
 
Comments below:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 2:34 PM
Subject: Re: Instant Search not working in Outlook

Thank you, Dave. My comments interspersed:



The PST file is included in "Included Locations"

What does the status message on

14,658 items indexed. Indexing Complete



I havn't seen that suggestion yet. I've re-set my account back to UAC
enabled. Will report back if that worked.
Click to expand...

This did not work.

Done. Didn't work.
None.
Click to expand...

I was using Acrobat Pro 6. I uninstalled it, rebooted, re-indexed and still
doesn't work.

Upgrading to the most recent versions can avoid certain

Thanks for taking the time, Dave.
 
An update for Google people:

I performed an "Office Diagnostics" from Word. Instant Search is now
finding new emails but not indexing old stuff. Will try a re-index later on
today.

email me at spamaddy "at" bellsouth "dot" net
 
Jim said:
An update for Google people:

I performed an "Office Diagnostics" from Word. Instant Search is now
finding new emails but not indexing old stuff. Will try a re-index later
on today.

email me at spamaddy "at" bellsouth "dot" net
Click to expand...


And one more update: The Office Diagnostics evidently fixed the problem.
After I re-indexed, Instant Search (and Windows Search) are now finding all
my stuff.
 
Glad you got this working. By the way, do you have a mix of Office 2007 and
Office 2003 apps installed on your machine? There's a known issue where
installing an Office 2003 component {e.g. Front Page 2003} after installing
Outlook 2007 can cause problems with indexing until you do a repair on
Office 2007. Could this be the problem you were hitting?

Dave
 
Dave Wood said:
Glad you got this working. By the way, do you have a mix of Office 2007
and Office 2003 apps installed on your machine? There's a known issue
where installing an Office 2003 component {e.g. Front Page 2003} after
installing Outlook 2007 can cause problems with indexing until you do a
repair on Office 2007. Could this be the problem you were hitting?
Click to expand...

Possible. I do have FrontPage 2003 but no other old apps. The details of
what Office Diagnostics fixed were unavailable.

Thank you for your time.

Jim
 
Thank you both for your posts. I have the same setup - Office 2007 with Front
Page 2003 added in later. I ran Office diagnostics and Outlook immediately
began indexing my mail. Thanks again - I was going nuts trying to figure out
what was wrong.
 
Well the diag fixed mine as well. I've tried everything for the last three
weeks. I noticed that "personal folders" was in the exclude area before diag
and not afterward.. Ron
 
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