Outlook’s search relies on the Windows to find items. Usually, Outlook is to blame for a problem but not this time. Here we’ll try to explain what’s happening, what Microsoft recommends and what might actually work. There’s many possible sources of the problem and therefore solutions. Outlook always shows the ‘incomplete index’ error message above no matter how long you wait. Sometimes you might need to leave the computer on overnight so the indexing service can catch up.īut too often, the indexing never ends. Depending on the size of your hard drive and Outlook data, that can take many hours.
Sometimes all you need to do is wait until indexing is complete. It’s great when it works but too often you get the dreaded “Search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed”.
More than a few people have problems with the Outlook ‘instant’ search feature. Thanks for joining us! You'll get a welcome message in a few moments.
