search feature does not work in outlook 2007

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi,

I am not getting worthwhile results using Microsofts inbuilt search engine.
I am running office 2007 in Vista with all latest updates applied.

I am trying to perform a search of my contacts. I have tried searching for
details which are in the name of the contact and details that are known and
I get no results found.

If I revert to the desktop the records I am looking for are listed!

Any suggestions?

Thans for any help with this,

Nigel

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Check Indexing Options in Control panel and ensure you are indexing the
Outlook data file you are searching. You might need to rebuild the Index.

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi Bill,

I have checked that the correct data file is being indexed and that tohers
are specifically not.

How do I go about rebuilding the index?

Do I have control where the index is stored?

Thanks,

Nigel

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Your Outlook data files aren't on another drive are they? One user had the
same issue as you and it turned out he needed to index his other drive.

Go into Advanced in Indexing Options in Control Panel to rebuild or change
the location of the Index.

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi Bill,

I have my hard drive partitioned to give me 4 drives
C:OS, Drogrammes, Eata & Z:Swapfile.

I cleared the index after stopping and disabling the windows search service

upon restarting I ensured that the extra drives I need to include in the
index search were added.

I think the indexing controls could be improved
Call me a newbie but my first impression was that Modify would only affect
the selected item in the location list rather than allow me to add new
locations - perhaps "Modify locations"?
The list of file types to be indexed needs a new sort by option that would
let you group sorted by index name or index content. When you have more than
60 file extensions in the list the existing management is cumbersome.

Thanks for your help with this query.

Nigel

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi All,

Search within Outlook 2007 is broken again!

After stopping the service and deleting the cache and then re-instating, as
previously decribed, the search feature appeared to work as expected.
Unfortunately any search including "the" and "a" returns no results found
when searching my contacts. The number of indexed files has risen from
150,000 to 587,000 not sure if that is part of the problem.

Anyone have any further ideas

Thanks,

Nigel

 

[BillR [MVP]]

But searches without those words work ok?

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi Bill,

Sorry for the confusion. All searches fail. I was saying that even searches
with just "the" or "a" also failed to show that I was searching for things
that if only a couple of records were indexed and working, would have
generated results.

Thanks,

Nigel

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem: Any search of Outlook 2007 Contacts on Vista comes
up "no matches found". I have already spent hours re-indexing my entire
machine. Outlook claims "Outlook has finished indexing all of your items."
This is clearly a bug - I cannot search for anything in my Outlook Contacts!

Any help is most appreciated!

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Not sure on this. It seems something is failing. You might try to log a
support request.

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi Bill,

I think I know what the problem may be.

Microsoft has taen a user unfriendly and rather arrogant approach to
handling the results from its new search feature. It assumes that the user
will not expand the search beyond a small automaticaly defined area thereby
keeping it fast and responsive. Of course we don't all have single drive
machines with single Outlook datafiles. I personally have 4 partitions and 5
datafiles. Of course I want immediate access to all of this.

I had switched off indexing my main data file for Outlook and peformed a
search which I new should come back with around 60 records it returned two -
progress from none granted but not yet what Iwanted. I removed the data file
from the exclusion list and suddenly all the expected results appeared.
Coincidence of course it had nothing to do with that.

It was simply taking more than 20 seconds for the results to be displayed!

The fact the it displays no results found is a complete red herring. So I
guess my suggestion for an update to vista would be to show "no records
found - still searching" and maybe a little animation to show that it was
still actively searching the records rather than simply having died under
the load.

I still have to retstart my machine to ensure that the now indexed datafile
returns the records albeit slowly that I expect.

I hope this is the problem that Richard has too.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi Bill,

I rebooted my PC after remving the datafile from the excluded list. After
restart I did a search which stayed at "No results found" for 30 minutes. I
left it for about an hour an a half and when I returned it had found the
anticpated results. It now seems to be working as expected and the speed
appears to back to normal too. I'll let you know if it trips over again.

Thans,

Nigel

 

[BillR [MVP]]

It can take quite some time to build an Index. With Windows XP and the
Desktop Search installed the recommendation can be to leave the machine on
overnight to get an adequate Index built. I think there needs to be more
info out there about enabling Indexing for multiple drives.

 

[Guest]

I appreciate your comments and help. I still cannot search anything in my
contacts list - any search comes up with no records found. I do not have
multiple drives. I have left my machine on with the search running over
night - didn't help.

What are my options? I am effectively stuck without access to any of my
contacts list. Am I going to have to pay Microsoft $49.95 for a support call
to advise them that their software doesn't work and beg for a fix?

 

[BillR [MVP]]

Rebuilding the index and checking the settings in both Indexing in Control
Panel and in Outlook is about all I can really suggest.
Except that if you still have issues try a 3rd party indexing and search.
Copernic Desktop Search and the Google equivalent are two I have tried in
the past before Microsoft jumped on the bandwagon.. I particularly liked
Copernic.

 

[Nigel Freeney]

Hi Bill,

The search feature has reverted to no results found. This appears to be a
pretty useless tool for me in this incarnation - offering lits but
ultimately flawed.

I was already using Copernic Desktop Search in XP and found it useful but
slow. I chose to use it over Google Desktop Search because I could decide
where to store the index database and avoid overwhelming my C:\ partition.

Thanks,

For the help.

Nigel