Tips to fix Email search not working on Outlook 2016 for Mac

Email search is a useful function to fetch useful items like mailbox, contacts, attachments etc. It improves the productivity of email application at user’s end. Sometimes, it fails to work due to unknown error in Outlook Mac account. Then, you should take necessary steps to remove this error adequately.

                         

Problem Description:

In Outlook for Mac, many users receives “No results” message when they try to search for an email message, even after applying filter to a folder. The task items does not display in task folder. Additionally when user search by using the Mac OS Spotlight filter, the search will not be successful.

Note: While performing the search option, be careful of following facts:

1. Mac OS must be include the Spotlight Search option

2. Spotlight search should be synchronized with Outlook for Mac

3. When new items is include in Outlook, it takes few time for indexing

Root Causes of the Error:

There are various issues found that causes the search issue in Outlook for Mac. However, I have discussed the major causes behind this error.

      1.   The spotlight search indexing is not complete

      2.    May be the profile name includes any special character

      3.  The profile or its parent profile is added under privacy tab of Spotlight.

      4.  The Spotlight search index is corrupted.

Different Methods to solve this error

We have discussed the root causes and the reasons of “No Result” error. Now we will talk over the methods to solve the error. There are many techniques available that helps you to eliminate the problem.

Method 1: Complete Spotlight Indexing

If any user recently created a new Outlook Profile in Outlook for Mac or you have recently imported a new data from PST or OLM file then spotlight index may not be complete. Because of this Outlook for Mac search option gives the “No result” error. In such cases user should wait for some time until the Spotlight Indexing get completes and then they should start the search

Method 2: Eliminate the Special Character

User of Outlook 2016 have to make sure that they have not added any special character in Outlook profile. In this case user need to change their profile name, To do so follow the below steps:

View Profile Name:

• Click on Go>>Applications
• Now, Right Click on MS Outlook and then choose the Show Package Contents
• Enlarge Content, Shared support and then click to Open Outlook Profile Manager
• If your Outlook for Mac profile contains any Special character then follow the below steps to change the name

1. Open the Profile folder in Outlook 2016 for Mac. Below is the location

Users//Library/GroupContainers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/

2. Now, rename the Outlook profile name and remove the special characters included there.

3. After doing the changes, make sure that profile name changed successfully (Follow the above-discussed process)

Method 3: Remove the Privacy Tab

Make Sure Outlook 2016 for Mac profile folder in Mac OS or any of its parent folder not added under the privacy tab in Spotlight. If your Outlook profile or its parent profile added under the privacy tab then Spotlight does not index this folder. You have to remove the folder location from Privacy tab and wait for some time to complete the index process.

Method 4: Repair the Corrupt Spotlight Index

By following the above-mentioned method if still the error found. As In some cases it happens that Mac OS spotlight index got corrupted, To get over this corruption user need to Re- Index the spotlight index, follow the below steps:

     1.    Go to Apple Menu>> System Preferences and click on Spotlight

     2.    Click on the Privacy Tab and then drag the folder or disk that you want to re- index to list the location that Spotlight prevent from the searching. Or simply click on Add (+) to select the folder

     3.    Choose the folder/ disk that you have recently added and then click on the Remove (-) to eliminate it from the list 

     4.    Now Quit the system preferences and then Spotlight re-index the folder or disk contents.

Conclusion:

All the above methods are described to eradicate the “No result” error from Outlook 2016 for mac. As per the experts opinion all the above methods are implemented to remove the error. In case, you still unable to eliminate the problem then rebuild Outlook 2016 Mac database file. I hope it would be effective for you.

Feel free to discuss any problem in Outlook Mac. You can also share troubleshooting experience with us.