Solving the "indexing never finishes" issue

[Cara]

Operating system::    Windows 10
Outlook version:     Pro Plus 2021
Email type or host:    IMAP

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I have tried multiple suggestions (and, sadly, have lost track of what I've done/changed in my setup) to resolve the issue of "You may not be seeing all search results yet..."

I have 10 active email (IMAP) accounts in Outlook Pro Plus 2021. I have multiple VBA searches set up in my ribbon to see emails from, for example, the last 24 hours, sent within 7 days, etc. I have rebuilt the Windows 10 search index multiple times, but I don't think it ever really FINISHES indexing. The last change I made was to (in desperation) set the registry key "PreventIndexingOutlook" to 0, after having it at 1 for some time.

Over the last couple of days, I've seen indexing start to work to return results, with a count of over 70K items left to be indexed. Then, it dropped below 20K items, so I hoped it might be working. Today, it's back up to 68K items not yet indexed. It never finishes indexing, but I wonder if this is because my accounts are IMAP, so it has to reindex every time I send/receive?

I would love to get my Outlook indexing stable enough that my many searches actually work consistently. I don't know where to start, or what I've already done that could be adversely impacting this.

Any tips?

 

[Hornblower409]

Corrupt Outlook Data Files?

How to repair a damaged Outlook Personal Folders file (pst)
Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost) - Microsoft Support
Using Scanpst in Outlook Click to Run | Slipstick Systems

 

[Diane Poremsky]

IMAP is partly the cause. Outlook will often reload the account and needs to resync.

Are you syncing all IMAP mail or is the sync slider set to less than all? ?Setting it on All may help if its not syncing everything.

Also, leave Outlook open when the computer is running. don't open and close it all day long.

 

[Cara]

Corrupt Outlook Data Files?

How to repair a damaged Outlook Personal Folders file (pst)
Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost) - Microsoft Support
Using Scanpst in Outlook Click to Run | Slipstick Systems

It appears that I have all OST files, so I'm assuming Scanpst does nothing for me, right?

From this page, I see that I can supposedly DELETE my OST files and Outlook will recreate them - but it seems like that would SLOW indexing, not speed it up: Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost) - Microsoft Support

 

[Cara]

IMAP is partly the cause. Outlook will often reload the account and needs to resync.

Are you syncing all IMAP mail or is the sync slider set to less than all? ?Setting it on All may help if its not syncing everything.

Also, leave Outlook open when the computer is running. don't open and close it all day long.

My sliders are set to less than all - because there's SO much mail in my Gmail accounts... I believe it's SYNCING everything, just not indexing it all.

I'll try leaving Outlook open all day, but I'm pretty sure I've tried that before. I'll report back...

 

[Hornblower409]

It appears that I have all OST files, so I'm assuming Scanpst does nothing for me, right?

From this page, I see that I can supposedly DELETE my OST files and Outlook will recreate them - but it seems like that would SLOW indexing, not speed it up: Repair Outlook Data Files (.pst and .ost) - Microsoft Support

You are correct. SCANPST is not usually much help with OST files.

How big are the OST files?

If you have tried everything else, you could make a backup of the OST files, delete them, and wait for Outlook to pull the data back down. Could be a long process. This is on the assumption that one or more of the OST files is corrupt and that this is what is hanging up the Indexer.

Another possible is to check the Indexing Event Logs.
How to trace Windows search index events - Microsoft Q&A

(But note the comment on this thread - "The answer from Henry Mai looks like AI generated text. On first look its a detailed answer, but at a closer look, its totally useless, because the information is absolutely wrong!")

Have you been thru the Microsoft Search Troubleshooter?
Fix problems in Windows Search - Windows Client

 

[Diane Poremsky]

if its stuck syncing, I usually have the user change the account settings in Send/Receive settings (Ctrl+Alt+S). Click Edit, and set the IMAP account to not get unread count in subscribed folders and to only sync inbox, maybe a few other folders. If you only use classic Outlook to move mail, the folders won't have new items in them anyway.

Also leave the check every setting at 30 min. Folders will sync when you select them so no need to sync more frequently, especially if you have a lot of folders or a lot of accounts. Oner sync will not finish before the next one starts.

 

[Cara]

@Diane Poremsky
For now, I turned off the unread count option.
I'm not sure I can eliminate any folders from send/receive. I use Outlook to manage email on my notebook, and another app to manage it on my iPhone, and I want to make sure that changes I make in Outlook get reflected to the server so that they're current on the iPhone app. I'll see if just eliminating the count makes any difference, for now.

@Hornblower409
Yes, that event viewer suggestion was inaccurate, and the troubleshooter tells me it "fixed" Search, but doesn't say that anything was wrong with it. I'll be testing deletion of ONE of my .OST files, if Diane's suggestion doesn't make any difference.

 

[Cara]

At least for now, leaving outlook open has finally gotten the unindexed count to 0.

Thanks!