"search people" not finding all contacts

[astro46]

Ol16. volume license version. on Win7.
This is the opposite of the old, ongoing, problem of Outlook listing multiple versions of the same contact. In this case it is not finding all contacts. eg: search on Cathy. returns one contact, even though the contact list shows 3 Cathy's. Search on Ron. May show 3 Ron's, while the contact list has 7. etc.

If I 'search people' on "Al " (note space after Al) it will still show 2 Al's, and Alice and Alicia but not all the other Al's in contact list.

I am not referring to the Search box directly over the contact list, which, eg: will show all Al's along with a number of other entries about which i have no idea how they relate. but at least all the Al's are there.

I have rebuilt the index a couple of times.
Both "outlook" and the folder which contains the .pst are checked in the indexing choices.

I can't say for sure how long this has been happening. I just noticed it yesterday.
Some setting got changed on my computer?
It never worked right, but I hadn't noticed before? (not likely)
Corruption due to the Windows/Office update that i ran on Thur? (my first choice)
other?
Ideas on how to fix it?

 

[astro46]

I am now realizing that the way I stated the problem is not really accurate. the issue is not so much that some contacts with similar names are not found. The problem is that some contacts are not found. similar or otherwise. This problem is on the laptop.

I use the same pst on my desktop computer, syncing between the two depending on which computer I will be using. I don't see the problem on the desktop computer. Only on the laptop. the contacts show up in the contact folder, but not found in 'search people'.

 

[astro46]

update: this problem is, in fact, happening on both laptop and desktop computers. "search people" may find several listing for the same person, a listing that is in fact only the email address (no access to entire contact info), or not find anything for that name. I have to go to the contact list to find the contact.

I have tried rebuilding the "index" several times. this does nothing for the problem.
Is there an index within Outlook separate from the Win7 general computer index?
Any other suggestions?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

What is the index status? Moving the pst back and forth between the computer may be causing search to completely reindex everything - this can be very slow.

There is not a separate index - it's not stored in the pst, but is stored on the hard drive. If a pst does not have mail delivered to it, it won't be indexed by default.

 

[astro46]

looking at the status as shown in your pic, it says "outlook has finished indexing all of your items. 0 items remain to be indexed". btw: the .pst file gets synced, generally, twice a week, on friday to the laptop, and sunday night, back to desktop.

yet I search on certain people and get no results. unless I search from the contacts screen. eg: in using the "search people" , david z. showed up as just the email address, then I opened an email, put in his name, deleted the suggestion. searched again, now get nothing. open the contacts, search for david z. and there he is.

btw: I am sitting here with a friend and explaining this issue to her. She says she has the same problem with outlook.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

in using the "search people" , david z. showed up as just the email address,

This is the result of a change in behavior. There is a reg key that can turn this off. Search People Finds Contacts That Don't Exist

I don't know if setting the key will help, but I'd try that first and see if it works better. I can't recall if contacts were found after deleting the autocomplete entry before I set the key.

 

[astro46]

I checked the registry, and indeed, DoNotIncludeNickNameCacheInSearch, is not there for the desktop. Don't know what to say since I was aware of this entry, and remember putting it in. But there it wasn't. Could an "update" have deleted it?
however, on the laptop, which also has office 16, there is no "16" listed in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0. Only 15. I just did an office repair through add/remove but still no 16. so I added the key 16.0 and key Outlook, and dword. didn't make any difference.

eg: the laptop is not finding any contact with 'david' in the name. there are several.

is solving the missing 16.0 key the first step? what is the easiest way to do this? I am reluctant to uninstall and reinstall and lose all settings.

 

[astro46]

regarding missing 16.0 key, should mention that this is v.l. version installed. Not 365.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

if the key doesn't exist, you need to add it - they don't exist by default. Reinstalling or repairing shouldn't remove keys but using the utility to completely remove office will.

 

[astro46]

very odd (though not odd compared to other experiences with MS software). as mentioned above I had added the keys and it made no change. so I deleted them. then I ran office repair. again no change.

today, after reading your reply from yesterday, I started laptop, went to registry to re-add the 16.0 and Outlook as " keys". registry wouldn't accept the 16.0 key, saying it was already there. Really? I don't see it. Rebooted computer. Now I see 16.0 and Outlook and Security keys (I never added Security below Outlook).

OK. I add the the " DWORD: DoNotIncludeNickNameCacheInSearch Value: 1". try Outlook again, try rebooting, still names not appearing in search.

attached is screenshot of regedit. perhaps there is something wrong that I am not seeing.

thanks

 

[astro46]

update: after not getting better results from adding key .I rebuild index. Now "search people" seems to find no one. I tried 10 names starting with different letters. search from contact list still works ok.

frustrating.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Sounds like they were all the autocomplete cache and it's not searching contacts.

How many contact folders do you have and are they enabled as address books?

 

[astro46]

you're a genius.
I have one contact folder ( I used to have several, had problems because of that. You suggested using just one, with categories to separate contacts. I followed your advice.)
I didn't know how to enable contact list as address book, had to look up how to do it. Turns out the contact folder on the laptop was not enabled as address book. (It is enabled on the desktop ) . don't know why it wasn't enabled. but after enabling address book, search now works as expected. as far as I can tell.

Thank you.

 

[barryzigas]

I'm having a similar problem, get "no entries" when I search in Office 365 Outlook Contacs using the search box at the top of the list of contacts. When I sue the "Search People" box at the top right, it finds all the instances of any name I am searching for. This just happened today; before this I could find any contact by typing the name in the box at the top of the view window and it would start finding names even as I typed. Now, nothing. Any help with this sudden change would be appreciated.

BZ

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I'm having a similar problem, get "no entries" when I search in Office 365 Outlook Contacs using the search box at the top of the list of contacts. When I sue the "Search People" box at the top right, it finds all the instances of any name I am searching for. This just happened today; before this I could find any contact by typing the name in the box at the top of the view window and it would start finding names even as I typed. Now, nothing. Any help with this sudden change would be appreciated.

BZ

Look in File, Office Account - what build # are you using? Was an office update installed right before you noticed a problem? Some recent builds have a broken search when you use a pst file - it may also apply to imap data files.

 

[CalmIT]

Maybe a bit off-topic but related

I noticed that the new "Search People" find contact box behaves differently when opening Outlook 2016 in Safe Mode

I get the old familiar pop-up which is nice and compact and WORKS! I can click on any of the entries and the Outlook Contact Form opens

Note also the drop-down arrow in the "Search People" box which shows recent searches. This is missing when opening normally

Can this method of displaying the contact search be reinstated by a registry hack?

When I use the new Search People function I can click on the the top two results, but the Outlook Contact Form does not open

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

i don't think so - there are some reg keys to use contacts instead of contact cards, but nothing I've seen will be this dialog back. I will check though.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

I checked - no, there isn't. Sorry.