How to Fix Outlook Search Not Working on Mac

Quick Tips

• You can limit Spotlight Search on your Mac to improve privacy. However, if your Outlook profile was added in the past, you must remove it from Spotlight Search to ensure the mail search works.
• You can reindex your Outlook profile database by using the Terminal app.
• Outlook won’t perform the search function if your profile name contains special characters. We suggest removing them.

Basic Fixes

• Check your internet speed: When you search from your inbox having numerous email conversations, a good internet connection speeds up the mail search.
• Login again to the Outlook account: This will reload your entire inbox and help you find specific emails using Outlook search.
• Force quit and relaunch Outlook: Click the Apple logo at the top-right corner > Force Quit > select the Outlook app > click the Force Quit button again.
• Update or reinstall the Outlook app: To remove bugs or glitches, install the latest version from the App Store.

Fix 1: Remove Microsoft Outlook Profile From Spotlight Privacy

Spotlight Privacy on your Mac helps in hiding specific search queries. You can limit Spotlight Search using this feature to improve privacy on your Mac. If Outlook search is not working on macOS, remove your Outlook profile from Spotlight Privacy to resolve the issue if it was previously added. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open Settings > click on Siri & Spotlight from the left sidebar.

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom and click on Spotlight Privacy at the bottom-right corner.

Step 3: Check if your Outlook profile appears as an exemption. If yes, select the profile and click the minus icon to remove it.

Step 4: Click on Done to save changes.

Fix 2: Index Microsoft Outlook Database Again

If the Outlook app search has stopped working on your Mac, we recommend reindexing your Outlook database. You must use Terminal on your Mac to force the Outlook app to reindex your data.

Step 1: Open Terminal, type the following command, and press Return.

mdimport -L

Step 2: From the entries in the result, look for Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.mdimporter or something similar.

Step 3: If you spot more than one entry with the same name, reindex the Outlook data.

To do that, keep the Terminal window open, type the following command, and press Return:

mdimport -g “/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.mdimporter” -d1 “/Users/<user_name>/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles/<my_profile_name>"

Note that you must replace <user_name> with your Mac account’s name and replace <my_profile_name> with your Outlook account’s name.

Fix 3: Verify Outlook Profile Location

It’s a good idea to check the Outlook profile folder location on your Mac. If the folder location is incorrect or doesn’t have the necessary permissions, your Outlook data won’t get reindexed.

Step 1: Click on Go at the top Menu Bar and select Go to Folder.

Step 2: Type the following file path and press Return.

~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook

Step 3: Double-click on the Outlook 15 Profiles folder.

Step 4: Check if there is a subfolder with your profile name.

If you don’t see the subfolder, search it separately on your Mac and paste it into the Outlook 15 Profiles folder.

After that, open Outlook and check if the problem is solved.

Fix 4: Remove Special Characters From Outlook Profile

If the search function is still not working in the Outlook app on your Mac, check if your Outlook profile has any special characters. This may lead to Outlook being unable to perform the search function. Here’s how.

Step 1: Open Finder on your Mac and click Applications from the left menu.

Step 2: Search and right-click Microsoft Outlook and select Show Package Contents.

Step 3: Double-click on the Contents folder and open the Shared Support folder.

Step 4: Double-click on Outlook Profile Manager. Then, check if any special character is present in your Outlook profile name.

If yes, double-click on it and rename the profile name.

Step 5: Close the window and open Outlook to check if the problem is solved.

Tip: Check our post to change your Outlook account password.