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How to Fix Outlook Search not Showing Recent Emails

To find all your recent emails, you must first repair the PST file

7 min. read

Updated onJanuary 29, 2024

updated onJanuary 29, 2024

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Key notes

Outlook is an email client used frequently across the world, especially by businesses and other corporate entities, and like any other frequently used program, it can develop issues over time that require fixing and maintenance so it can continue working properly.

When using Outlook, there are times when you want to find some old mail from your folders, whether it is the Inbox or Sent folder.

However, if the search doesn’t yield the results you’re expecting, it could be that your Outlook data file isn’t checked for indexing, so you need to check that the search index works correctly.

Why is Outlook search not showing recent emails?

One of the most common reasons Outlook is not searching all emails is the indexing function in Windows operating system.

This is a common issue across all Outlook versions as each version uses a similar base to function called the Outlook Search Index.

The solutions presented above should also apply in these scenarios:

This and other issues can be resolved through a few solutions outlined below.

How do I fix Outlook search not showing recent emails?

1. Repair the PST file

You should know that you will need to run the Inbox Repair Tool several times to fully repair your personal folder (.PST) file.

Also, the Inbox Repair Tool cannot repair every problem that is detected. In some cases, it will not be able to recover the files if they were permanently deleted or damaged beyond repair.

At the same time, if you need to recover all your email on the Outlook platform really easily, you have to choose thebest Outlook email recovery softwareand save your work.

Sometimes Outlook’s search issue is related to file corruption, especially the .PST file which is the program’s database file.

However, we have an excellent guide onhow to repair corrupted files on Windows 10that may help you with that really fast! If the scanpst.exe could perform the operation, it’s time to take out the big guns.

Stellar Repair for Outlookwill effectively solve .pst file corruption or damage. With a repaired .pst file you will not only have access to all the emails and contacts that may have been lost, but the indexing process will be complete successfully.

This means that future email searches will return the correct results. Basically, Outlook search will work once again as it should.

2. Perform an SFC scan

3. Run Outlook in Safe Mode

If Outlook not search emails doesn’t happen in Safe Mode, then the issue isn’t with your basic drivers, but if it does, then check your drivers and/or update or reinstall them.

4. Perform a System Restore

Hopefully, the system will restore to the point in time before the Outlook problem started manifesting, and now it works fine again.

5. Rebuild the Index

Rebuilding the index of Outlook should also repair theSearchfunction and after this process, the app should work smoothly again.

6. Repair or reset Microsoft Office

7. Check the search scope in Outlook

By default, Outlook is set up to look in its current folder but by performing the steps above, you will make it look into all your mailboxes when searching for an email.

8. Check if the indexing is complete

If the indexing isn’t complete, check the remaining items and wait for about five minutes and check again. Assuming they don’t reduce, try the next solution.

9. Configure indexing options

Make sure theFilter Descriptioncolumn showsOffice Outlook MSG IFilter. If not,either the Windows Search service is not working correctly, or Outlook could not install the filters correctly. Check with Microsoft support for this issue.

If interested, read this guide to know how tofind emails with empty subject lines on Outlook.

10. Rebuild the search catalog

If indexing finishes without including Outlook data files or doesn’t finish, contact Microsoft support for help.

With this solution, we also conclude our guide on what to do if Outlook is not searching all emails, and we hope that our tips help you fix this annoying problem.

Another recommendation would be to delete the old emails you don’t need occasionally.

Sometimes, just that alone can make Outlook run faster and better and prevent such problems. Even more, don’t hesitate to take a closer look at our guide on how touse Search Folders in Outlook.

In the unlikely case that none of these fixes help, you should consider our selection, includingthe best Windows 10/11 email clients, and choose a better one.

In case you want to look foremails with special characters in Outlook, we have mentioned the steps in a separate guide; have a look!

Did any of these solutions help resolve Outlook not searching all emails? Let us know in the comments section below.

How to Fix Outlook Search not Showing Recent Emails#

How do I fix Outlook search not showing recent emails?#

1. Repair the PST file#

2. Perform an SFC scan#

3. Run Outlook in Safe Mode#

4. Perform a System Restore#

5. Rebuild the Index#

6. Repair or reset Microsoft Office#

7. Check the search scope in Outlook#

8. Check if the indexing is complete#

9. Configure indexing options#

10. Rebuild the search catalog#