How do I rebuild the search index in Microsoft Outlook?

If Outlook is not searching all of your email correctly, you can rebuild the Outlook search index to fix this:

  • Click on File then Options
  • Select Search on the left then click Indexing Options
    Click Search then Indexing Options
  • Click Advanced
    Click Advanced
  • Click the Rebuild button
    Click Rebuild

This will cause Outlook to rebuild its entire search index. This can take a long time to complete but you can continue to use Outlook and it will do this in the background.

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