outlook 365 search not working in ventura 13.3.1

I've an iMac 24" M1 OS Ventura 13.4.1

First thing to do is follow the steps in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MolCR5-WOGQ

BUT in addition to adding the folders in the Outlook 15 Profiles folder (I had the Main Profile and New Profile folders) in the Spotlight Privacy box, ALSO ADD THE Mac HD ICON into the Spotlight Privacy box. Click Done. Then, as explained in this video, reopen the Spotlight Privacy box. TAKE EVERYTHING OUT -- ALL THE FOLDERS and HD ICON. Click Done. I then opened Spotlight in the Menu bar of my Mac and put "outlook" in the search field. Don't press "return" when you do that. Just let it be. A blue indexing "progress" bar should appear. For me it took 1.5 hours to index. When done, I opened the Outlook app. Did a test search on my emails and contacts. Voilà. Works like a charm! Hallelujah! Hope this helps.

Hello anteater74,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Sounds like you're experiencing search issues when attempting to use Microsoft Outlook. If so, we can recommend some steps to help out. Follow the steps below:

1.) Restart the Microsoft Outlook app.

2.) Restart your Mac.

3.) If that doesn't help, you might have to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Outlook.

• Uninstall apps on your Mac - Apple Support
• Install purchases from the App Store on Mac - Apple Support

If your issue continues, please reach out to Microsoft support for additional help: Microsoft 365 help | Microsoft 365

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Best of luck.

I should also point out that when you add the Mac HD Icon to the Spotlight privacy box, the system pops up a warning dialog that Spotlight won't work on anything on the HD anymore.

A little scary but I ignored that because moments later I knew I would remove it from the privacy box.

And afterwards, I tested both search within Outlook and generalized Spotlight search. Looks okay to me.

Like Apple, Microsoft makes countless decisions about what to bother with. I guess search within Outlook didn't make the cut...

This technique also worked for me and I am very grateful. This was on Ventura 13.5.2 installed on a brand-new Mac Studio, and the Outlook app (and everything else) was brought over from an iMac using Migration Assistant.

Like others I tried the steps described in the Youtube video, and it didn't work, at least in a stable way. Augmenting the approach with the Mac HD icon technique did the trick. For me the full indexing took less than an hour.

Great tip!

Gosh, I received no such warning. That would be scary. Good you ignored it. Btw, I originally was advised to do this by a "Level 2" Microsoft tech person. Unlike anyone else I talked to at Apple or at Microsoft, and unlike anything I found on Microsoft's so-called online "support," this Level 2 person was very familiar with the problem and was confident that the solution would work. And it did. I'm indebted to her! But why this isn't common knowledge and mentioned on Microsoft's site, I'll never know.

I've been searching for weeks on how to fix this and found many, many frankly wrong answers. This works - and so simple! Thank you, thank you, thank you - you've solved a huge problem here because Outlook without search is pretty useless! Hero 🙌🏻

THANK YOU!!! I've been trying to reindex Outlook for over a week now - tried everything - and this worked!

You are welcome! So happy this helped.

Thank you for that great feedback. I'm thrilled that it helped! This seems to be a common issue. Why the solution isn't included anywhere in Microsoft's online support is a mystery.

That's because Microsoft doesn't know how to solve it :)

Adding the HD icon beside the profile folder is necessary especially when migrating from one macbook to another

Absolutely!