The Best Way to Fix Slow Outlook Searches
Outlook is the most popular email client among corporate and enterprise users because of its many features and capabilities for managing emails and other duties. The search feature in Microsoft Outlook allows users to swiftly filter and hunt for certain emails. Nevertheless, customers occasionally have problems with the search feature, such as the Outlook search option being sluggish or failing to finish, among other things. I’ll include every possible user who could have this problem in this post, along with the best ways to fix Outlook search slowness.
The causes of the slow Outlook search problems
Some potential causes of Outlook Search Slow Issues are as follows:
- The version of Outlook that users are using is outdated.
- If the Outlook file is large
- Because of an indexing problem
- When corrupted OST/PST files
- Problems with Indexing Inadequate or limited system resources
How Can I Fix Outlook Search Slow Issues?
Follow each of the methods suggested below one by one to quickly fix this Outlook problem:
1. Update Outlook
Users may experience this problem if Outlook updates improperly. Use the procedures listed below to fix this and upgrade Outlook:
- Launch Microsoft Outlook, then choose Office Account under the File tab.
- Next, go to the Update Option and select Update Now.
- Outlook will automatically update if there is an update.
2-Turn on Chache Exchange Mode:
Users may locate emails and other stuff more quickly when the cache exchange option is activated. Thus, do following actions to enable it:
- Navigate to the File tab in Outlook, then click Accounts Settings and choose Account Settings.
- Click on Change after selecting the E-mail tab.
- Turn on Use Cached Exchange Mode now in the Change Account box.
- Click Next >> Finish after that, and then restart Outlook.
3- Verify the status of indexing:
If the indexing is incomplete or waiting, users may encounter this issue. Thus, do the following actions to see your Outlook’s indexing status:
- Navigate to Outlook and select the Search option.
- Click on Search Tools under the search tab, then choose Indexing Status from the dropdown menu.
- Outlook will start indexing if the indexing is still pending. Click OK once indexing is complete.
4: Rebuild the Index
Rebuild the search index if the indexing status is still not functioning correctly. For this:
- Launch Outlook, select the File tab, select Options, and then click Search.
- Next, select Microsoft Outlook by clicking on Indexing Options, and then select the Advanced option.
- To begin the Outlook Index Rebuild process, select Rebuild and then click OK.
- Here, wait for the indexing procedure to finish. Verify whether the search problem has been fixed when the procedure is finished.
5: Save Older Mail Items
You could have Outlook slow search problems if the OST file gets big. In this situation, archiving older mail items to a PST file can help lower the size of the OST file. For This:
- Launch Outlook, pick File, click Info, and then choose Tools.
- Now choose Clean Up Old Items from the drop-down menu.
- Next, choose Archive this folder and all subfolders in the Archive box.
- Choose your mailbox >> In the Archive items older than: field, type a date.
- Turn off the option labelled “Include items with ‘Do not AutoArchive’ Checked.”
- To choose where to save the Archive PST file, click Browse now. To complete, click OK.
6: Outlook Data File Rebuild (OST)
Users may experience Outlook slow search problems as a result of OST file instability. To fix this, recreate the OST file. To recreate the OST file, take the actions listed below:
- Go to File in Outlook.
- Click Account Settings after selecting Account Settings.
- Click the Data Files tab in the subsequent window.
- Click on Open File location after choosing the email account.
- The OST file should then be copied and moved to a backup location.
- Restart Outlook after deleting the original OST file. Outlook automatically retrieves all email data items from the server and generates a new OST file.
Conclusion
You can convert your backup OST file to PST format and import it into Outlook if you are missing any mailbox items after restoring the Outlook data file. You may use GoldyTools OST to PST Converter, a dependable and expert solution, with confidence for this. All OST file issues are simply fixed by this program, which also converts OST files into PST format without causing any data loss.

