1. Reindex Outlook Mac

Before rebuilding the Spotlight index

Apr 30, 2020 Quit and relaunch the Outlook Search Repair if it reopens upon restarting. Click the Reindex button. The Outlook Search Repair Utility will show Reindexing, please wait while it works. This process can take up to an hour or longer depending on the size of your Outlook profile. Outlook does not need to be open while the repair occurs. If you’re using Outlook 2007, the body of digitally signed and encrypted email message are never indexed. This is not the case, however, for Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2010. The body of digitally signed email messages in those Outlook versions are indexed if they're signed and encrypted.

• Follow the steps for when Spotlight returns unexpected results.
• If you're having difficulty finding items in the Mail app, follow the steps to rebuild Mailboxes in Mail.

Rebuild the Spotlight index

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
2. Click the Privacy tab.
3. Drag the disk or folder that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add.
   
   You can add an item to the Privacy tab only if you have ownership permissions for that item. To learn about permissions, choose Help from the Finder menu bar, then search for “permissions.”
4. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added. Then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list.
   
5. Quit System Preferences. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the disk or folder. This can take some time, depending on the amount of information being indexed.

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Original KB number: 2800895

We do not recommend that you change the default location of your Profile folder for Microsoft Outlook 2016 for Mac, or your Identity folder for Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011 to an external hard disk or to a network. Additionally, using a mail identity or profile that is located on an external hard disk or on a network is not supported in either version of Outlook for Mac.

More information

Outlook 2016 for Mac caches your mail items in a profile in your home folder at the following location:

~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/Outlook/Outlook 15 Profiles

Outlook for Mac 2011 caches your mail items in an identity in your home folder at the following location:

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities

Reindex Outlook Mac

Like Microsoft Entourage for Mac 2008, Outlook 2016 for Mac and Outlook for Mac 2011 are intended to be purely locally cached mail clients. Changing the location or using a mail identity that is located on an external hard disk or a network is not supported.