Outlook Contact Search Problem

Qui-Gon John · Post by **Qui-Gon John** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 4:00 pm

I am helping someone who I recently had to wipe & reload his PC. Reinstalled Outlook 2007 (wanted to stay with version he had been using). All is working except he has this problem and he claims it worked before we reloaded.

When in a mail folder (Inbox for example) and he clicks the ADDRESS BOOK icon on the toolbar (just to the left of the "search contacts" window), that box comes up. He says he could type a last name here and it would find the proper person in his address book. But now it seems to be doing an EXACT search for the NAME field, which starts with the FIRST NAME. So the name he is searching for is not found. Is there any way to get Outlook, in this Address Book box search to search the entire contents, which should pick up the last name.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Post by **Philip** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:24 pm

In Outlook 2010 there are a few options in that Search field... There are radio buttons: "Name only" or "More columns" (that searches by keyword in the entire record)...

Qui-Gon John · Post by **Qui-Gon John** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 9:09 pm

Same in 2007. Thing is, he says he always just searched with it on NAME and it would pull last name. But several tests I did it only seems to work doing a search from the beginning of the name field, for example, John Smith. You would have to search John S to get the result, if you type Smith, it does not show the record.

Post by **Philip** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:44 am

It behaves the same way in Outlook 2010. I don't think it has ever been any different.

Qui-Gon John · Post by **Qui-Gon John** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:42 am

It sure seems like it would not work the way he is looking for. It seems the closest options would be to have MORE COLUMNS clicked, then it works. Or on the left, have it in Folder List, click CONTACTS then just use the SEARCH CONTACTS at the top. Unless there is some other trick, maybe reindex, or change how Outlook indexes or something like that.

Post by **Philip** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:32 am

Re-indexing will not do it, Outlook email and address book searches have been clunky without wildcard support all along.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:44 am

Office 2007 was horribly buggy...luckily short lived and wasn't too popular. I call if Office Vista! Just like the OS Vista...horrible.

Anyways...if you just rebuilt it, has it been running long enough to complete the total reindexing?
Have you downloaded and install all Windows updates including Office updates? (quite a few service packs for Office 07..plus a kajillion other updates)
How large is the PST? How strong is the computer? A proper 8 gig minimum machine? Or under spec'd? (in which case...if it's a larger PST..and depending on how intrusive the antivirus is...completing a full index may take a long time!)

Qui-Gon John · Post by **Qui-Gon John** » Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:57 am

PST is about 1gb. Think the machine has 8GB of ram, but don't remember for certain. It has only been since last weekend when I completed the reload, put the PST back on and setup Outlook. Does Outlook need to be constantly open for reindexing or is that a separate Windows function.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:30 am

Yeah Outlook searches when it's open....I'm pretty sure (not 100%...I really only do MS Exchange servers...no residential pop stuff)
Go check the indexing status.
Try rebuilding.
Ensure the PST is selected...dunno if in default location or not. The PST is local right? Not redirected across the network?

Qui-Gon John · Post by **Qui-Gon John** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:06 am

Yes PST is local and in default location for Win 7 and Outlook 2007, C:\Users\Jordan\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook (I believe that is the right path). Will try to check indexing status and if need be, tell him to leave Outlook open for like 24 hrs to make sure it has time to fully update the index, or maybe try rebuild then leave open for 24 hours.

Post by **Philip** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 6:51 pm

I've had Outlook open for weeks, it behaves the same way.

Qui-Gon John · Post by **Qui-Gon John** » Tue May 17, 2016 10:14 am

I'm having another SEARCH PROBLEM with OUTLOOK 2013. I have the regular CONTACTS folder and under that 3 other folders, where I group various emails/names. One is BUSINESS CONTACTS, one is CLIENTS, and one is NON-CLIENTS. (My personal contacts, family/friends, are withing the regular CONTACTS.

Here's the problem. If I search for a partial string it will return values if they are in the FULL NAME, FIRST NAME, LAST NAME fields. But if that term is only in the EMAIL ADDRESS field, it is not found.

Can anyone help with this?