Top 3 Ways to Resolve ” Outlook 2016 Search Greyed Out ” Error
Outlook is the most popular email client, which provides an advanced search feature. With the help of this feature, users can find their particular email items quickly by narrowing down search criteria. At times, some users may find that the advanced search fields in Microsoft Outlook are disabled or grayed out. It still provides a simple search, which is not enough to dig down through a large amount of email. This problem has been faced by many desktop users along with those who are available in the business field. Therefore, in the upcoming section, we are going to discuss a manual approach to fix “Outlook 2016 Search Greyed Out ” issue in an absolute way.
“In Outlook 2013, I have used the “search” function daily and it worked fine until now. However, after updating Windows 10, Outlook 2013 search tools greyed out. Also, outlook will now start to search previous emails first, instead of most recent. But when I tried indexing and I will not get any results. Can anyone help me out to resolve “Outlook Search Grayed Out” error ?”
Different Ways to Resolve Outlook Search Grayed Out | Outlook Search Not Working Issue
If the Advanced Search function in MS Outlook is not working or grayed out, the users can fix this problem by using Outlook Options, Registry or Group Policy Setting. Let us discuss several ways to resolve this issue:
Resolve MS Outlook Search not working via Outlook Options
Basically, you may incline to look at the registry when there is an issue with any software, and that is the fact for this particular problem. However, moving directly to the registry should not be the first option since there is another way that would do the trick. Let us have a look:
a) Firstly, click on the Outlook Options via program itself
b) Then, select the Search tab located in the left side pane
c) After that, hit on Indexing Options and choose Microsoft Outlook
d) To move further, click on Modify button and select MS Outlook again by marking the checkbox beside it
e) Press OK button to fix Outlook error
Fix Outlook Advanced Search grayed out problem via Registry
If the above-stated method does not work when Outlook search greyed out 2016 then, you need to open Registry Editor and map to the following key:
Here, in the right panel, create the new DWORD (32-bit) and assign the name i.e., PreventIndexingOutlook and give it a numeric value 0.
After this, click OK button and check that the problem has been resolved or not.
Command to Check Group Policy Setting
If above method gets failed when Outlook Search Not Working or Outlook 2016 search greyed out, the users can look at the Group Policy settings and make a slight change if required.
Now, run gpedit.msc from Run command to open the Local Group Policy Editor and follow the below-mentioned setting:
From the right-hand side, you can see the Prevent indexing Microsoft Office Outlook. Make sure that it is set to Not Configured, not working or Disabled option.
Final Words
In the above-discussion, we have covered all manual ways to fix “Outlook Search Greyed Out or Outlook search not working Issue ” issue in detail. With these three methods (Outlook Options, Registry or Group Policy Settings) users can resolve Outlook error in a simplified way. Just make sure to follow each and every step very carefully.