Troubleshoot searching with Advanced Find

Missing information in search results or Advanced Find dialog box 

I know that an item or file is in a folder, but I don't see it in the search results.

The current search criteria may include the correct location of the file, but other criteria may exclude the file you're looking for. Try any of the following:

• Check the criteria specified on each tab.
• Click New Search to clear all current criteria except the folder location and the type of item or file you are searching for. Specify different criteria.
• Click All Files (*.*) in the Of type box on the Files tab.
• Make sure you are searching all subfolders. Click Browse in the Advanced Find dialog box, and then make sure the Search subfolders check box is selected.
• If you are searching for messages sent to or from a particular person or group, type the name of the person or group exactly as it appears in the To or From box in the message, not the full e-mail address. To find messages from Michael Suyama, type Michael Suyama in the From box, not MichaelS or Michael Suyama (E-mail).
• If you are searching for contacts and type a phone number in the Advanced Find dialog box, the number is not automatically broken into parts or formatted for you. For example, if you type 1234567890, Microsoft Outlook won't find the phone number (123) 456-7890. To return the specific number you want, search for the phone number with parentheses around the area code and a hyphen after the prefix. If you can't recall the entire phone number, search for part of the number, such as 7890, 123, or 456.
• When you create a custom date/time field, the value of this field remains none until you enter a value. However, when you search for items where the custom date/time field exists, Outlook does not find items with a custom date/time field value of none.
• If you search for items that include a custom currency field that does not equal a specified value, items that do not have a value for the custom currency field are not found. If the field value does not exist, it cannot be equal to any value.

I'm searching for a document, but only message folders are available in the Select Folders dialog box.

The field I want to use to search for an item doesn't appear on the Advanced tab.

• The custom fields that appear on the Advanced tab in the Advanced Find dialog box vary based on the folder that you select in the In box (to the right of the Look for box). If multiple folders appear in the In box, such as Tasks and Notes, then no custom fields are available when you click Fields on the Advanced tab. To search for items using custom fields, select one folder to search at a time.
• The Advanced tab does not display calculated fields, such as Size.

Saved searches

When I use a saved search, many of the items or files I previously found are no longer found.

Check to see if the search criteria include a network drive.

• If the criteria include a network drive, make sure the drive is still available.
• If the criteria do not include a network drive, the missing items or files may have been deleted or renamed since the last time you performed this search.

I'm using a saved search that works on another person's computer, but it doesn't work on mine.

• The folders on your computer may be named differently than the folders on the computer of the person who created the search. If the folder shown in the In box (to the right of the Look for box on the first tab in the Advanced Find dialog box) is not available on your computer, click Browse to select from a list.

• If you are searching for items or files in someone else's folder, items marked "private" do not appear if you don't have access permissions. 

Category searches

The category I created isn't in the list of available categories.

You may have created the category by typing it in the Categories box of an item. If you want a category to be available to all items, you must add the category to the Master Category List.

1. Click Master Category List.
2. In the New category box, type a name for the category. Click Add.
3. Click OK twice.

When I search for items I assigned to a category, they don't appear.

If you assigned items to the category by opening the items and typing a category name instead of selecting the category from the Available categories list in the Categories dialog box, you may have spelled the category differently. Category names must be spelled consistently for every item assigned to the same category.

Public folder searches

When I search for items in a public folder, I receive an error message.

You can only search one folder at a time. Subfolders and all other folders must be searched separately.

The Find Public Folders command is missing from the Tools menu.

• Depending on the server version, if you are working offline or you lost your connection to the Microsoft Exchange server, the command is not available. When you re-establish a connection, it is available again.

Other

When I search for items by start time, some items returned don't match the criteria.

• If you use the name of a day as criteria, such as messages sent on or before Sunday, Microsoft Outlook returns the items that meet the criteria for the next occurrence of that day. To make sure Outlook returns the items for the day you want, be as specific as possible, such as last Sunday, tomorrow, or 2/27/97.
• If you search for all appointments and meetings that start on or after a particular time, you may see results that don't match the criteria. For example, if you search for all appointments and meetings that start on 4/25/96, the search results may contain a recurring appointment that starts on 3/7/96. The search returns recurring appointments and meetings that have end dates that have not been reached, even if the start time for the recurring appointment or meeting does not meet the criteria. If the end date has not been reached, the recurring appointment or meeting is returned.

When I make a change to an item in the search results, the change doesn't appear.

If you click Stop during a search for items or files, and then make changes to items or files in the search results, the changes are not immediately visible. To see the changes you made, click Find Now to start the search again. If you changed an item or file on a server, in some cases, the change won't appear until a scheduled time.

Finding documents is slow. 

When you use the Advanced Find dialog box to search for files that contain certain information in their contents, the search is much faster if you select the specific type of file you are looking for. For example, if you are searching for Microsoft Word documents that contain the word "Sales", click Documents (*.doc) in the Of type box in the Advanced Find dialog box before you perform the search.