I cannot search my email...

Test Outlook.com search in a private browsing window first; if it fails there and on another browser or device, check Microsoft service health and report it through Outlook.com’s Help → Still need help? option.

1. Separate a browser problem from an account or service problem

1. Open an InPrivate/Incognito window in your browser.
2. Sign in to Outlook.com and repeat the same search.
3. Try a simple query and a scoped query, such as:
   • From:name
   • Subject:topic
   • Body:topic

Outlook.com supports these Advanced Query Search expressions, and the colon must not be followed by a space.^1^

• If search works privately: temporarily disable browser extensions—particularly content blockers—and clear the browser’s cached Outlook/Microsoft site data before signing in again. Private-window and extension testing has resolved similar Outlook Web-only search failures.^2^
• If it still fails: test another supported browser or device. If the same account fails everywhere, the problem is less likely to be confined to the original browser.

2. Check for an Outlook.com service problem

Check Microsoft’s Service Health Status site, linked from the Outlook.com known-issues page. The currently documented Outlook.com issues do not identify this exact search error as an active known issue; a similarly worded historical issue applied to groups, calendars, and group folders rather than ordinary mailbox search.^3^

If service health reports an incident affecting Outlook.com, no local repair is required; retry after Microsoft marks it resolved.

3. Escalate an account-specific failure

If search fails in private browsing and on another browser or device while service health is normal:

1. In Outlook.com, select Help from the top menu.
2. Enter: Search returns "Your request cannot be completed at this time".
3. Press Return.
4. If the suggestions do not resolve it, scroll to Still need help? and select Yes.
5. Include:
   • The exact error text.
   • When the problem began.
   • Whether every query fails or only particular names/topics.
   • The browsers and devices tested.
   • A screenshot without personal email content.

Microsoft documents this as the Outlook.com route for requesting support by email.^4^

Do not use Windows indexing repairs, delete Outlook data files, or rebuild a desktop search index for this web-only Outlook.com symptom; those procedures apply to desktop Outlook scenarios and are not established fixes for this case.

References

1. Search Mail and People in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
2. Issue when searching in Outlook web - Something went wrong - Microsoft Q&A
3. Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
4. How to get support for Outlook.com | Microsoft Support