Legacy Outlook for Mac 16.114.1 search shows no results on macOS 27.0.1 even though Spotlight returns hits

Adrian O 0 Reputation points
2026-10-23T07:07:14.4+00:00

Environment

  • macOS 27.0.1 (26A434), upgraded from 26.6.2 on 2026-10-21
  • Microsoft Outlook 16.114.1, Legacy Outlook (IsRunningNewOutlook = 0)
  • IMAP accounts only, one profile ("Main Profile"), ~267,600 messages

Problem

Since the upgrade to macOS 27, every search in Outlook ("All Mailboxes" or the current folder) shows "No results". The last successful search in Outlook's diagnostic log was on 2026-10-21 at 08:30 UTC, before the upgrade.

What is verified to be working

  • Spotlight indexing is enabled on / and /System/Volumes/Data.
  • The profile folder is not excluded from Spotlight, and the importer "Microsoft Outlook Spotlight Importer.mdimporter" (16.114.1) is registered and imports correctly (mdimport -t returns 60 attributes per message).
  • mdfind and an NSMetadataQuery from a sandboxed test app both return the expected hits inside "Outlook 15 Profiles" (e.g. 101 hits for one term), with correct kMDItemPath and com_microsoft_outlook_recordID.
  • The record IDs match Outlook.sqlite (e.g. recordID 342498 -> Mail row with the same PathToDataFile, not hidden, not marked for deletion).
  • Only one Outlook.app is registered with LaunchServices.

What Outlook logs

  • Diagnostic log: "Spotlight search result success {"ResultCount":106}" (also 500 for other terms), but the message list stays empty. The "Spotlight search first batch results" event that appeared before the upgrade no longer appears.
  • Right after the upgrade: "Spotlight mdls output {"OSMetadataAvailable":false,"OutlookMetadataAvailable":false,"ContentTypeMatch":false,"ItemKindMatch":false}"
  • Unified log (Microsoft Outlook process), on every donation: Completed donation: result: Error Domain=CSIndexErrorDomain Code=-1000 "Failed to request donation" NSUnderlyingError={NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099}

Steps already tried, none of which fixed it

  • Adding the profile folder to Spotlight Privacy and removing it again
  • mdimport -r on the Outlook Spotlight importer (full reimport)
  • Restarting Outlook and corespotlightd
  • Moving the per-user CoreSpotlight store (~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight) aside so it gets rebuilt (no effect, so the original store was put back)
  • mdimport on the "Main Profile" folder, as in the support article "Troubleshoot search issues in Outlook for Mac". Note: the article's command "mdimport -g ... -d1 ..." fails on macOS 27 with "'-g' no longer supported", so the article needs updating.

Expected: Outlook shows the messages that Spotlight returns for the search.

Actual: Outlook receives the Spotlight results (ResultCount > 0) but shows "No results".

Outlook | MacOS | Legacy Outlook for Mac | For business
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  1. Julie Huynh 4,265 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-10-23T09:16:20.31+00:00

    Dear @Adrian O,

    Good day! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum!

    Thank you for the detailed troubleshooting information.

    Based on what you've shared, it appears you've already completed most of the search-related troubleshooting documented in the Microsoft guidance, including validating Spotlight indexing and reindexing the Outlook search data.

    To help narrow down the cause, could you let me know whether you have already tried:

    • Creating a new Outlook profile and testing search before importing any existing data
    • Reinstalling Outlook and re-adding the affected IMAP accounts
    • Clearing Outlook's local application data/cache and allowing Outlook to rebuild the local data after signing back in and resynchronizing the accounts

    If you have already performed any of these steps, please share the results.

    This information may help determine whether the issue is related to the existing Outlook profile or local Outlook data, rather than Spotlight indexing itself. Since Outlook's diagnostic logs show successful Spotlight searches with non-zero result counts, it would be particularly helpful to know whether the behavior persists with a newly created profile or rebuilt local data.

    Kindly let me know when there are updates or if you need further assistance. Any updates you’re able to share would be really helpful.

    I'm here and happy to help! Thank you for your kindness and patience! 

    Was this answer helpful?

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