Issue with Contact Notes

Hairston, Samantha 0 Reputation points
2026-10-05T18:14:07.8+00:00

Users are unable to search and retrieve contact notes associated with contacts stored in a shared mailbox when using Classic Outlook with Cached Exchange Mode enabled. Search results do not return the expected contact information. When Outlook is switched to Online Mode (Cached Exchange Mode disabled), the contact notes become searchable and function as expected.

The behavior has been confirmed by multiple users, indicating the issue is consistent across different profiles and not limited to a single device. We need to determine whether the problem is related to Outlook's local OST index, shared mailbox caching, Windows Search indexing, or a known limitation with contact note indexing in Cached Exchange Mode.

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business
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Answer accepted by question author
Jay1 Tran 1,620 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-10-05T18:58:14.3466667+00:00

Hi Samantha,

Thank you for providing the test results from multiple users.

Since the contact notes are searchable when Classic Outlook is switched to Online Mode, the behavior appears to be related to how Outlook locally caches and indexes the shared mailbox data in Cached Exchange Mode. As a workaround, users can continue using Online Mode when they need to search the contact notes.

Alternatively, they can keep the primary mailbox cached while disabling the download of shared folders:

  1. In Outlook, select File > Account Settings > Account Settings.

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  1. Select the primary Exchange account, then choose Change > More Settings.

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  1. On the Advanced tab, clear Download shared folders.

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  1. Click Apply > OK.
  2. Close Outlook completely, reopen it, and test the search again.

I hope your issue gets resolved soon. Any updates would be greatly appreciated.

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