How can I repair Outlook 2021 and Office in general?

Search/indexing is a win feature not OL feature

If the sfc/DISM process does not complete or fix errors found, then you need to start testing your system hardware

Dear Richard,

Good day, thanks for posting in the community. I am glad to assist you resolve the issue.

To my understanding, you had issue using your outlook 2021 search engine and you tried to repair office online, but the repair wasn’t complete. And you also tried to uninstall office 2021 Pro and reinstall, but it is not re-installing.

If the above description of the problem is correct, for the situation you encountered we do understand the inconveniences caused and apologize for it and we will give some suggestions below and hope that will help you resolve your issue.

You can repair your office following these steps: Repair an Office application (microsoft.com)

You can also scroll down on the same page of the link above to download the office uninstall support tool to completely uninstall office from your computer and follow the steps to reinstall the version of office you want to install.

In addition, we notice you mentioned you have Office 2021 Pro. Is it Office 2021 Professional Plus?

If yes, and if the issue persists after you try the suggestions we provided above, considering regarding Office Professional Plus issues we have a dedicated channel Microsoft Q&A Community - Office, for you to be assisted properly, we sincerely recommend you go to that community and post a new thread, members and engineers over there are proficient in the knowledge of Office professional plus. They also have environment to test. They will focus on the specific situation on your side and share specific suggestions. We are sure that our experts from that team can address your query effectively and accurately.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation!

And if the scenario above is not consistent with yours, you can also post back.

Your patience and understanding are highly appreciated. Stay safe and have a nice day.

Sincerely,

John| Microsoft Community Moderator

Yes, it is Office Pro Plus but i have a similar problem on my notebook, which has Office Home and Business 2021.

Thank you for your help and I will try your suggestions first and see how they go.

Cheers, Richard

I have received no help from Microsoft Q&A Community - Office, nor from this blog! I still require urgent help with this problem.

Dear Richard,

Good day, thanks for your reply in the community. I apologize for the inconveniences caused as we are always available to assist you to resolve the issue.

May I know if you have tried using Office uninstall support tool suggested in my last reply to uninstall Office apps? As you mentioned “I have tried to uninstall Office 2021 Pro and reinstall it but I have the same problem that Office doesn't finish re-installing itself”, may I know what happens when you try opening any Office app (such as Word or Excel) from Start menu? Do you get any error? If so, please provide us with the screenshot.

Your patience and understanding are highly appreciated. Stay safe and have a nice day.

Sincerely,

John| Microsoft Community Moderator

Richard,

Is Outlook Search the only issue not working in Office?

There is a workaround you can use that will help mitigate the search issue near term. Use the TEMPORARY WORKAROUND in this article, Outlook Search might not display recent emails on Windows 11 (microsoft.com). After you set the registry key Outlook will use its built in search which will work but it will be a little slower. This should help get you unblocked though.

In reference to the article link I shared above we have worked with Windows to fix Outlook Search issues. Please make sure your version of Windows has all of the latest updates to make sure you have all of the fixes.

Hi John,

Murphy's law, the search engine is working for the time being, so I can't give you a screen shot of the error message but this will change if I restart my PC. However, I do still get a message at the top of the search results, which is: "Something went wrong and your search couldn't be completed". Yet there are results under this message!

When I tried to use the Office uninstall support tool it couldn't complete the process as it asked for the version of my Office but in the drop down menu there was no Office Pro Plus 2021 option, so I cancelled the uninstalling tool.

All other Office apps are working fine.

I noticed the other day that a Windows update won't install and this may have someting to do with the problem. The update is: 2022-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 for x64-based Systems (KB5018418) and the error message is: Install error - 0x800f0831.

Regards,

Richard

I noticed the other day that a Windows update won't install and this may have someting to do with the problem. The update is: 2022-10 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 for x64-based Systems (KB5018418) and the error message is: Install error - 0x800f0831.

Regards,

Richard

Dear Richard,

Good day, thanks for posting back in the community. As we are always glad to assist you resolve the issue.

Thanks for the reply and screenshot. With clear observation of the issue, the Outlook search now is rather using the Windows search instead, and that’s why you can’t use the Outlook search engine. Please follow this link; Outlook Search not showing recent emails after Windows update KB5008212 (microsoft.com) and find the details in the screenshot I just shared with you in the link to disable the Windows Desktop search which will cause Outlook to use its built-in search.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Edit at your own risk. We’ll suggest you, before making any change in the registry, please back up your Registry

Your patience and understanding are highly appreciated. Stay safe and have a nice day.

Sincerely,

John| Microsoft Community Moderator

Richard,

That install error might happen if prior updates this update are dependent on are not installed, Error 0x800f0831 installing an update - Configuration Manager | Microsoft Learn. Could you try rebooting and then go to Settings, Windows Update, Update Now and see if Windows can self correct pulling down the updates.

As John mentioned Outlook local search is based on Windows Desktop Search. I would get the update issue addressed first and then go to Settings, Indexing Options, Advanced, Rebuild to rebuild the index.