outlook search not working

I ran into similar issue since I upgraded to macOS Big Sur.

I got Apple Support involved twice, with live troubleshooting sessions. Unfortunately, they could not solve te issues.

This recommendation from Apple Support did not work in my case:

- Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

In fact, at step #3, I got a consistent error message "Privacy List Error: The item couldn’t be added or removed because of an unknown error".

Ultimately, I have found a way to address the 2 major issues that I reported :

1/ Spotlight search not working after upgrade to macOS Big Sur

2/ Outlook for Mac - Search not working after upgrade to macOS Big Sur

Here are the steps I followed to fix the issues:

1/ Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP)

2/ Disable Spotlight indexing

3/ Enable Spotlight indexing

4/ Wait long enough for indexing to complete (couple of hours depending on the amount of files on the HDD).

5/ Enable System Integrity Protection (SIP)

1- Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP)

• Start the Mac in Recovery Mode (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255)
• Launch the terminal application
• Enter the following command to disable the System Integrity Protection (SIP):
  • csrutil disable
• Restart the computer - The system is now running with SIP disabled.

2- Disable Spotlight indexing

• Launch the terminal application
• Enter the following command (admin password will be required):
  • sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

3- Enable Spotlight indexing

• Launch the terminal application
• Enter the following command (admin password will be required):
  • sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

4- Wait long enough for indexing to complete - Coffee Break !

• You can verify if Spotlight indexing is in progress by trying some Spotlight searches ... you will see the message "Indexing ...." while the process is still underway. Be patient.

5- Enable System Integrity Protection (SIP)

• Start the Mac in Recovery Mode (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255)
• Launch the terminal application
• Enter the following command to enable the System Integrity Protection (SIP):
  • csrutil enable
• Restart the computer - The system is now running with SIP enabled. back to normal operation.

Post-operation checks

• Step #3 of this procedure should work, i.e. you should no longer get the "Privacy List Error": https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
• Spotlight search should return the correct/expected results
• Outlook for Mac should find the matching messages as expected.

Please let me know if this solution also works for you.

Outlook is a Microsoft product, please contact Microsoft for support or visit one of the Microsoft hosted Office for Mac forums.