Outlook 365 version 2403: Broken search is fixed

[German]I have received a user report that Outlook 365 can cause problems when searching. A reader contacted me about this. There were workarounds to get around the problem. However, on June 7, 2024, Microsoft published a support article stating that the problem had been fixed. Here is a brief overview of this issue.

Office 365 version 2403

Office 365 version 2403 was released by Microsoft on May 12, 2024 as build 17425.2023 for the Monthly Enterprise Channel. This build will expire on July 9, 2024. Office 365 version 2405 has been available in the Current Channel since May 29, 2024, as can be read on the Microsoft update history page. With this version, however, there is a problem with Microsoft Access 365, which I addressed in the blog post Microsoft 365 version 2405 causes memory errors and freezes in Access.

Broken Outlook 365 Search

Blog reader Johannes F had already contacted X in a direct message on June 6, 2024 (thanks for that) and wrote that they had been affected by disruptions to the search function in Outlook 365 in his area "since last week". It affects Outlook 365, which is installed with the rollout of Office 365 version 2403.

In Johannes' company environment, the problem primarily occurs when searching in shared mailboxes. The reader also provided me with a link to the support article Searching Current Folder of a shared mailbox in Outlook Desktop returns no results, where Microsoft only confirmed the bug at the time of Johannes' report.Microsoft states the following about the error: If a delegate with full access rights tries to search in a shared mailbox using "Current folder" as the search scope, the message "Outlook cannot perform your search" is displayed. This error is displayed at the bottom of the message list and it appears that the search was not actually performed or does not return any results. This problem has been occurring since the update to version 2403.

At the time Johannes contacted me, there was only the option of going back to an old version of Outlook or configuring the shared mailboxes as an Exchange account. As of June 7, 2024, the above support article has been revised by Microsoft and it now states that the Outlook team has mitigated this issue. A feature has been deactivated and a change made to the service. Outlook must be restarted for Outlook Desktop to take over the service change.

By disabling the feature, it will no longer be possible to search subfolders of shared/delegated mailboxes (the current folder can still be searched) and to search the online archive for shared/delegated mailboxes. Once the fixes have been implemented, the Outlook team will reactivate these features.