Exchange Search Not Working? Diagnose Search Issues in Server

Shini Mohan | Modified: October 16, 2024 | Exchange Server | 5 Minutes Reading

Is your Exchange Search not working for some reason? Whenever you or other people in your organization try to find a particular item the Exchange Server gives out a blank result or displays the wrong data. Such issues are more common than you think and often lead to a drop in productivity.

Moreover, even veteran admins solving such issues is no easy feat. That’s why to ease up this long and tedious process we have put together a list of strategies that can help you locate exactly what looking for from the high volume of emails you receive daily.

This guide covers the entire roadmap from common causes to actionable solutions. Whether you’re using Exchange 2016, 2019, or Exchange Online, these steps will help you resolve the issue and get your search functionality back on track. Let’s first see why this issue is appearing on our server.

Common Causes of Exchange Search Issues

Large Email Volume: If suddenly there is a spike in the number of emails you receive then the Exchange server may not be able to index all of them. So you encounter the Exchange search not working issue.

Inconsistency After Data Migration: Whenever there is a complex inter-server transfer like a cross-forest mailbox in an Exchange Migration server may struggle to correctly map out the data. That’s why you won’t be able to see the results even after an advanced search.

Improper Version Upgrades: If a new security patch or feature extension is rolled out from Microsoft and there is a problem in its installment then also the search feature get affected.

These are some common scenarios that people face with their exchange search engines. Solving these issues can be done easily with a manual method to fix the exchange search problems when Exchange search not working.

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Method to Diagnose Exchange Search Issues

Note: Before performing this task to troubleshoot the Exchange 2010 search index issue make sure you provide the following permissions to recipients.

Prerequisites to Diagnose Exchange Search Issues:

Providing Recipient permissions

These permissions are highly necessary before performing this task. If you are an admin and want to see which permission is assigned to you. You can refer Run “Get-ManagementRoleAssignment” cmdlet to see all the permissions assigned to you. These permissions are as follows.

1. Permission to Mailbox server
2. Permission of Calander and sharing
3. Permission to configure resource mailbox configuration
4. Permission to Mailbox database
5. Permission to recipient provisions
6. Permission to move and migrate email mail

Five Ways to Diagnose Exchange Search Issues

Following are the steps through which you can resolve Exchange Search Index Issues & fix the Exchange search not working problem:

1. View Microsoft Exchange search status.

Go to Start > Administrative tools > Services.
In Services check start the Microsoft Exchange service and move to the next step.

2. Check database configuration.

Check whether the index-enabled parameter is set to true.
If not then go to Microsoft Exchange PowerShell and run the command given below:

3. Check the mailbox database crawl state.

Go to MSExchange Search Indexes and check the crawler:/mailboxes counter.
Now, go to Console > Monitoring Tools and click on Performance Monitor.
Click on ADD or click on the green color plus sign.
Go to the Add Counters section and select counters from the computer list. Then Select the server where you want your mailbox location.
Now, you will find an unlabeled box. From the Computer list select the counters. Then select, MSExchange Search Indexes.
Select an instance from the mailbox database. Click Add and then OK
Check the counter. If the value is 1 then emails still crawling but if a value is 0 then emails crawl is complete.

4. Check the Indexing Health of the Database

To Diagnose Exchange Search Issues first, check the indexing health of the database copy by running the following command in Microsoft Exchange Power Shell.

5. Test-ExchangeSearch for Specific Mailbox
If the mailbox is crawled, Then run Test-ExchangeSearch cmdlet in Microsoft Exchange Power shell. This command gives you details of specific mailboxes.

Additional Efforts to Resolve Exchange Search Not Working

6. Check for Event Log

In above command, result checks for event log and search related error messages when Exchange search not working. Check status result related to MSExchangeFastSearch and MSExchangeS.

7. MSExchange Search Restart Procedure

Now, Go to Start > Administrative tools > Services.
Right Click on Microsoft Exchange Search & Stop this service. Then start it again if Exchange search not working.

8. Reseeding the Index Catalog

To reseed the index catalog following commands need to be performed.

9. Check catalog corrupt issues

If search Catalog is Corrupt then follow the following procedure. Run this PowerShell command to know that Status of Reseeding.

Now, If the Property is crawling and value is not healthy then run then catalog is corrupt.

10. Reseed Index content

This is a procedure to reseed the index catalog. If you have a copy of database this command will reseed the index content and create a copy of it.

11. Reseed specific source index content

If there is a specific source you want to access then write the shell command given below:

12. Creating another copy of database

If there is only one copy of the mailbox in the database then follow the following procedure:
Stop the service by running the command given below in Power Shell.

Rename the folder with a name.

Start the services again to Diagnose Exchange Search Issues.

Wait for some time until the database is creating a copy. Check the status of catalog again.

Note: If the value changed to healthy then your search issue has been resolved.

Conclusion

Above article describes how you can Diagnose Exchange Search Issues when Exchange search not working. This issue arose due to large no of Emails. We saw how to use the Shell command to repair MS search engine. Moreover, using various command line for PowerShell given above, we can repair Microsoft search results. Also, search engine errors and faults can be found using the same commands.