question

MattPollock-7884 avatar image
1 Vote"
MattPollock-7884 asked DanielBradley-7505 edited

Exchange 2019 Search Issues

Hi,

I'm in the process of migrating my orgs email infrastructure from Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2019
All new Exchange servers are running 2019 CU6, the Outlook client is the latest Office 365 click to run version, latest updates applied.

I'm 600 mailboxes into the migration, and I'm starting to get users complaining about being unable to search Outlook.
All of the Outlook clients are in cached mode by default.

During my investigation I'm seeing that whilst in cached mode performing a search eventually times out with the "Something went wrong and your search couldn't be completed", "It looks like there is a problem with your network connection"
Clicking the "Let's look your computer instead" link will return results contained in the local .ost file, but only going back as far as 3 or 4 months ago.
Cached mode is set to have all mail downloaded it is worth noting.

Putting Outlook in Online mode instead of cached mode does not improve things, exactly the same results are experienced when searching.

After reading a few threads I have restarted the following services on all new mailbox servers "Microsoft Exchange Search", MIcrosoft Exchange Search Host Controller" with the hop that the database search indexes will be refreshed/rebuilt. I did this yesterday and left the servers overnight, but there is no improvement in searching in my testing.

Has anyone had simliar experiences with their setup, and more importantly being able to fix these issues?
Considering Exchange 2019 is now on CU6 I find that this issue still being apparent is really poor.

Thanks

Matt

office-outlook-itprooffice-exchange-server-connectivity
· 2
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Exchange 2019 CU8 got released today, give it a try, KB458885.
this included fix might do the trick?: - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4583542


0 Votes 0 ·

Hi! I found this resolves permanently now! It is a link to my blog where we found a permanent fix without having to migrate to a new DB or start the mailbox assistant.
https://ourcloudnetwork.com/permanently-resolve-big-funnel-indexing-issues-in-exchange-server-2019/

0 Votes 0 ·
LydiaZhou-MSFT avatar image
0 Votes"
LydiaZhou-MSFT answered LydiaZhou-MSFT commented

Do users have the same search issue when use OWA?
Do all user mailboxes moved to Exchange 2019 have this issue? Please try to create a new user mailbox on Exchange 2019, check if the search issue can be reproduced on it.

Try to create a new Outlook profile for one migrated mailbox, then test the search again with Outlook cached mode and online mode.
If you have other databases on Exchange 2019, you can move some mailboxes to a new database. Verify if something can be fixed during the migration.
Please also check event logs for any related error information. Since "It looks like there is a problem with your network connection" is displayed, don't forget to check your network connection and network-load performance.

· 6
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful.
Since your phenomenon is different from a known searching issue of Exchange 2019 mentioned by RalfMaas-1487, we need more information for further analysis. Pease let us know if suggestions above work for you.

0 Votes 0 ·

After a bit of testing I am noticing the following behaviour.
- Searching in cached mode enables the best experience, but is still inconsistent in terms of results returned.
- Rebuilding the Outlook search index also gives better results once reindexed.
- OWA searching is a lot quicker and the results seem more accurate.
- searches using the Outlook mobile client are also a lot quicker and more accurate than Outlook desktop client.
All issues seem to centre around the Outlook client and intermittent issues being able to access Exchange 2019.
In parallel to this I am also noticing intermittent failures with Outlook being able to access mailbox automatic replies.
Again the issues are not present in OWA or with the Outlook mobile client.

0 Votes 0 ·

Do all users use the same version of Outlook? If available, you can try with other versions of Outlook.
Do you check the network load when reproduce the searching issue?

For cached mode, Outlook uses Windows Search Service. It's different from OWA and Outlook online mode. From your description, the searching issue only occurs for Outlook client side, cached mode works better, and rebuilding Outlook search index gives better results, your issue may be caused by Outlook performance. You can check this for more information: How to troubleshoot performance issues in Outlook.


If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

0 Votes 0 ·

Finally I have also noted errors in the event logs on all of the new Exchange 2019 servers relating autodiscover and EWS issues.

The MSExchangeServicesAppPool looks to be restarting at least once a day on each server due to errors.

Event ID's - Event 1 MSExchange Autodiscover,
Event 4999 MSExchange Common,
Event ID 1325 ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0 all recorded regulary within seconds of each other.

Clearly something is not right in Exchange 2019 CU6

0 Votes 0 ·

Do you get any errors when setup a new Outlook profile with Autodiscover for Exchange 2019 mailbox?
Please make sure Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 is installed and other prerequisites are met before installing Exchange 2019 CU6. For your reference: Cumulative Update 6 for Exchange Server 2019.

As mentioned above, this issue is more related to Outlook performance. We also can test with other Outlook version and another computer outside the domain.


If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

0 Votes 0 ·

Is there any update on this thread? If you have solved your problem, could you share with us? Maybe it will help more people with similar problems.
If there is anything else we can do for you, please feel free to post in the forum.


If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

0 Votes 0 ·
RalfMaas-1487 avatar image
1 Vote"
RalfMaas-1487 answered MattPollock-7884 commented

Hmm,

I don't get it that this problem is ignored.
this bug mentioned here
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/60aab333-0a33-4568-b2e7-a3ab0cedfc1d/search-bug-with-exchange-2019?forum=Exch2019

IS STILL NOT FIXED!!!!! all our customers migrated or started with new forrest with(from) exchange 2019 cu3 and now are on CU6 have still this search issue problemen.
De search in OWA and Outlook in Online mode have the problem that not all results will be showed when you search for emails with specific words.

the only solution is to enable Outlook cached mode so windows search handles the search in outlook for you.
this is not acceptable by any means. You can't run cached mode in VDI envoirments etc..... for the sake of expensive diskspace usage

also moving mailboxes between databases will not resovle the issue.. it wil come back for new emails. the search index does not correctly index or repair itself.

the new search engine in exchange 2019 is not working as expected. That microsoft removed to rebuild the search index... we have no options to repair it ourself. also the search services are running on exchange 2019 ...

my advices for you is to not migrate, let the mailboxes stay on your exchange 2013/2016. and migrate when microsoft fixes this.
no worth the complaints from your end-users and that you need to disappoint in the end.

Give us an solution please in exchange 2019 CU7 build

· 2
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.


After a bit of testing I am noticing the following behaviour.
- Searching in cached mode enables the best experience, but is still inconsistent in terms of results returned.
- Rebuilding the Outlook search index also gives better results once reindexed.
- OWA searching is a lot quicker and the results seem more accurate.
- searches using the Outlook mobile client are also a lot quicker and more accurate than Outlook desktop client.
All issues seem to centre around the Outlook client and intermittent issues being able to access Exchange 2019.
In parallel to this I am also noticing intermittent failures with Outlook being able to access mailbox automatic replies.
Again the issues are not present in OWA or with the Outlook mobile client.

0 Votes 0 ·

Finally I have also noted errors in the event logs on all of the new Exchange 2019 servers relating autodiscover and EWS issues.

The MSExchangeServicesAppPool looks to be restarting at least once a day on each server due to errors.

Event ID's - Event 1 MSExchange Autodiscover,
Event 4999 MSExchange Common,
Event ID 1325 ASP.NET 4.0.30319.0 all recorded regulary within seconds of each other.

Clearly something is not right in Exchange 2019 CU6

0 Votes 0 ·
DaniZontag-6930 avatar image
0 Votes"
DaniZontag-6930 answered MarcoMandricardo published

Exchange 2019 CU8 got released today, give it a try, KB458885.
this included fix might do the trick?: - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4583542

· 2
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

have u tried? i have same problem described here

0 Votes 0 ·

are you sure it will fix this issue? have you tried?

0 Votes 0 ·
jackieb avatar image
0 Votes"
jackieb answered JohnPoulmentis-6339 commented

We've been dealing with Microsoft Support for months on Exchange 2019 search issues and they are completely useless. I don't understand A. why they can't easily reproduce this in a lab and B. whey they cant just look up other tickets of users reporting the same issue. Now that they have released CU8 of course we're told to upgrade to that even though there is nothing documented in the release notes that relates to this issue. Are companies just not using Exchange 2019? Or does everyone have their users in cached mode? (impractical for VDI environment)

· 6
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

have you tried CU8? it fix the issue?

0 Votes 0 ·

Sorry for the late reply, CU8 did not fix it. Support has told us to wait until CU9 now.

0 Votes 0 ·

Figured out a solution that seems to be working at the moment. Our environment is rather simple--one on premise Exchange 2019 CU8 instance deployed onto Server 2019. OWA and mobile always seemed to yield better search results, but Outlook 2013/16/19 all were crippled. Mind you, though better, still not complete.

So, for starters, I noticed that Exchange Service Host Controller was set to manual. I set to Automatic and have it starting up at boot.

Second, I noticed Windows Search service was disabled. Again, set to Automatic.

Now, under Windows Indexing Options (Change how Windows searches), I made some changes. Went to Advanced > File Types and added EDB for the Exchange Databases. I then went to Modify and added our entire C and D (our data drive with the mailbox databases) for indexing.

A few hours later, things seem to be working just fine AFTER months of trouble.

Anyways, hope this helps!

John
www.validitytech.com

0 Votes 0 ·
Show more comments
MattPollock-7884 avatar image
0 Votes"
MattPollock-7884 answered

I fixed this issue by removing EWS API 2.2 and installing on a different server.
EWS API 2.2 had worked for 6 years on Exchange 2013 servers, but turned out to be very problematic when installed on Exchange 2019 servers.
I read somewhere that the EWS API conflicts with Exchange Web Services in IIS.

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

MarcoMandricardo avatar image
0 Votes"
MarcoMandricardo answered

hi, i have same problem\scenario:

The problem is native from the beginning and is still present.

We are in trouble with the search from outlook 2016 in online mode.
We can find some results with a specific search query: (R: I: 2020 360-R: 20117- 1548GSC -A****S - Demande de pièce de rechange)
but searching for '2020-360' match all elements except for 2 specific items.

Refining our search query, including other texts that is part of the object of the mail, can find also the target mails.
with the query : 'Demande' we find all the items requested.

We have verified the update level of the clients 2016,
Office Professional Plus 2016 16.0.5095.1000 MSO 16.0.5095.1000 a 32bit

we have a new fresh deployed Server Windows 2019 with exchange server 2019 CU 7 onboard.

We tried all possibilities offered in this article: https://support.microsoft.com/it-it/office/risoluzione-dei-problemi-di-ricerca-in-outlook-2556b11f-f4d8-46be-b0a7-de33a3f4f066#bkmk_incompleteresults
In OWA we can find all items without problems, than we assume that Server side was fine.
but We notice also that on Exchange console, with the command: Get-MailboxStatistics m*@a***.it | fl funn,MCDB
we obtain some strange behavoirs:
BigFunnelIsEnabled : True
BigFunnelMaintainRefiners : True
BigFunnelMessageCount : 16668
BigFunnelIndexedCount : 16002
BigFunnelPartiallyIndexedCount : 666
BigFunnelNotIndexedCount : 0
BigFunnelCorruptedCount : 0
BigFunnelStaleCount : 0
BigFunnelShouldNotBeIndexedCount : 1030

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

PanosPap avatar image
0 Votes"
PanosPap answered EthanODonnell-8944 commented

I have a similar problem issue with email search in outlook 2016 and 2019 connected in exchange server 2019.
We have limited results when we search for emails and after the latest security updates for exchange 2019 we faced a new issue, we cannot find the latest emails (search starts 1 week back).
I partly solved this by changing search area from current folder or mailbox to All Outlook items .
You are searching on the server and not in the local file (.ost file) when the outlook is connected to exchange server. Try to search with wifi disable or Ethernet cable unplugged in a cashed mode mailbox and you will find what you search.

· 1
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

One of our clients is experiencing the exact same issues.
Shortly after the patch for Exchange Zero Day - Indexing was borked for all mailboxes in the org.

After moving every mailbox to another database to force re-indexing as we STILL do not have feature parity RE big funnel PowerShell cmdlets between Exchange Online and OnPrem, we now have sporadic issues with particular email being completely unsearchable. There is no indication og any failed index items in the statistics or the Failed Index items returned by a get-failedcontentindexitems in EMS (Cmdlet says content index but checks against the mailboxes big funnel in Exchange 2019).

Are we just going to be moving mailboxes around for the next year whilst we wait for the CU that provides us with the ability to initiate a full re-index of an individual mailbox?

1 Vote 1 ·
BrianMorris-7506 avatar image
2 Votes"
BrianMorris-7506 answered

Hello,

We are also experiencing this issue at our company. We just migrated from Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2019 CU9. We use Outlook in online mode. We cannot use Outlook in Cached Mode.

When you do a search in outlook it only returns the past couple of weeks then skips 4 months then returns the rest of the results.

CU 9 did not fix the search issue.

I also upgraded to Outlook 2019 from Outlook 2013 which did not fix the issue.

I tried some suggestions to move the mailbox to another database which did not work.

When you run the powershell command for big funnel everything appears to be fine.

We do not have Software Assurance so Microsoft will not speak to me.

It's funny Microsoft will take your money for a purchase but if their product is broke they will not warranty it.

Microsoft fix this issue. It is still broke.

Provide some warranty support for your product.

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

ITneverends-2708 avatar image
2 Votes"
ITneverends-2708 answered PeterZiergiebel-8008 commented

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one STILL running into this issue. It's been a problem since we migrated in mid-2020.

It's really hard to find any consistencies regarding this issue but I think I might have found one relating to forwarding mails - Would anyone mind testing it for me so we know we're experiencing the same problem?

When receiving a mail, we'll be able to find it just fine by using the Search functionality in Outlook. However, once we've forwarded the mail to any address and then try to find the original mail again, it will not pop up in the search results. However the forwarded version of this mail will be searchable in the Sent Items folder. It almost seems like the search is built on a mail conversation as opposed to separate mails.

Obviously, A user might forward a mail and then try to find this mail again in the future - which will prompt an issue cause they can no longer find it after forwarding. I'm curious to know if others are experiencing the same behaviour when forwarding mails.

· 1
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

Hello there,

one of our users experiences the same, after forwarding an email he is not able to find it anymore.
We have migrated him to another DB, he archived like 80k mails and the error still occurs in Outlook & OWA!

I really hope we're gonna get a solution to this!


Currently on CU9 by the way! @Microsoft

0 Votes 0 ·
MarcoMandricardo avatar image
1 Vote"
MarcoMandricardo answered DaniZontag-6930 commented
· 1
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

We have been with the same Issue since late 2019, we have opened a case then, Microsoft Been searching allot (more then 4 months) around our exchange server with no solution or any direction or confirmation ( they close the issue saying that the outlook clients are the fault for some reason)

The solution we made is going back to Exchange 2016. Exchange 2019 search engine is a damaged product! ….. just the same as Bing.... just useless :-)

0 Votes 0 ·