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janaFlag for United States of America

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Cannot search Contact using Notes field in Outlook 2010

Hi,

I have an irregularity of somewhat in my Outlook 2010 contacts notes searching.  For some reason I cannot find any contacts using Advance Find (Advance >> Field >> All Contact  Fields >> Notes).  I have re-index (file >> options >> search >> indexing options) and left running overnight to no avail – same problem.  

I have a computer with Outlook 2010 sync with iCloud.

How can I search my Notes field within my contacts?
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Bembi
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Hello Jana,

just checked with Outlook and enhanced search....
In the headline you have possibly selected by default
Search for "Contacts" in "Contacts"

This delivers only results from the root contact folder but not necessarily from any other contact folder...

You may try to change the selection in the headline to "Search for "any outlook element" (or similar) which searches in all contact folders...

Saying this means of course, that indexing works as expected. If you can find a contact by name, you should also be able to find all other.
Also note that the Notes field may contain formatted content, which may not be able to be indexed.
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jana
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Hi Jana,

just an additional assumption / experience, because I had a similar problem some longer time ago and recreated the windows search from the scratch to get it working.
There are different methods in place for the search and the index is not used for all searches. So as far as you search in the visible content (your view with the notes field), it looks like the index is skipped. If you use the advanced search or search over the whole mailbox, the index is in place.
As far as you can see the notes in the single contact (double click), it should be there, means, iCloud synchronization works as expected. What you possible cannot see is (as the notes fields is an RTF field type, which allows formatting), what it is really inside. Formatting works with control sequences, which are not visible in the dialog.
So it is possible, that the indexer doesn't understand what is inside / what is synced with iCloud...

A simple example. Put a text into the notes field (in the contact details dialog) and change the formatting, i.e change the colour.
Then add the notes field to a view , I.e. the list view. The content is not formatted in this view.  
Also you may miss exactly this field if you look into the fields list (double click - All fields from the ribbon bar) where you will find all visible and hidden fields including the content, but not this one....

It just describes that the notes field is a special kind of field and may behave different than all others, due to the type....
And as I remember from exchange, this field is represented by two fields in the MS Exchange database,  one which includes the rtf content with all the rtf formatting instructions, and a second one which contains only the text.

Just for your information. I'm not sure if it is really the reason, but maybe an explanation.
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Thanx for the info will keep it in mind!