Search Ribbon Missing in Outlook? Here’s How You Can Find it

Outlook handles one of the most important responsibilities of the professional world. It is handling emails. The client oversees the exchange of some really important conversations. And, it also provides you with the solution to search for them. However, when the search bar goes missing, it causes panic. So if you are facing the issue of the search ribbon missing in Outlook, then we have you covered.

 

What Makes the Search Bar Important

• It prevents you from manually looking through a sea of emails.
• You can find entire trails with just a keyword.
• Also, there are user-specific results. This proves useful in many scenarios.

Reason Behind the Search Ribbon Missing in Outlook

The Outlook search bar missing is most commonly reported in 2019 and Office 365 versions. This might be because they have the most frequent updates.

We will clarify that the frequent updates aim to improve the product. However, one of them includes changing the interface for more comfort. So if you see the search box missing in Outlook, it is not a glitch. Rather, it is just the result of an updated interface.

 

Fixing the Issue of Search Ribbon Missing in Outlook

Now that you know why your Search bar went missing (no pun intended), we can proceed to look for it. In this section, we cover the stepwise method of making it appear again.

• First, you need to click on File. After that, navigate to Options.
• Next, you have to proceed to Customize Ribbon. Now you will find the option of Choose commands from, and opt for Tools Tabs. Also, under Customize the Classic Ribbon, tap on the Main Tab.
• Now you will see a list of options. From here, choose Search.
• Once the Search is highlighted, click on the Add>> button. It will be present in the middle of the screen.
• Once you are done with the process, click on the OK button present at the bottom of the screen. This will save all the changes that you made just now.
• Finally, you can check if the Search ribbon is available on the Outlook layout now. You can also use the functionality to refine your search.

Emergency Procedure: If you are in a hurry and see the Search ribbon missing in Outlook, then there is a quick fix. You can use the combo CTRL+E or just hit the F3 button. This will take you straight towards the Search bar. However, this will not make the Search ribbon appear permanently, so it is not exactly a solution. Rather, it is a short-term fix.

 

Final Words

The Search bar is a utility feature of the Outlook platform. It has been refined with continuous updates and widespread research and development. Hence the issue of the search ribbon missing in Outlook might leave you devoid of any facilities. You can spare a few minutes to make it appear again. After all, it will help you save hours of your time right? However, for the worst-case scenarios, you have the emergency step which we provided in the step before.