Google Apps Sync Disables Outlook Search

The Outlook team has recently been made aware of a serious bug / flaw with the recently announced Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, and as a result we wanted to provide the Outlook user community with additional details around this problem as well as information on how to address it.

The installation of the Google Apps Sync plugin disables Outlook’s ability to search any and all of your Outlook data. When a Google Apps user installs the sync plugin for Outlook, the plugin modifies a registry key which disables Windows Desktop Search from indexing and providing search functionality for all Outlook data, not just the Outlook data being synchronized from GMail. Because Outlook search relies upon the indexing performed by Windows Desktop Search, Outlook search functions are broken as a result. It is also important to note that uninstalling the plugin may not fix the issue.

Outlook users who are considering the Google Apps Sync plugin should become aware of this issue. If you have already installed this plugin, please take note of the steps below to address the issue.

For Outlook users who have already installed this plugin or have experienced this issue, the only remedy is to change the registry key that was modified by the plugin (click the link for more detail on the registry key):

1) Press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard, and type “REGEDIT”. This will open the Windows Registry Editor.

2) Browse to the following: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search"

3) You will manually have to reset the value of “PreventIndexingOutlook” to “0” (without the quotes). To do this, right click on the “PreventIndexingOutlook” key, select “Modify…”, then change the value data to “0”.

4) Close the registry editor.

The Outlook team has been made aware of a second issue that affects users of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector which syncs Windows Live Hotmail with Outlook. When a user has the Outlook Connector installed, then installs the Google Apps Sync plugin, the next time Outlook is started an error message comes up stating that “some functionality will be disabled”. The Google Apps Sync plugin modifies a registry key that is used by the Outlook Connector, which results in users seeing this error message. When confronted with this error message, we recommend that users click “Yes” to enable functionality. The Outlook Connector will then continue to function normally. The Outlook Connector will reset this registry key to the correct value.

Finally, we have brought these issues to Google’s attention, and have offered to work with them to find a resolution for our mutual customers. As soon as this is done, we will publish more information.

Dev Balasubramanian

Outlook Product Manager