Search Folders show in italics and become inactive
I have a couple of Search Folders configured such as for “Unread Mail” and “For Follow Up” and they usually work great.
Unfortunately, sometimes these Search Folders stop from updating and show in italics. I then need to click on them to reactivate them.
Why is this happening and how can I keep my Search Folders active?
Search Folders will become dormant when they haven't been used for a while. The italicized text indicates that the Search Folder has gone dormant.
You can keep Search Folders active for a longer period of time by editing the Registry.
Special care must be taken when you are using an Exchange Account in Online Mode.
SearchOfflineKeepAliveDays Registry Value
To keep them active for a longer time, you must create the below value name in the following Registry key:
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Options\General
Value name: searchofflinekeepalivedays
Value type: REG_DWORD
As the value, set a number between 1 and 999 to represent the amount of days the Search Folders should remain active.
Your Search Folders may become inactive one more time, but clicking on them will reactivate them with the new “timer value”.
Create the path and value as it will likely not exist yet.
Exchange Cached Exchange Mode
When you are using an Exchange account with Cached Exchange Mode enabled, make sure set this key on all your computers as this timer value isn’t synched with the Search Folder via Exchange.
Exchange Online Mode
When you use an Exchange account in Online Mode (Cached Exchange Mode turned off), then you must use the following value name instead:
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Options\General
Value name: searchonlinekeepalivedays
Value type: REG_DWORD
When you have lots of Search Folders, you must also configure the following key value:
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Options\General
Value name: searchonlinekeepalivedays
Value type: REG_DWORD
As the value, set the number of Search Folders that you have.
Note: This may increase the amount of resources that you use on the Exchange server which may have been limited by your Exchange administrator. Instead of using this Registry setting and if possible, it would be better to turn on Cached Exchange Mode.
