This issue is plaguing myself and 10 of my colleagues for the last few months. We consider ourselves IT pros, but are stumped with this one. Here is the situation:
Windows 7, Outlook 2010, Exchange 2010 (updated versions of all), some machines domain joined, some not.
If you build a new Outlook profile (.ost) from scratch search works. If you never reboot your computer search continues to work. After rebooting a computers Outlook's search functionality is for only that day. After the next day it no longer produces anything in search. If you delete the .ost and start the Outlook again it will reindex the ost and work again. If you remove the profile from the index and add it back it will work again. If you use scanpst it finds errors in the ost and says it fixes them, but then the local OST copy doesn't sync with Exchange. For example, if you delete an email on your local OST it never deletes in on the server. If you run a mailbox repair request it doesn't find anything wrong with the mailbox. I created a new mailbox database and migrated my mailbox to the new DB and it still has the same issue.
If you use OWA you can search your mailbox fine. Please for the love of MS help us.
