Outlook has a Search bar above the message list - what to do? It IS A BUG

Outlook has a Search bar above the message list - what to do? It IS A BUG

So Outlook unexpectedly has an app search bar about the message list. You can see this is an official message from Microsoft, and finally, there is some kind of fix and solution from the Microsoft team. I was browsing through a lot of their community support forums, and this issue seems to be bothering many users.

What just happened? Basically, you can see this annoying app search bar in your message list, and you can't remove it. It blocks literally half of the screen, maybe a bit less. So, it seems this is a bug, and Microsoft confirms it. The Outlook team has implemented a fix for this issue and currently anticipates it to go out in the February 13th public update.

So, what can you do if you just want to get rid of this bug? One option is to wait until February 13th. However, there is no 100% guarantee that it will fix the issue, but it's worth a shot. Just make sure to update your Microsoft Outlook on February 13th.

As a workaround, if you need to work around the issue to be able to search, you can temporarily set the reading pane to the bottom by clicking "View > Reading pane > Bottom" or turning it off altogether.

In a nutshell, you just need to go back to the previous version of Outlook to get rid of the bug. Here is the description of how you can do it: [Video transcript provides steps to revert to version 2312, without the bug]. Make sure to update again on February 13th.

For further updates, you can follow this page on Microsoft support. But for now, these are the possible solutions. Stay tuned for more updates on this issue.