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Contacts don't show in contact list when trying to send an email using my hotmail account

Stan Eisenberg 5 Reputation points
2026-05-10T20:18:48.9233333+00:00

Until a couple of days ago, I would hit "New Mail" and my mail system would open up for me to write and email to someone.

When I clicked on To: or Cc or Bcc, my contact list would open with all my contacts listed so I could choose which contacts I wanted to send the email to.

But now, when I try to send an email to multiple contacts, my contact box opens but there are no contacts listed.

It looks like this:

Screenshot (1155)

How do I get my contacts listed again?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts
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  1. Hornblower409 9,255 Reputation points
    2026-05-11T11:32:41.75+00:00

    Do your symptoms match the problem described in this post?

    Answer by "Hornblower409 May 9, 2026" in
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5885577/microsoft-has-been-roaming-around-in-my-win-11-pc

    If so, it's a known bug. I and other users have been seeing this problem on-and-off over the last few weeks.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-05-10T20:19:07.4766667+00:00

    In Outlook.com, contacts are managed on the People page. Use it to confirm that contacts still exist and to manage them:

    1. Open Outlook.com and select the People icon (or open the People page directly).
    2. In the left pane under My contacts, select All contacts to see every contact from all folders.
    3. If contacts appear there, they can be used when composing mail. When adding recipients, use the search box in the Add recipients dialog to find them by name or email.
    4. If contacts do not appear on the People page, recreate them or import them again using Manage contacts on the toolbar (for example, import from another email service or a file).

    If contacts are missing because of a previous migration (for example, from Hotmail to Outlook.com), request investigation and recovery:

    1. Sign in to Outlook.com.
    2. Select ? in the upper-right corner, then choose Feedback.
    3. Select Give Feedback.
    4. Describe that contacts disappeared from the contact picker and from People after the recent change.
    5. Select Next, then Skip and send message so the issue is assigned to an engineer.

    Once contacts are present again under All contacts in People, they will be available when selecting To/Cc/Bcc.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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