Outlook email "groups" have suddenly disappeared; contacts still there but no groups.

Question

All of my outlook email "groups" have disappeared. My "contacts" are all still there, but the "groups" I created are missing.

I see a number of others are having similar issues but no one from outlook has provided an answer, they keep asking the same questions: 1. Tell us how you check your email, 2. Have you made in recent changes.

After the recipients respond, they never hear back from the moderators again.

I use my email "groups" nearly ever day. However, when I woke up this morning, I found all my "groups" had disappeared from my account.

I use Windows 8.1; I check mail thru outlook.com via Chrome.  It is the same with Internet explorer.   It is also the same using the outlook app on my Android tablet.

Answer 1

I'm another whose "groups" have disappeared over the past few days. My contacts (people) are still there, but looking at the ones that I definitely had in 1 or more group, there is no group information associated with that contact. I use the contacts on my Windows phone, via web browser and via Outlook in Office 2016.

What's all this "Preview" stuff? I did come across someone a few weeks ago who was apparently part-way through being "migrated" to the "Preview" model, and was also experiencing problems with contacts/people.

How long does the infernal migration take, and what will I lose?

Microsoft! Fix this! I'm a paying customer (Windows, Windows Phone, Office366) and have been known to recommend these products to others. Show me by fixing this that I can still recommend your products.

Answer 2

I have the same problem. On top of the page it says:

https://blu171.mail.live.com/default.aspx

I will be grateful for an answer.

Thanks

Answer 3

Hello, The same thing has happened to me.  Initially, most of my groups disappeared and now all of them.  I migrated from Hotmail to Outlook a few years ago.

Answer 4

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

In order to proceed with next step, I need to whether your account got migrated to Outlook.com preview or not.

To verify I suggest you to open Internet Explorer and type https://mail.live.com , enter email ID and password.

On top of the page it will show either Outlook.com or outlook.com preview. Let us know so that we can proceed with next step.

Thank you

Answer 5

Well, after 4 days, still no sign of the new "preview" appearance in outlook.com mail. I'd hoped the "upgrade" would start to implement by now.

Disappointing that nobody from Microsoft has contributed anything to this thread of late. We can only assume that a) there has been a stuff-up and b) nobody wants to take responsibility for it and admit there is a problem.

In the meantime, while I have been awaiting the upgrade, I have had to use a couple of my groups, and have restored them in the following way:

1. Find an email sent from outlook.com mail to the members of the group, and open it.
2. Expand the list of recipients (in my case, typically in BCC because I respect the privacy of my contacts) [BTW this is why I have to do this in outlook.com mail, because Sent emails in Office Outlook 2016 and earlier don't retain recipients in the BCC line. Thankfully, I occasionally have used outlook.com email to send to my groups when I'm away from home]
3. Highlight and copy the entire list of names for the group [in one case, the same email went to the members of 2 groups, and happily, the names were still in the order they came from each group]
4. Open People in outlook.com and at top near + sign start a new group. I make sure the name isn't quite the same as the missing group, in case the promised resurrection DOES occur.
5. Paste the entire list of recipients into the "Add Member" box. Now, be patient. While the whole lot may appear with extra-large icons on that page straight away, it can take some time (hours?) for the process to complete at server end, so it's a good idea to note down how many members it says straight away, and compare again later before trying to send an email to the group.

The thing about this restoration process is that it confirms that the loss of the groups was a glitch, and while the glitching was still happening, it was not possible to restore the groups. Now, days later, re-created groups are stable and persistent. Oh Microsoft! Talk to us!