Autocomplete keeps reappearing

Question

Hi,

We have a user who changed their name for personal reasons and we do not want the old name\email showing. We changed everything in the account and deleted the old email address. This was fine as far as we know for about a year after, and then the old address started to appear in Autocompletes if they start to type their new name (They have different first names). The contact card for the old email references the new email and it lists a number of older files received or sent under the old email. We have deleted autocomplete in both outlook and 365 webmail, there are no contacts, the old address is unresolvable and Microsoft have confirmed there is no association or trace of it on the tenant, we have even changed laptops but still it reoccurs.

The only thing I can think it is its something to do with "Contact Search" (https://myaccount.microsoft.com/ > Settings and Privacy > Privacy > Manage Contact Search). We found the old address listed "Download Contacts" so we reset the indexes, deleted the autocompletes, but it appeared a week or so later. I then toggled off "Capture implicit contacts and contact rankings from my communications" and cleared the indexes and deleted the autocompletes but it reappeared.

Can anyone suggest something I could try? Is there anyway to turn off "Contact Search" completely?

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you very much for your help. Unfortunately it was not listed in either location. My thought is that the autocomplete address is being found from a historical email in their mailbox. They obviously don't email as it\to it nor can they receive as that email.

Does anyone know how the contact search\suggestions in 365\outlook actually works? It seems as though its actively picking up the contact from old emails (2-3 years old). They then appear in the Suggested contact lists in their 365 accounts. I'm sure I read somewhere that they can be picked up from documents and other emails using the 365 search services but I cant find anything concrete.

Alternatively is there anyway to completely purge their autocomplete cache from 365 as a last resort?

thanks for the help

Answer 2

Hello David Shearing,

Thank you for posting this case in Microsoft Community!

Based on your description: Autocomplete keeps reappearing in Outlook. I would like to cooperate with you working on this case. Since you have performed all the troubleshooting steps from your side, it is suggested that you may also check following steps if could help you further:

1. Firstly, you may open this account contact in Outlook and click the three dots at the top-right corner under the contact's name, then choose Link Contacts from the drop-down list.

2. In the dialog box that pops up, you'll see a list of contacts that are already linked. If there is showing the linked contacts for the old account, you may unlink and check again.

3. Next, you may let your Microsoft 365 admin to connect Exchange Online Power Shell to run the script step by step with admin level. You need to check if the old contact is still showing in public contact list under your tenant Get-Contact. If Yes, you may let them help to remove it completely. (Note: If you are not sure who is admin, you may check this Microsoft article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support)

Script:

Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement -allowprerelease

Import-module ExchangeOnlineManagement

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName [Microsoft 365 admin account] -ShowProgress $true

Get-Contact

If above workaround not helpful, please do not mind that we could not provide further assistance because need to check from backend side and we appreciate your efforts in this case. For my suggestion, you may contact Microsoft Technical Support Team with a ticket opened: Ways to contact support for business products - Admin help. Go to Office365 admin center>Support>New Service Request. The support team over there has higher permission than us, they can remotely help you and collect logs at your convenience. They can also involve more resources to investigate the issue from backend side. This would be the most efficient way in handling this case for you.

Your understanding and patience will be appreciated.

Thank you!

Answer 3

Dear David Shearing

Good day! Thank for posting in the community.

We've received your query, and you can expect to receive response from one of our community moderators accordingly.

At this point, we appreciate your patience and cooperation. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Community moderator