Outlook contact list/group

Question

I have created an email group so that I can send meeting invites and updates without having to enter all the group members' information every time. However, when I go to send a new email after a month or two... many of the names have dropped off. These are always people outside the organization. I've added them back in multiple times, but they never stay in the group.

Answer 1

Hi Adan, Ismail

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Based on your description, I understand that you created a contact group to send meeting invites and updates, but after some time many of the external recipients are removed from the group and you have to add them back repeatedly.

May I ask whether the external recipients that keep dropping off were saved as individual contacts in your Contacts folder first, or were they added directly into the contact group?

Could you also check whether the same behavior occurs in Outlook on the web to see if the external members are still listed there? This will help confirm whether the group is being stored and synced correctly from the server side.

In the meantime, you may also consider asking your Microsoft 365 administrator to create mail contacts for the external recipients in the Microsoft 365 admin center and then add them to a distribution group at the tenant level. This can provide a more stable long-term option compared to using a personal contact group stored in Outlook.

For more information, please refer to the following articles:

Manage mail contacts in Exchange Online | Microsoft Learn

Create distribution lists - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

I look forward to your response.

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Answer 2

It sounds like you're experiencing issues with maintaining a contact group that includes external members in Outlook. One common reason for external members dropping off a contact group is that Outlook may not retain them if they are not recognized as valid contacts. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

1. Ensure Validity of External Contacts: Make sure that the external contacts you are adding are valid and that their email addresses are correctly entered.
2. Update Contact Group: After adding external contacts, try using the "Update now" option on the contact group to ensure that all members are recognized and saved properly.
3. Check Group Properties: Right-click on the contact folder and check the properties to ensure it is set to show as an email address book, which can help in retaining the group members.
4. Recreate the Group: If the problem persists, consider recreating the contact group from scratch, ensuring that all external contacts are added correctly from the beginning.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it may be beneficial to check for any specific settings or limitations regarding external contacts in your organization's Outlook configuration.

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References:

• You can't expand a nested contact group and Unknown is displayed in the group name in Outlook
• Distribution group issues