ALL Contacts Are Missing

Question

In the last few days only my FAVORITE contacts are showing up in Outlook. ALL CONTACTS are missing. Are you working on an update that is creating havock with my contacts?

Answer 1

Dear Virginia

Please submit in‑app feedback: Help > Feedback > Report a problem and check Include diagnostics.

Share feedback (Windows Feedback Hub). See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-the-feedback-hub-app-f59187f8-8739-22d6-ba93-f66612949332

Press Windows logo key + F to open Feedback Hub.

Choose Report a problem, describe the issue (e.g., “New Outlook — contacts didn’t migrate”), and attach diagnostics/screenshots if you can. Submit to help the team investigate. Your feedback is valuable for further escalation.

Thank you for your understanding! Have a lovely day.

Answer 2

There is no known issue in the provided information indicating that a current Outlook update is intentionally removing or hiding all contacts, but there are a few Outlook behaviors and known issues that can make contacts appear missing.

Try these checks and fixes:

1. Verify the correct Contacts folder

• In some cases, Outlook or Exchange can create a second Contacts folder during migration or localization.
• Symptom: One Contacts folder appears empty, while another folder (also named Contacts or a localized equivalent) contains all contacts.
• Fix:
  1. In Outlook Desktop, open the folder list and look for multiple folders named Contacts.
  2. The folder that currently works as the default Contacts folder has a contact card icon; the older one has a folder icon.
  3. Drag all contacts from the old Contacts folder (folder icon) into the new Contacts folder (contact card icon).

2. Check People view issues (classic Outlook desktop)

• A past issue caused the People view to be overlaid by a contact card so contacts could not be accessed.
• Status: This has been fixed by an Outlook service change.
• If People view still does not show contacts:
  1. Close Outlook.
  2. Start Outlook while holding the Ctrl key.
  3. When prompted, confirm starting in Safe Mode.
  4. After Outlook fully opens in Safe Mode, close it.
  5. Reopen Outlook normally and check People again.

3. Confirm contact categories and filters (New Outlook)

• In New Outlook, contacts can be categorized and sorted, but Favorites management is limited in the Insiders edition.
• Ensure that no filter or sort is hiding contacts:
  1. On the navigation bar, select People.
  2. Check the filter/sort option (for example, “By first name”) and change it to another option (e.g., By last name, Company, or Recently added) to refresh the list.
  3. If using categories, verify that contacts are not limited to a specific category view.

4. Favorites vs. full contact list

• In New Outlook (Insiders), Favorites for contacts are not fully supported yet. Only Favorites may appear in some views.
• To see all contacts, always go to People and ensure you are not in a Favorites-only view.

If after these steps only Favorites appear and all other contacts are still missing, it is likely a profile- or folder-level issue rather than a general update problem. In that case, check for multiple Contacts folders as in step 1 and move items into the active Contacts folder.

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References:

• Manage contacts in Outlook
• Contacts folder empty and contacts are in a different folder in Outlook for Microsoft 365
• Outlook cannot display contacts in People View