I loaded Outlook onto another computer and lost all my contacts

Question

This has happened several times! Every time I do anything different in Outlook I lose my contacts. I loaded my work Microsoft Acct onto my laptop and loaded Outlook. Now all my contacts are missing on both computers.

When I start to enter an email, it will pop up an address that was previously loaded but nothing in the contacts.

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi @Andrew Pike, 

Thank you very much for reaching out regarding the missing contacts in the new Outlook. I appreciate your patience and the details you provided. 

Here are my recommendations, please follow the steps below:

A - Step‑by‑step to restore your contacts 

Option 1 - If your contacts are still in Classic Outlook on your old computer (or stored in a PST)

1/ Export contacts to a CSV (from Classic Outlook) 
If you are currently using New Outlook, you may need to switch back to Classic Outlook first: 

• In the top‑right corner of Outlook, look for the “New Outlook” toggle. 
• Turn it off to return to the Classic Outlook interface (if available on your device). 

Once you are in Classic Outlook: 

• Go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export > Export to a file > Comma Separated Values (CSV) 
• 
• Select your Contacts folder > Save the .csv file 
  (You may choose UTF‑8 encoding to preserve special characters.) 

2/ Import the CSV into your work account’s cloud Contacts 

• In the New Outlook, go to People > Manage contacts > Import contacts 
• 
• Select the .csv you just exported > Import 
• Wait a few minutes for syncing and your contacts will then appear across both computers running the New Outlook. 

Option 2 - If you already have a CSV file from a previous export
Open Outlook on the web > People > Manage contacts > Import contacts > choose your .csv file > Import. 
The New Outlook will sync them automatically afterward. 

Note: If you no longer have your old computer and you do not have a CSV or PST backup, then unfortunately your contacts cannot be recovered even by Microsoft, because New Outlook cannot access local contacts that were never synced to the cloud (Exchange/Outlook.com) on the previous device. 

For additional information you can refer to these articles: 

• Manage suggested recipients in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields in Outlook - Microsoft Support 
• New Microsoft Outlook for Windows: Read-only support for .pst files - M365 Admin 

Please note that this information is being provided by the moderator solely for your convenience. The referenced sites are not managed or overseen by the moderator, and therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy, security, or suitability of any software or content available there. We recommend reviewing all information carefully and ensuring you understand any associated risks before following suggestions from the provided link.  

I hope this information is helpful. Should you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to reach out.   

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. 

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Answer 2

Outlook is most likely still finding the addresses (via recent recipients or another contacts folder), but the main Contacts folder Outlook is using is empty or incorrect.

Work through these checks and fixes on the desktop Outlook where the problem appears:

1. Check for a second Contacts folder

• In Outlook Desktop, go to the Folder list (for example, press Ctrl+6).
• Look under your mailbox for multiple folders named Contacts (or a localized equivalent).
• One may have a standard folder icon and another a contact-card icon.
• If the contacts are in the folder with the folder icon, drag all items from that folder into the Contacts folder that has the contact-card icon. That is the folder Outlook and other apps use.

2. Verify imported/migrated contacts If contacts were imported from another system or file:

• Locate the original .csv file used to import.
• Open it in Excel and confirm that contact data is actually present and that the first row still contains the column headings.
• If the file is empty or corrupted, re-export the contacts from the original source, confirm the data in Excel, then re-import into Outlook and choose Replace duplicates with items imported during import.

3. If contacts disappeared after an account move/migration If this started after a move between services (for example, Hotmail to Outlook.com or similar migration of a Microsoft account):

• Sign in to Outlook.com in a browser.
• Select ? in the upper-right corner > Feedback > Give Feedback.
• Describe that contacts are missing after moving the account, select Next, then Skip and send message.
• The issue is then assigned to an engineer to investigate and restore missing contacts from the service side.

4. Recover from a local Outlook data file (if applicable) If the contacts were stored in a local Outlook data file on the old computer:

• On the old machine (or its backup), look in:
  • C:\Users<username>\Documents\Outlook Files\
  • or C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
• Find any .pst file and copy it to a safe location.
• On the new computer, open Outlook > File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File, select the .pst.
• The contacts from that file will appear in an additional Contacts folder; if needed, drag them into the primary Contacts folder with the contact-card icon.

These steps ensure that Outlook is pointing to the correct Contacts folder and that any migrated or imported contacts are actually present and visible.

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References:

• Contacts folder empty and contacts are in a different folder in Outlook for Microsoft 365
• Fix problems importing contacts to Outlook
• No contacts appear in Outlook after import
• How do I recover my old email messages, my contacts and everything else I had in Outlook? - Microsoft Q&A