Contacts lost in New Outlook

Question

In transitioning to the New Outlook I have lost all of my Contacts in Outlook.

How do I recover?

Answer 1

Hi Robert Wisniewski,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. 

From what you’ve shared, it seems your contact list isn’t showing in the new Outlook after the switch. Q&A Assist has already shared the basic recovery solutions. I’d like to add a few extra checks below to help confirm where the contacts are stored and how to bring them back into the new Outlook.

1. Confirm whether the contacts still exist on the web (cloud)

• Please sign in to Outlook on the web and open People to check whether your contacts appear there.
• If they do, the data is still in the cloud and New Outlook may simply need to refresh/sync.

2. If the contacts were stored locally in Classic Outlook (“This computer only” / POP/IMAP / PST)

• If your contacts were saved locally in Classic Outlook, they may not automatically carry over to New Outlook.
  • In that case, export the contacts to a.csv file from Classic Outlook, then import them into New Outlook:
• In New Outlook: People > Manage contacts > Import contacts > select the exported.csv > Import.

3. If contacts appear on the web but People in New Outlook is still empty

• If your contacts show correctly on the web but still don’t display in New Outlook, resetting/clearing the app’s local state can help force a fresh sync.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

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Answer 2

Use the People page and Deleted/Recoverable folders in New Outlook to restore the contacts.

1. In New Outlook, open the navigation pane and select People.
2. In People, select the Deleted folder.
3. If the contacts are there:
   • New Outlook: select the contact(s), right-click, and choose Restore.
   • New Outlook (Insiders): hover over the contact and select the Restore icon.
4. If the contacts are not in the Deleted folder, check the Recoverable items:
   • New Outlook: in the Deleted folder, select Recover deleted at the top of the list.
   • New Outlook (Insiders): in the Deleted folder, select Recover items deleted from this folder.
5. Select the contact(s) to recover and choose Restore (or the Restore icon).

Recovered contacts are restored to their original folders when possible; otherwise, they go to the default Contacts folder. In New Outlook (Insiders), recovered contacts go to the default Contacts folder. Retention of deleted contacts may be limited by the organization’s policies.

If the contacts are not present in Deleted or Recoverable folders, they cannot be restored using these built-in recovery options.

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References:

• Restore or recover a deleted contact in Outlook
• Recover and restore deleted items in Outlook