Address book

Question

I have a new computer. I lost my address book when reinstalling Outlook. How do I get it back

Answer 1

Hi Cheryl Hornberger,

I understand that your address book is missing after setting up Outlook again on a new computer. Have you had a chance to try the Q&A Assist steps above? Those steps are helpful if the contacts were deleted or if you already have an old Outlook data file.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors cannot access your Outlook profile or restore contacts directly.

I would like to add one important point: in Classic Outlook, the address book usually comes from the Contacts folder in your mailbox or from a local Outlook data file, such as a .pst file.

If you used an Outlook.com, Hotmail, Microsoft 365, or Exchange account, please sign in to the same account on the web and check People/Contacts there. For these account types, the data is usually stored on the mail server, and Outlook recreates the local offline file when the account is added again. Microsoft Support also notes that the offline .ost file cannot be moved from one computer to another. Reference: Find and transfer Outlook data files from one computer to another

If your previous Outlook setup used POP or local folders, the contacts may have been saved only in a .pst file on the old computer. In that case, you would need the old computer or a backup copy of the .pst file, then import it into Classic Outlook on the new computer. Reference: Import email, contacts, and calendar from an Outlook .pst file

If there is no old computer, backup, synced mailbox contact list, or .pst file, Outlook may not have a source to rebuild the missing local contacts.

Could you please confirm whether the old computer or any backup is still available, and what type of email account you used in Outlook? This will help determine the correct recovery path.

Answer 2

To get the address book back in classic Outlook for Windows, use one of these methods depending on where the contacts were stored.

1. Check if contacts were deleted recently

• In classic Outlook, open the Deleted Items folder.
• Look for any deleted contact items or a deleted Contacts subfolder.
• If found, drag them back to the Contacts folder.

2. Recover contacts that are no longer in Deleted Items

• In classic Outlook, open the Deleted Items folder.
• On the ribbon, select Recover Deleted Items (or similar, depending on version).
• In the Recoverable Items window:
  • Select the contact(s) to restore.
  • Click Restore Selected Items, then OK.
• The recovered contacts are moved back to Deleted Items; from there, move them into the Contacts folder.

3. Restore contacts from an Outlook data file (.pst) If Outlook was reinstalled and the old data file still exists:

• In File Explorer, look for .pst files in:
  • C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Documents\Outlook Files\
  • or C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\
• Copy the .pst file to a safe location (for example, Documents).
• In Outlook, go to File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File.
• Select the .pst file and open it.
• A new set of folders appears; open its Contacts folder and, if desired, move or copy contacts into the current Contacts folder.

If the contacts were stored only in a profile or file that no longer exists and there is no backup or Recoverable Items entry, they cannot be restored.

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References:

• Restore or recover a deleted contact in Outlook
• How do I recover my old email messages, my contacts and everything else I had in Outlook? - Microsoft Q&A