How to delete old email addresses that default when sending files?

Question

Trying to send attachments and mail from certain sites, and Outlook wants to default to old, non functional addresses.

Answer 1

@Gary Coen said

Trying to send attachments and mail from certain sites, and Outlook wants to default to old, non functional addresses.

Not sure what you mean by "from certain sites". Does this mean you only see the problem when you are using Outlook at a specific location, on a different PC ,than the one you normally use?

If you are using a Microsoft email account (e.g. outlook.com, hotmail.com) then the Classic Outlook Auto-Complete List is only one place that Outlook will look for suggestions when you are typing in the "To" line of a new email.

The other place is your Suggested People. You can see if the old addresses are in this list by doing Step "A - Export your Autocomplete List to a CSV file" from the Answer by "Hornblower409 May 1 2026" at
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5871874/manually-removing-an-email-address-from-the-sugges?orderby=newest&page=1#answers

Answer 2

Hi Gary,

As the first step for Classic Outlook, you can try:

1. Start a new email (or trigger the send/attach flow from the site).
2. Type the first few characters of the name/address in the To field until the old suggestion appears.
3. Hover over it with your mouse (don't click), an X should appear next to it.
4. Click the X, or arrow down to highlight it and press Delete.

This removes just that one entry going forward, without wiping your whole suggestion list.

However, this may not work, and you can consult this document for more context: In AutoComplete, the "X" to remove individual suggested recipients might not work as expected

If that's the case, you can also delete the whole Auto-Complete List to rebuild a new one. Please navigate to File > Options > Mail > Send Messages > Empty Auto-Complete List. That clears every suggestion at once, you'll then need to type correct addresses fully the first time to rebuild the list with good data.

I hope these information provide some information and clarity to your issue. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

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