How to share contacts between and among email accounts in New Outlook?

Question

In Classic Outlook, I used to have an address book that was accessible by all email accounts. In New Outlook, it appears that contacts are specific to each account. The proposed solution to this is to export/import the contacts to each email account, which of course automatically guarantees that any updates have to be made manually to all contact lists, which is crazy in 2026. Surely there is a way to share these contacts among my own multiple email accounts in New Outlook, since it has been out for several years. The question is how to do it?

Answer 1

@Charles Broadbent said

share contacts between accounts in New Outlook

All I can suggest is that you Vote for and Comment on any of these existing Feature Request that match your requirements:
(You must "Sign In" at the top right of the Feedback page before you can vote or create a new Request).

**Shared mailbox contacts
**https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/6bff84ec-57d7-f011-ad8f-7c1e52f38cbc

Manage contact folders by sharing them with other users
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/209bff9c-ba5f-f111-89e7-7c1e52cbf98c

Or, create a new Feature Request. (Please put a link to your Request in a comment here so the rest of us can Vote for it).
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/post

Answer 2

There is no supported way in New Outlook to maintain one shared personal contact store across multiple own email accounts the way classic Outlook could expose a common address book.

What is supported in New Outlook:

• Contacts are managed per account/mailbox context.
• Shared contacts are not supported in New Outlook.
• Adding or removing address books is not supported in New Outlook.
• The practical workaround is export/import by CSV, or use classic Outlook for scenarios that require a shared/common contact store.

For a setup with multiple personal accounts, the supported options are:

1. Keep the contacts in one account and use that account’s contacts when composing mail.
   • In New Outlook, open New mail.
   • Select To, Cc, or Bcc to open the address book.
   • Search that account’s contact list and add recipients.
2. Copy contacts to other accounts by CSV when needed.
   • In New Outlook, go to People.
   • Select Export contacts.
   • The CSV file is saved to Downloads.
   • Import that CSV into the other account.
   • This is a copy process, not live sync, so later updates must be repeated.
3. Use classic Outlook if a shared/common contact experience is required.
   • Context indicates classic Outlook still supports address book management that New Outlook does not.

Important limitation for the exact scenario described:

• New Outlook does not support shared contacts.
• New Outlook does not support adding a separate address book shared across accounts.
• If contacts are only in a contact list and not in Your contacts, export can be unavailable; contacts must exist in Your contacts to export them.

So the direct answer is: this cannot be configured in New Outlook today. The only supported workarounds in the provided material are CSV export/import or switching to classic Outlook for contact-management features that New Outlook does not support.

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