Outlook email "groups" have suddenly disappeared; contacts still there but no groups.

Anonymous
2016-02-03T20:37:40+00:00

All of my outlook email "groups" have disappeared. My "contacts" are all still there, but the "groups" I created are missing.

I see a number of others are having similar issues but no one from outlook has provided an answer, they keep asking the same questions: 1. Tell us how you check your email, 2. Have you made in recent changes.

After the recipients respond, they never hear back from the moderators again.

I use my email "groups" nearly ever day. However, when I woke up this morning, I found all my "groups" had disappeared from my account.

I use Windows 8.1; I check mail thru outlook.com via Chrome.  It is the same with Internet explorer.   It is also the same using the outlook app on my Android tablet.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-26T10:07:47+00:00

    Ok. I took the risk, and got a screen saying I would start to see the new features "in the next few days".

    Here's hoping that the new "list" functionality will be there. I'm not expecting miracles, like my missing "groups" to be converted to the new "lists", but you never know...

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T18:06:55+00:00

    Me too.  Hoping this works. If not it's gmail time. This is a real hassle.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T19:59:44+00:00

    if  the upgrade  does or does not help please let us know - microsoft help is a washout

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T20:07:07+00:00

    I'll keep you posted either way. Fingers crossed. :)

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-29T21:46:29+00:00

    Well, after 4 days, still no sign of the new "preview" appearance in outlook.com mail. I'd hoped the "upgrade" would start to implement by now.

    Disappointing that nobody from Microsoft has contributed anything to this thread of late. We can only assume that a) there has been a stuff-up and b) nobody wants to take responsibility for it and admit there is a problem.

    In the meantime, while I have been awaiting the upgrade, I have had to use a couple of my groups, and have restored them in the following way:

    1. Find an email sent from outlook.com mail to the members of the group, and open it.
    2. Expand the list of recipients (in my case, typically in BCC because I respect the privacy of my contacts) [BTW this is why I have to do this in outlook.com mail, because Sent emails in Office Outlook 2016 and earlier don't retain recipients in the BCC line. Thankfully, I occasionally have used outlook.com email to send to my groups when I'm away from home]
    3. Highlight and copy the entire list of names for the group [in one case, the same email went to the members of 2 groups, and happily, the names were still in the order they came from each group]
    4. Open People in outlook.com and at top near + sign start a new group. I make sure the name isn't quite the same as the missing group, in case the promised resurrection DOES occur.
    5. Paste the entire list of recipients into the "Add Member" box. Now, be patient. While the whole lot may appear with extra-large icons on that page straight away, it can take some time (hours?) for the process to complete at server end, so it's a good idea to note down how many members it says straight away, and compare again later before trying to send an email to the group.

    The thing about this restoration process is that it confirms that the loss of the groups was a glitch, and while the glitching was still happening, it was not possible to restore the groups. Now, days later, re-created groups are stable and persistent. Oh Microsoft! Talk to us!

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