Contacts Missing From "New" Outlook After Upgrade From Windows Mail

I am so lost. I had no idea when the new outlook mail launched it would permanently shutdown my old outlook stand alone application! I have very important business contacts I can no longer access. The old outlook simply will not launch any longer! I tried going and switching the default app as was suggested and it still will not launch. I also saw mentioned to click some funnel shaped thing and don't see that either. However I did check off the recent and no contacts magically appeared like the did for other people. I NEED my contacts! Please Help!!!

**SOLVED!!**😊

... *Hopefully for most of you, too!*🤞 *Note: Earlier suggested solutions on this thread, prior to May 2024, involved options discontinued by Microsoft, or just stopped working!*🙄

Short answer: Check your "Contacts Privacy Settings"!

Microsoft may have set the desktop People app's access to "Off" during a forced contacts/mail migration campaign (see screenshot #1 below)--*feels more like war!*😰

Screenshot #1

It makes it look as if the People functionality no longer works on your Desktop Mail App. Btw, Microsoft CS refused to tell me if a download of the People app was possible.🙄

Set the option to "On" (see screenshot #2 below), et voilà, your Contacts will hopefully reappear and your desktop People App will work as before (see screenshot #3 below). Worse, if you denied access to Web Outlook during that migration, your contacts won't show up there either!

Screenshot #2

Screenshot #3

Note: you may still have to contact Microsoft Customer Support (CS) and ask them to sync your Contacts database.🙄

I'm guessing they did something like that, but the CS supervisor, A** T****, stubbornly and repeatedly refused to tell me what he did. He certainly unlawfully enabled Web Outlook to have access to my (server-based) contacts, even though I'd specifically denied it--still want control centre to be my desktop Mail app--and hadn't granted any such authorisation to CS!😠 Worse, CS supervisor, A** T**** rudely terminated the connection before I could submit a much-deserved negative review of his 2-hour stubborn refusal to even read my questions, let alone answer them, nor accept that his apparent limited experience was never going to be good enough to understand, let alone solve this thorny problem of apparently destroyed Contacts!

Note: When you enter/edit contact details, the server backup/synced database should be updated accordingly--pointless without access via an app. I'm still not certain the server database contains all of the fields I used on my desktop People App over the years or that it is instantly synchronised.🤨 CS supervisor A** T**** utterly refused to do anything that might prolong my use of desktop Mail!😞 Basic incompetence? Feigned ignorance? Official policy?🤷‍♀️

👉Tip: As this nightmare of a forced migration--to a poor version of the old cumbersome Hotmail🙄--continues, you may want to regularly "Export" backup copies of your contacts database to local CVS files you can either take to a non-MS App or safeguard from another MS forced migration snafu.🤨

Note to Microsoft: You've been aware of this problem for at least 6 months and have refused to respond to or engage with suffering users, yet disdainfully ploughed on with this forced migration to an inadequate app that is nowhere near ready! That is the height of arrogance and is utterly unacceptable!!😠😠😠😠😠

I am in the same position. When I go to the old Mail app it automatically redirects me to the New Outlook which does not have my contacts.

How do I get my contacts from the old Mail app?

In Windows Mail go to Settings/Manage Accounts/Select your account/Change Sync Settings/Advanced settings you should find your IMAP settings. Why it should need it, don't ask me. Frankly I think Windows Mail is rubbish compared with Windows Live Mail before it. And this year they are going to force a change again. I accepted the invitation to try it and it told me my ISP is not compatible so my entire email system will probably die when they force the change. Should be simple, shouldn't it? Makes me weep.

David,

I had the same problem.

When the empty contact window opens up in windows mail, lokk to the right of it and there are a couple of icons.

Click on the one that lokks like a little funnel and check the box that says "recent contacts (microsoft people)".

Then click "done" and when you open your contacts they should all be there.

PS - I just saw that you already had th problem solved. I was a little late answering.