Looked at your solution and I'm afraid it failed to solve my problem. Went to Privacy and security > Contacts and checked Mail & Calendar plus people had access to contacts - went back to Outlook and still no contact list. However - if the first name of the recipient is typed in - the email address appears so the program is obviously accessing the contact list. But clicking on "To" - the contact list does not appear. So I think I'll switch on the old computer and print off our contact list and manually put them in again. This happened several years ago when MS upgraded Outlook; fortunately being Billy No Mates it was a short list to type in again.
Sorry the simple solution didn't work, Jean Holder1!
🤦♀️I perhaps should have taken better note that you were using the *online only* (new) Outlook, as opposed to the desktop Mail app. In that case, you could use the Microsoft Contact Us and arrange to have someone call you back--no long distance or support charges involved.
As you observed, the Contacts list (People on desktop for Mail) is still available (on Microsoft servers). Customer Support can set something to make your Contacts database available to your new online Outlook. But it may take awhile for them to grasp the problem.😞
What happened to me was that when I was asked whether Contacts should be available to the new Outlook--which I stubbornly refuse to use until it has all the basic functionality I've come to rely upon, like offline access😠--I indicated "No" and there was no way for me to undo that. The whole People app seemed to disappear, but actually it was just the desktop access option turned off.
I have over 25 years' worth of contacts, both work and personal--with detailed real-world addresses, phone numbers and notes--so there's no way I'm retyping that! ...I have also since exported a copy for backup--or use in an alternative mail system if Microsoft keeps going with this retrograde exercise.🤨
Fyi, I've also tried checking whether the Contacts details are complete and correct, including in the right fields and sorted correctly--e.g. it kept parsing the contents of my Surname field, creating errors. Until that's all working, I'm sticking with Mail on my laptop!😠
Cheers,
LostInSpace88