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

Thank you for taking the trouble to provide such a full reply.

I can see how your second point makes perfect sense.

Regards

David Richardson

Discovered solution by accident. I started to manually enter an address and when I started typing in the address, a drop down box appeared with all of my contacts. I clicked on the save button at the bottom of the screen and all of my contacts reappeared. I hope this helps.

Why WOULDN'T it be a secret, all of a sudden, surprise drop down?????????????

Thanks AaronJohnston3,

for bringing the return of contacts drop-down boxes to our attention. There is no [Save] button in the offline Mail app (which I still stubbornly use) or the (new) online Outlook--I just checked by creating a New message in both. What platform, app and function are you using?

Btw, drop-down boxes is old behaviour which Microsoft has apparently restored. They are continually working on Outlook.

But note:

1. The drop-downs do not contain all your contacts, just those that match names you are typing. Indeed, this was proof to many of us that our contacts data were somewhere, just not on our devices.
2. A list of email addresses is not the Contacts address book that you can edit, with details like work and personal email addresses, companies/employers, street addresses, phone numbers, and notes.
3. We have been used to using an offline Contacts address book accessible via the People app. Initially, as part of the new Outlook forced conversion, Microsoft moved this exclusively online to their Cloud.

Not all of us have affordable (or reliable) 24/7 high-speed Internet access,😞 so we require offline Contacts and Mail apps--to read downloads and compose drafts--is essential. Microsoft seems determined to abandon such customers. Indeed, the People offline app actually stopped working for awhile (spring 2024). Now, you can repopulate it, if you have granted permission as I described on page 4 of this thread. 4. I just checked (Aug 2024) and the People app is indicating that we will have to export our contacts data and import it into the new (online-only) Outlook. That suggests Microsoft have abandoned the horrendous seize (and destroy) approach they had been using for the last few months. I honestly have no idea if the date are in effect synced to the (mess of an) online Contacts they were trying to compel us to use.

This forced conversion to the not-yet-ready (online-only) Outlook--I refuse to call it new, because it's (so far) just a rip-off of the old Web Hotmail/Outlook--is still a work-in-progress. Hopefully, the many bugs and omissions will be addressed, but only if we let Microsoft's arrogant development teams know about them... and LOUDLY!

After my weekend nightmare with OneDrive's Sync literally seizing and destroying 12 years' of critical data from my laptop😠😡😠--thankfully recovered from recycle bins, but datetime metadata were permanently destroyed--I do not trust Microsoft. They have a clear strategy to change from a desktop software company to an online-only Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company. That allows them to charge us monthly subscription fees for both Cloud storage and primarily online app usage. They are also pushing to have us hand our data over to them. Why? To feed their AI bots?

Btw, beware of storing any personal data on your C: drive or indeed any disk volume Microsoft can access--currently only non-USB stated as being out of their reach. Partitioned hard drives in your computer? Microsoft behaves as if it's all their data to seize and monetize, contacts just one part of it.😠😠😠

WELL SAID!!!!

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏