Outlook Address Book Search no longer can scroll up

Question

Outlook Address Book Search no longer can scroll up

Carolyn Diehl 40

In the global address list, I was able to type in a persons first name and outlook would take me to the start of those in the address book. From there I was able to scroll up. For example, I searched for "Matthew" and didn't find who I was looking for and perhaps the person is listed as "Matt". I can't scroll up to see anyone prior to "Matthew" and need to start a new search for "Matt".

Is this an easy fix in my settings? Or was this a global change across the board?

Thanks.

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Answer accepted by question author

Hendrix 1,010 Independent Advisor

Hi Carolyn,

Based on your sharing, it's an expected behavior that Outlook address lists now limit browsing in large online address lists, and “Name only” searches no longer allow unlimited browsing of the entire address list the way they previously did. Refer to Address lists in Exchange Online, Microsoft states that this change was made to encourage search instead of infinite scrolling and to improve performance.

Previously, typing Matthew could position you in the alphabetized Global Address List and let you scroll upward to nearby names like Matt. With the current online Global Address List behavior, Outlook is more search-result driven, so you may only see the results matching the search and not be able to scroll above them into the broader list.

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However, it also states that this change does not affect Offline Address Books, so you may consider switching to classic Outlook with a downloaded Offline Address Books. This will give you a close behavior nearly as same as the old Global Address List experience.

Hope this information would be useful. If you need any further assistance, please feel free to reach out again in the comments of this post. I'm happy to assist you further.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Hope to hear from you soon.

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Answer 1

This was a service change, not a setting to turn back on.

For online address lists in Exchange Online, Microsoft changed browsing behavior to encourage search and improve performance:

In Outlook, opening an online address book shows only the first 500 users if the list has more than 500 objects.
Name Only searches no longer allow unlimited browsing of the entire address list the way they previously did.
Search still works, but if the search result is too large, Outlook requires narrower criteria.

That matches the behavior described: after searching for Matthew, scrolling upward to browse earlier entries is no longer supported the way it used to be. To find someone listed differently, a new search such as Matt is required.

A few supported workarounds:

Use the search box again with a shorter or alternate name.
In the address book search, use More columns to search other fields such as department, phone, or location.
If composing a message, type the name directly in To or Cc. If the name is unique or was used before, Outlook may resolve it automatically.
If an Offline Address Book is available, browsing it in full is still supported.

So the answer is: this is a global change across Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online address list browsing, not an easy local setting change.