Outlook Lost contacts

Billy McCalla 40 Reputation points
2026-08-11T15:28:01.83+00:00

Outlook lost my contacts. When I try to open my contacts I get a message "loading contacts". However, the contacts never load after several hours of trying to load.

Outlook | Windows | New Outlook for Windows | For home
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Answer accepted by question author
SD - IA 179.1K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2026-08-11T16:09:29.5666667+00:00

Hi,

Let me work with you on this. Probably a caching issue.

I'm going to run through a few steps with you. Some of these are diagnostic — they help me narrow down what's wrong, not fix it outright. So if nothing changes after a step, that's normal and expected, not a dead end. I'll keep going until we've got this resolved.

Have I seen some reports in the last few days? Did it work before?

Press Windows + R, Paste

%localappdata%\Microsoft

and press Enter.

Delete the Olk and OneAuth folders.

Restart Outlook.

This only removes temporary Outlook data that will be recreated automatically. Your emails will remain safe.

Try saving the contacts again.

I look forward to hearing from you to get the results of the troubleshooting.

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