How can you fix your screwup with my computer?

Fran Meckler 0 Reputation points
2026-09-08T16:28:10.1133333+00:00

I am a very furious 75 year old Microsoft user and have been with you since the 70's. Last week I don't know what kind of screwup, update was done but I am hopping mad. You lost my entire contact list. Two days later and the cost of having a computer repair company look into the situation, I came home w/o any contacts and they could not find out why they disappeared. Well, two more days passed and I received 90 contacts back but to my shock, they were from people that were all dead and I had not been in contact with for a very long time. Then I spent and entire day trying to type in my contacts, and this morning I look at my contacts and you have made them disappear again. I am not happy with your updates, you need to leave old people alone and do not touch their info unless you are asked to do so. Now, I want you to find my contact list and restore. You lost it, you find it and put it back.

You owe everyone an apology for your massive screwup. Enough, quit making updates until you are sure that they will work. It is like a new medicine, try it out before you push it on the masses. I hate your updates!!!!

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts
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  1. Hornblower409 14,600 Reputation points
    2026-09-09T14:25:37.5533333+00:00

    @Fran Meckler said

    w/o any contacts ... two more days passed and I received 90 contacts back ... this morning I look at my contacts and you have made them disappear again.

    First. could I please have some more information on your setup.

    There are many different Outlook clients and it's not clear from your question which one you are using. Please check and advise:

    1 -- If you use:

    • A web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, etc.) -> You have "Outlook Web"
    • A Mac -> You have "Outlook for Mac"
    • A phone or tablet -> You have either Outlook for Android or Outlook for iOS (iPhone, iPad)
    • A Windows PC and if you click "File" on the Outlook Main Menu:
      • You see an "About Outlook" choice -> You have "New Outlook for Windows"
      • You see an "Options" choice -> You have "Classic Outlook for Windows"

    2 -- What is the domain (the part after the "@") of your email address? e.g. outlook.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com

    The symptoms you are seeing, where contacts appear/disappear without any changes by you, usually indicates a problem keeping the Outlook on your PC in sync with what is stored on the Microsoft servers.

    3 -- If you have a Microsoft email account (e.g. outlook.com, hotmail.com) please try to use the web version of Outlook by opening a browser to https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/ and logging onto your account.

    It should look something like this:

    User's image

    Are the Contacts shown there different than what you see when using your PC Outlook client? Are your missing contacts there?

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  2. Stefan Blom 351.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-09-08T21:29:56.65+00:00

    See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/people/restore-or-recover-a-deleted-contact-in-outlook .

    Please note that contributors in the Q&A forums are your fellow users. You are not speaking to Microsoft support here.

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  3. AI answer

    2026-09-08T16:28:26.3266667+00:00

    For Outlook.com or Outlook on the web, the supported recovery path is:

    1. Open People.
    2. Select Deleted.
    3. If the missing contacts are there, right-click the contact and select Restore.

    If the contacts are not in Deleted:

    1. In People, select Deleted.
    2. At the top of the list, select Recover deleted.
    3. Select the contacts to recover, then select Restore.

    Recovered contacts are restored to their original folder when possible. If the original folder no longer exists, they are restored to the default Contacts folder.

    If contacts do not appear in People > Deleted, try refreshing the page. If they still do not appear, check Mail > Deleted Items and restore the item from there if it is listed.

    If duplicate or unexpected old contacts appeared in Outlook.com, one documented cause is the Teams mobile app syncing device contacts. In that case:

    1. Open Teams on the mobile device.
    2. Go to profile icon > Settings > People.
    3. Turn off Sync my device contacts.
    4. The device contacts in Outlook are deleted within a few hours.
    5. If duplicates still remain, Microsoft provides ContactsCleanup.exe for cleanup on Windows.

    If the contacts are no longer in the recoverable locations, the available support article states they may have been permanently deleted.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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