New Outlook and Outlook Web Recipient Suggestions Do Not Match Given Name for Some External Recipients

Batuhan Köklüçınar 35 Reputation points
2026-09-23T12:25:12.5433333+00:00

New Outlook and Outlook Web Recipient Suggestions Do Not Match Given Name for Some External Recipients

Environment

  • Outlook for Mac (New Outlook)
  • Outlook on the Web (OWA) Issue Recipient suggestions behave differently between Legacy Outlook and New Outlook/OWA. For at least one external recipient, the person can only be found in recipient suggestions using the surname or email address, but not the given name. Observed Behavior When composing a new email: Searching by given name → no suggestion appears Searching by surname → recipient is suggested immediately Searching by email alias → recipient is suggested immediately Email search continues to work correctly: Searching the mailbox by the person's given name successfully returns email conversations. Opening the contact card correctly identifies the recipient. The issue is limited to recipient suggestions/autocomplete. Comparison Between Clients
Client Given Name Search Surname Search
Legacy Outlook for Mac Works Works
New Outlook for Mac Fails Works
Outlook on the Web Fails Works

Why This Appears To Be A Product Issue Because: Legacy Outlook can resolve the recipient by given name. Mailbox search can resolve the recipient by given name. Contact cards correctly identify the recipient. Only the recipient suggestion service used by New Outlook and OWA fails to match the given name. This suggests a possible indexing or matching issue in the People Suggestions / Recipient Suggestions service. Steps to Reproduce Open New Outlook or Outlook on the Web. Create a new message. Type the recipient's given name in the To field. Observe that no suggestion appears. Type the recipient's surname or email alias. Observe that the recipient is suggested immediately. Expected Result Recipient suggestions should match both given name and surname consistently.

Is there a way to force regeneration of the recipient suggestion index for a single external recipient in New Outlook / Outlook Web? (Most of this issue post generated with the help of AI, sorry for mistakes.)

Outlook | MacOS | New Outlook for Mac | For business
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  1. BabybooHN 3,380 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-09-23T12:33:51.91+00:00

    Dear @Batuhan Köklüçınar

    Thank you for the detailed information. I understand that the external recipient can be found by surname or email alias, but not by given name in New Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the Web, while Legacy Outlook and mailbox search can find the recipient by given name.

    Before I determine whether this is related to recipient suggestions/indexing, I’d like to narrow down the scope:

    1. Does this happen with only one specific external recipient, or with multiple external recipients?
    2. Does the issue occur when you type the recipient’s full given name, or also when entering only part of the given name?
    3. Does the same behavior occur for this recipient when using another Microsoft 365 account/mailbox?
    4. Has this recipient previously been emailed successfully from New Outlook/OWA, or is this a new recipient?
    5. If you remove the recipient from any existing autocomplete/suggestion entry and then search again, does the behavior remain the same?

    If possible, please provide an example using a non-sensitive/test external recipient or mask the email address. These details will help determine whether this is isolated to one recipient/contact or a broader recipient-suggestion issue.

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