I am unable to delete some contacts in my hotmail mailbox

Amasa Howard 0 Reputation points
2026-11-11T15:57:12.05+00:00

Mailbox is primarily accessed by an iOS device running the Outlook App. I have contacts that never 'save' in the phone, yet appear in the web instance of my mailbox. In the web instance of the mailbox, contacts can not be deleted, can not be edited, and do not sync to the phone. I've removed Outlook App from the iOS device, and still can not edit or delete certain contacts. The 'certain contacts' are new and were created from the iOS device. When I establish the mailbox in Apple Mail, the same 'certain contacts' do not sync to the phone and only appear in the mailbox web instance.

Outlook | Outlook for mobile | Outlook for iOS | For home
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  1. Emma1-N 15,005 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-11-12T03:30:57.49+00:00

    Welcome Amasa Howard,

    Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum. I understand that some contacts created through Outlook for iOS appear in Outlook.com but cannot be edited, deleted, or synchronized with your iPhone.

    Could you clarify these two points?

    • When you select an affected contact in Outlook.com People, are the Edit and Delete options missing, greyed out, or simply not responding?
    • Do the affected contacts appear under Your contacts, or only when searching for their names?

    Please make sure you already tried the Q&A Assist steps. In addition, please try the following:

    1, Check the contact source.

    2, Check whether the contact is a suggested contact.

    • Search for the affected person's name.
    • Check whether the entry appears as a saved contact or a suggested contact.
    • If it is only a suggestion, check whether an option to hide or remove the suggestion is available.

    3, Test the contact in another browser.

    • Open Outlook.com People in a different browser.
    • Select one of the affected contacts.
    • Check whether the Edit and Delete options behave differently.

    Looking forward to your update.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-11-11T15:57:59.1233333+00:00

    Because the affected contacts cannot be edited or deleted in Outlook.com itself, submit the issue to Outlook.com Support for server-side investigation rather than reinstalling or reconfiguring the iOS apps.

    Submit the Outlook.com support request

    1. Sign in to Outlook.com in a browser.
    2. Select Help on the top menu.
    3. Search for contacts cannot be deleted.
    4. If the suggested articles do not resolve it, scroll to Still need help? and select Yes. This opens the Outlook.com email-support channel.^1^
    5. Include:
      • The affected contacts were created from Outlook for iOS.
      • They appear in Outlook.com but cannot be edited or deleted.
      • They do not synchronize to iOS.
      • Removing Outlook for iOS did not change the behavior.
      • The same contacts also do not appear when the mailbox is added to Apple Mail.
      • Screenshots of any error or of controls that are unavailable.

    A closely matching case—iPhone-synchronized contacts that remained visible in Outlook.com and rejected edits or deletion—required Outlook.com Support to determine whether the entries were hidden duplicates or stuck online contact records.^2^

    Export contacts as a diagnostic

    Before submitting the request:

    1. In Outlook.com, open People.
    2. Select Manage contacts → Export contacts.
    3. Choose All contacts, then select Export.
    4. Open the downloaded CSV and search for one of the affected contacts.^3^

    Report the result to Support:

    • Absent from the CSV: mention that the contact is visible in People but is not present in an all-contacts export. This can help distinguish a displayed or consolidated record from an ordinary saved contact.
    • Present in the CSV: provide the contact’s name and email address, but do not send the entire CSV unless Support requests it.

    Outlook.com can automatically hide exact or subset duplicate records. Deleting a contact from Outlook.com normally removes that contact and its hidden duplicates across Outlook clients.^4^ Since deletion is failing in the web service, ordinary client-side synchronization troubleshooting is unlikely to remove these entries.

    Restore iPhone synchronization afterward

    Treat iPhone synchronization as a separate issue after the undeletable online entries have been corrected:

    1. On the iPhone, open Settings → Contacts and set Default Account to iCloud, if that setting is available.
    2. Open Outlook for iOS → Settings → select the Hotmail account.
    3. Enable Save Contacts.

    Outlook exports those contacts into the iOS Contacts app; saved contacts are placed under iCloud and synchronize to devices using the same iCloud account.^5^ Enable contact export on only one iOS device at a time, because Microsoft documents conflicts when it is enabled concurrently on an iPhone and iPad.

    References

    1. How to get support for Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
    2. Cannot delete contacts from Outlook web but they are deleted in Outlook Classic - Microsoft Q&A
    3. Export contacts from Outlook.com or Outlook on the web | Microsoft Support
    4. Outlook.com
    5. How do I save my Outlook contacts to my iOS contacts app? | Microsoft Support
    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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