Find missing email contacts Hotmail/Outlook

Question

Find missing email contacts Hotmail/Outlook

Angélica Pérez 20

All but 13 of my contacts from Hotmail/Outlook are gone. They are not in the deleted folder. I didn't delete anything. Can't get through to a human or even chat box. Am in a loop of frustration. I thought I could import my contacts from my MAC but that did not work.

Thanks for any tips.

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Answer accepted by question author

Edward Schlobohm01 10,225 Independent Advisor

Hi,

Thanks for explaining your situation so clearly. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this losing contacts without warning and getting stuck in support loops is incredibly frustrating. Let’s try to sort this out together.

Just to help narrow things down, have you recently connected your Outlook account to a new device, app, or service like Apple Contacts, Thunderbird, or a phone sync? Or changed any sync settings that might’ve affected your contacts?

First, try checking your contacts online at https://outlook.live.com/people

Sometimes they’re still in the cloud even if they don’t show up on your device. If you see more than 13 contacts there, that’s a good sign. If not, we’ll dig deeper.

You can also check the Deleted Items folder at https://outlook.live.com/mail/deleteditems Contacts don’t have a separate deleted folder, but they might show up as messages with vCards you can restore.

If you tried importing contacts from your Mac and it didn’t work, I can walk you through exporting them properly and re-importing them into Outlook.

And if this turns out to be a sync or account issue, Microsoft might be able to help. You can go to https://support.microsoft.com/contactus choose Outlook.com, then Contacts and People, and look for the option to restore deleted contacts. or there's an option for live chat support.

Let me know what you find , I’m here to help anytime.

Warm regards,

Edward

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Answer 1

It sounds like you are experiencing an issue where your contacts are missing from your Hotmail/Outlook account. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially recover your contacts:

Check for Multiple Contacts Folders: Sometimes, contacts may be in a different folder that has the same name. Check if you have multiple folders named "Contacts" and see if your missing contacts are in one of those folders. You can drag your contacts from the folder containing them to the correct Contacts folder if needed.
Import Contacts: If you have an export file of your contacts from your Mac, ensure that it is in a supported format (like .csv). You can try to import your contacts again by following the import procedure for Outlook. Make sure the column names in your spreadsheet match exactly with what Outlook expects.
Check Filters: If some contacts are still not visible, check if any filters are applied to your contacts view that might be hiding them. You can adjust the view settings in Outlook to ensure all contacts are displayed.
Contact Support: If you are still unable to recover your contacts, consider reaching out to Microsoft support for further assistance. They may be able to help you recover your contacts or provide additional troubleshooting steps.

These steps should help you locate your missing contacts or assist in importing them successfully.

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