Don’t Panic! Simple Fixes for Contacts Disappearing from Outlook Client

Published On - December 27, 2024 by Nasir Khan | Reading Time: 4 minutes

Losing contacts in Outlook can completely disrupt your communication workflow, as you may not find important email addresses of your clients. Generally, these issues arise because of errors in synchronization, accidental deletion, or issues in the local OST file. Therefore, this document provides an overview of the potential causes behind the problem of contacts disappearing from Outlook and resolutions. In case the manual solutions do not yield results, a dedicated Regain OST Converter tool can be used to recover lost contacts.

The issue of ‘Contacts missing in Outlook’ refers to an issue where the saved contacts cannot be found in Microsoft Outlook. Such scenarios may create hurdles in an e-mail communication process by making addresses unavailable from the address book. Thus, causing frustration and inconvenience, particularly in a professional environment. In addition, the autocomplete Outlook feature does not function properly. But, have you wondered why such issues arise?

Why Are Contacts Disappearing in Outlook?

Here are reasons why you cannot find contact details in the Outlook address book:

• Incorrect Address Book Configuration
• Working Outlook in Offline Mode
• Accidental Deletion of Contacts
• Problem with Data Syncing
• Improper Windows Updates
• Oversized OST File and Corruption Issues
• Outdated Outlook Version

Hence, if any of these reasons hit, you may face difficulty finding Contacts in Outlook. It’s important to note the reasons for resolving the issue. Let us proceed to the solution.

Solutions to Fix the Contacts Disappearing From Outlook Issue

Following are the methods to deal with the missing Contacts issue. You first need to find the appropriate reason and execute steps accordingly.

Method 1: Enable AutoComplete Feature in Outlook

Has your MS Outlook stopped suggesting email addresses while composing emails? This means the contacts may still exist but may not be appearing due to disabled autocomplete. Here’s how to enable the Autocomplete feature in Outlook:

1. Open MS Outlook and go to File to choose Options.
2. After that, click on the Mail option.
3. Scroll down to the Send Messages section.
4. Enable the option ‘Use Auto-Complete List to suggest names while typing in the To, Cc, and Bcc lines’.
5. Later, click on OK to save the settings.

Method 2: Check for Accidental Deletion or Filtering

In your Outlook, check if your contacts have been accidentally deleted or if some filtering is enabled. This can also cause the Contacts missing from Outlook issue. You need to follow the suggestions below:

• Open the Deleted Items folder, locate missing contacts, and restore them with a right-click.
• Check if any filter is enabled. If any active filters are found in the Contacts folder, disable them to ensure all contacts are visible.

If the problem was caused by deletion or filtering, this will definitely solve it. However, there are many other methods suggested below.

Method 3: Check the Synchronization Settings

There are cases when Outlook fails to sync with the email server or connected devices properly. Any disruption in synchronization can prevent updating Outlook data. Hence, it can prevent contacts from appearing in Outlook. Follow the procedure given:

1. In Outlook, open the Send/Receive tab.
2. Now, make sure that Work Offline mode is disabled.
3. Next, enable the Cached Exchange Mode, by following these steps:
   1. File > Info > Account Settings > Account Settings.
   2. Double-click on your account > check Cached Exchange Mode.
4. To apply changes, restart the Outlook application.

Method 4: Create a New Profile in MS Outlook

A corrupted Outlook profile may also cause such as the contact disappearing from Outlook issues. However, the problem may be resolved by creating a new profile:

1. Open the Control Panel. Then, go to User Accounts > opt Mail (32-bit).
2. Select Show Profiles and click on Add. Next, name your new profile and configure your email.
3. Then, restart the Outlook application and select the new profile.
4. Lastly, delete the old profile if the problem is resolved.

Method 5: Restore Contacts from Backup CSV

Many users are smart enough to keep a backup copy of their important data. You can restore contacts from a backup CSV file. Do as the steps follow:

1. Launch Outlook, go to File > click on Open & Export & then, Import/Export.
2. Select ‘Import from another program or file’ and click Next.
3. Now, choose CSV file and locate the backup file saved on your system.
4. Select Contacts as the destination folder. Finally, complete the import process.

Your Contacts will re-appear in your MS Outlook profile. However, if none of the procedures worked, the problem might be with Outlook OST files.

Method 6: Recreate the OST File

An oversized or corrupted OST file can also lead to contact disappearance in MS Outlook. Well, recreating the OST file can help resolve the Contacts missing from the Outlook issue. Here are the procedures:

1. First, make sure MS Outlook is properly shut.
2. Press Win + R > type %localappdata%\Microsoft\Outlook and then, Enter.
3. Locate the existing OST file and create a backup file.
4. Later, delete the original OST file.
5. Restart Outlook and a new OST file will be created automatically.

However, there are instances when OST file corruption cannot be fixed manually. We suggest using Regain OST to PST Converter to recover faulty OST file data and restore them. This tool is reliable and simple to use. It lets you transfer OST file data into diverse formats or email clients. Moreover, you can backup your Outlook Contacts into VCF files.

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Follow the given procedure to recover the OST file data, including Contacts:

1. Launch the OST File Converter Tool on your PC.
2. Browse and add OST file data saved on your system.
3. Preview folders of Outlook mailbox and other data.
4. Click on Export, and choose a saving destination.
5. You can save OST to PST and recover data into PST. Also, you can save Contacts into vCard as a backup copy.
6. At last, to execute the recovery process, click on Convert Now.

Conclusion

The ‘Contacts disappearing from Outlook’ issue can occur on all versions of Outlook, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. We have discussed the troubleshooting steps above, and you should try to restore your contacts. These methods are smooth and easy to execute. In extreme cases where the manual techniques will not help, a professional OST to PST Converter is useful for recovering missing contact information.