Contact Lists in Microsoft Outlook

Contact lists for Microsoft Outlook are handled differently depending upon the operating system and how it is stored. This article explains the differences and IT's recommendation.

• Contact lists for the Outlook application for Windows and through a web browser are stored within Office 365 and are accessible on any device except for the Outlook application on macOS.
• Contact lists for the Outlook application on macOS are created and stored locally and cannot be accessed through the Outlook application for Windows or through a web browser. It becomes an issue when the device is tech renewed or is otherwise inaccessible because the contacts are not available or transferrable. For this reason, the contact list feature has been disabled for macOS users.

It is recommended that contact lists are created and accessed through the Outlook application for Windows and through a web browser at https://outlook.office365.com/ as this will be stored within your Office 365 account and will always be available. If you, however, want to use the contact lists feature in the Outlook application on macOS, that feature can be enabled through a request.

Show Contact Lists

If you have local contact lists saved within the Outlook application on macOS and want these to show:

1. Click Outlook in the top menu bar.
2. Click Preferences.
3. Click General.
4. Uncheck Hide On My Computer folders.