Restore or recover a deleted contact in Outlook (New Outlook)

Applies To: Outlook for Microsoft 365 Outlook 2024 Outlook 2021 Outlook 2019 Outlook 2016 Outlook on the web Outlook.com New Outlook for Windows.

You can often recover deleted contacts just like you would recover deleted email from your Outlook mailbox.

If you accidentally delete a contact or a contact list in new Outlook, you can restore the contact or contact list if it's still in your Deleted folder on the People page. In some cases, you can even recover a contact or contact list after it's removed from the Deleted folder.

Restore contacts that are still in your Deleted folder in new Outlook

When you delete a contact or a contact list, it's moved to the Deleted folder.

1. From the navigation pane in new Outlook, select  People.

2. In People, select Deleted.

   

3. Find and select the contact you want to restore. Right-click and select Restore.

   

Recover contacts that have been removed from your Deleted folder in new Outlook​​​​​​​

If you can't find a contact in the Deleted folder, the next place to look is the Recoverable folder.

1. From the navigation pane in new Outlook, select  People.

2. In People, select the Deleted folder.

3. At the top of the list, select Recover deleted.

4. Select the contact you want to recover, and select Restore.

Where do recovered contacts go?    The contacts you select to recover will be restored to their original folders when possible. If an original folder no longer exists, the contacts are restored to your default Contacts folder.