Removing auto-complete entries from Outlook NEW

Question

Removing auto-complete entries from Outlook NEW

TJ Garland 235

When I'm sending an email, Outlook NEW auto-completes from people not in my contacts. There is no longer a way to remove an individual entry from the auto-complete list. How can I remove individual auto-complete entries?

Note: I don't want to clear / delete ALL auto-complete entries, just the ones that I select / choose.

Jerry Casidy 5 Reputation points

2026-06-02T19:11:21.32+00:00

C'mon Redmond.... what in the world made you remove the ability to manage autocomplete items? Please develop a means do to that and make your customers smile.
Hornblower409 9,445 Reputation points

2026-06-02T19:28:00.8+00:00

@Jerry Casidy said

what in the world made you remove the ability to manage autocomplete items?

MC1234566

Outlook is retiring the "Contact Masking" feature on March 31, 2026, which allowed users to hide suggested recipients. Hidden contacts may reappear after this date. No admin action is required, and no replacement feature will be provided. The change resolves cross-app inconsistencies and confusion. This feature has been a recurring source of customer confusion and escalations, because contacts can be accidentally hidden for one user but not others. While the impact is felt across Microsoft 365 experiences (not just Outlook). It also isn’t managed as a contact entity setting, which creates transparency and compliance challenges.

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Jerry Casidy 5 Reputation points

2026-06-02T19:11:21.32+00:00

C'mon Redmond.... what in the world made you remove the ability to manage autocomplete items? Please develop a means do to that and make your customers smile.
Hornblower409 9,445 Reputation points

2026-06-02T19:28:00.8+00:00

@Jerry Casidy said

what in the world made you remove the ability to manage autocomplete items?

MC1234566

Outlook is retiring the "Contact Masking" feature on March 31, 2026, which allowed users to hide suggested recipients. Hidden contacts may reappear after this date. No admin action is required, and no replacement feature will be provided. The change resolves cross-app inconsistencies and confusion. This feature has been a recurring source of customer confusion and escalations, because contacts can be accidentally hidden for one user but not others. While the impact is felt across Microsoft 365 experiences (not just Outlook). It also isn’t managed as a contact entity setting, which creates transparency and compliance challenges.

Answer 1

Francisco Montilla 30,635 Independent Advisor

Hello,

Right now the only workaround they give you to get rid of incorrect emails is to totally wipe your whole suggested people list. If you end up deciding to just nuke the whole thing you can do that by clicking the gear icon to open your Settings > General > Privacy and data, and then hitting the button to clear your suggested people data.

Regarding your feedback question. You can easily do that by going to Help and then clicking Feedback right inside the app.

I hope this helps!

Nuno Godinho 35 Reputation points

2026-06-10T19:55:34.5433333+00:00

Not even that works! I already tried and the wrong emails (from a domain that no longer is in use) keep popping up. I have no idea where they come from or how to get rid of them. Very annoying because if I don't pay LOTS of attention, I end up having a bunch of undeliverable emails. Very frustrating! What is Microsoft doing? It is not the only feature they removed from the New Outlook. For example, you can no longer select the field you want to see in each folder. It looks like if they were so eager to deliver the product that they ended up giving up a car with no blinkers, no hand brake (use a brick under the wheels), no head rest (who needs that?) and so on.
Hornblower409 9,445 Reputation points

2026-06-10T20:27:27.83+00:00

@Nuno Godinho said

Not even that works! I already tried and the wrong emails (from a domain that no longer is in use) keep popping up. I have no idea where they come from

To see if the bad email addresses are coming from your Microsoft Account Suggested People (Autocomplete) please do step "A - Export your Autocomplete List to a CSV file" from my Answer:

How to convert your Autocomplete List to Contacts and erase the List at
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5871874/manually-removing-an-email-address-from-the-sugges?orderby=newest&page=1#answers

Examine the CSV export file. Do you see the bad email addresses in it?

If the CSV is empty - It can take up to 48 hours after your request a Clear your Suggested People before the changes show up in your email client.
Nuno Godinho 35 Reputation points

2026-06-11T13:02:38.8833333+00:00

@Hornblower409 Thank you for your tip, but that was one of my earlier attempts to try to figure it out. Adn the answer is "no", the suggested addresses I wanted to remove do not come from that list. Actually, that list has a very short number of elements.
Hornblower409 9,445 Reputation points

2026-06-11T13:39:14.3466667+00:00

Nuno Godinho said

the suggested addresses I wanted to remove do not come from [the Account Suggested People list]

Are you running Classic Outlook?
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/outlook/contacts/outlook-autocomplete-list#clear-the-autocomplete-list
Nuno Godinho 35 Reputation points

2026-06-11T14:02:48.95+00:00

@Hornblower409 That was my call yesterday, yes. I got back to the Classical Outlook where I have more functionalities than in the New Outlook, including the ability to delete suggested emails.

Answer 2

There is a Feature Request that you can Vote for to revert this change:

Return ability to delete individual auto-complete suggestions for email recipients
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/97490d3b-7d45-f111-9a91-000d3a05c4f5
(You must "Sign In" at the top right of the Feedback page before you can vote).

To salvage any email addresses in your Autocomplete List you want to keep before you clear it:

See the Answer by "Hornblower409 May 1 2026" How to convert your Autocomplete List to Contacts and erase the List in: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5871874/manually-removing-an-email-address-from-the-sugges?orderby=newest&page=1#answers

Answer 3

TJ Garland 235

Where can I go to give feedback?

0 comments

Answer 4

In the current New Outlook for Windows, removing individual auto-complete (suggested recipient) entries is no longer supported. The per-entry delete options (such as the X next to a suggestion or using Delete on a highlighted suggestion) were removed in recent releases.

Only bulk clearing/resetting of the Auto-Complete or suggestions list is available; selectively removing single entries cannot be done in the New Outlook client at this time.

References:

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Removing auto-complete entries from Outlook NEW

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