Web based Office 365 mail will not show saved contact emails when you search

Hi @Scott Bernhardt,

Good day, I hope you are doing well.

I truly appreciate your time raising your concern and trying the initial troubleshooting to clear the AutoComplete list. According to your concern, the issue could be due to a corrupted local browser cache or cloud-based suggestion data, a configuration problem with your specific account or license.

To resolve the issue, I would recommend following these steps:

1. Open Outlook in an incognito tab 

• Open Microsoft Edge or Chrome. 
• Start an InPrivate window in Edge or an Incognito window in Chrome. 
• In that private window, go to https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/and sign in. 
• Try composing an email and see if the issue occurs.

2. Clear your browser cache

• Launch the browser, and press Ctrl + Shift + Delete to open the Clear browsing data utility. 
• Now, select All time from the Time range dropdown menu, tick the checkboxes for Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files

• Then click on Clear data towards the bottom. 

3. Use the Full Address Book to Select Recipients

• Open a new email message.
• In the To or Cc field, select the To or Cc button instead of typing the recipient name directly.
• In the address book window, search for the recipient by name or email address.
• Select the correct recipient from either:
  • Your organization’s Global Address List, or
  • Your personal Contacts
• Add the recipient to the message, then select OK or Save, depending on the window shown.
• Continue composing and sending your email as usual.

4. Verify your Microsoft 365 license

If you are an end-user, please reach out to your IT admin and provide them with these steps:

• Sign into Microsoft 365 admin center using your admin credentials. 
• Navigate to Users > Active users. 
• Select the affected user account, select the Licenses and apps tab. 

• Open the Apps dropdown. 
• Confirm whether your account has been assigned with a Microsoft license and Exchange Online has been enabled. 

5. Contact Microsoft Support

If the issue persists after taking these steps, the issue appears to require deeper investigation. While I would love to resolve this directly, my current scope and resource limitations do not allow access to the internal systems needed for this type of troubleshooting. In this situation, I would recommend reaching out to your organization's IT admin to create a support ticket to Microsoft since you have attempted to perform the initial troubleshooting steps.  

Once the ticket is created, a technical support engineer will be able to initiate a secure remote session, review backend configurations, run diagnostics, and escalate the case to specialized engineering teams if necessary. These teams are equipped to perform advanced troubleshooting and provide targeted solutions. 

As moderators, our role is to offer guidance and general troubleshooting steps. Although we do not have access to administrative tools required for backend fixes, we truly appreciate your understanding of these limitations. We hope the information provided helps point you in the right direction, and we are always here to assist as much as possible within our scope. 

For instructions on submitting a support request, please refer to: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn.  I hope this information is helpful. Please follow the steps above and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can continue working together to resolve the issue.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out so I can continue to support you. If you found the response useful, please consider marking it as accepted, as this may help other community members who are looking for similar guidance.  

I look forward to continuing the conversation.  

If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". 

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.     

Outlook on the web uses its own AutoComplete and contact suggestion system that is separate from the classic Outlook desktop AutoComplete list. The context provided only documents AutoComplete behavior and management for classic Outlook and Outlook for Mac, plus general information about how suggestions work; it does not document a “Clear autocomplete list” control for Outlook on the web or how to restore missing contact suggestions there.

Because of that, only the following supported points can be stated:

• Outlook maintains an AutoComplete list (nickname cache) of addresses previously used when sending mail. This list is Outlook‑specific and is not shared with Outlook on the web.
• Suggested recipients when composing a message can also be powered by Microsoft Search and by service‑side “Contact Suggestions,” which use personal contacts and organization contacts.
• In supported Outlook clients, suggestions appear as names are typed in the To/Cc/Bcc fields, and the list refines with each character typed.

The context does not provide steps to:

• Clear or reset the AutoComplete list specifically in Outlook on the web.
• Fix missing contact suggestions in Outlook on the web when the “Clear autocomplete list” option is not present.

No further, accurate remediation steps for Outlook on the web can be given based on the available material.

References:

• The Outlook AutoComplete list
• Manage suggested recipients in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields in Outlook
• Manage suggested recipients in the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes with Auto-Complete in Outlook for Mac
• When creating a Quick Step for New E-mail To, Outlook does not save it