Suggested Contacts folder missing or doesn’t save new addresses in Outlook 2013 and later
I’ve upgraded my desktop and laptop computer to Office 365 but I believe something went wrong with the “Suggested Contacts” folder.
On one computer, the Suggested Contacts folder is there but it no longer adds new addresses for people that I sent to but aren’t in my Address Book.
On my other computer, I started with a new mailbox and that mailbox doesn’t have a Suggested Contacts folder at all!
The AutoSuggest feature still works though for any past or new addresses.
What is going on and how do I restore the Suggested Contacts feature?
The concept of a “Suggested Contacts” folder only existed in Outlook 2010 and is no longer being used in Outlook 2013 and later.
In part, it was to remove confusion about the folder and its relation to the AutoSuggest feature. For another part, it was to make sure that the new People hub/view didn’t get polluted with contacts you are no longer in contact with.
Suggested Contacts vs AutoSuggest
The Suggested Contacts folder was a folder introduced in Outlook 2010 which stored contact items of people that you have emailed to but were not yet in your Address Book.
This has an overlap with the AutoSuggest feature which offers (stores) addresses of people you have previously emailed with. The AutoSuggest cache is stored within your mailbox itself (Outlook 2007 and previously stored it in an nk2-file).
Extra tip: To take a look at the addresses stored in your AutoSuggest cache, you can use the free NK2Edit tool from NirSoft. This tool also allows you to export these cached addresses to your Contacts folder.
The Suggested Contacts folder can be deleted
For newly created mailboxes, Outlook 2013 and later no longer creates the Suggested Contacts folder.
If you are upgrading to Outlook 2013 or later and your mailbox already contained a Suggested Contacts folder, then this folder won’t be deleted automatically. Any addresses (contacts) in there will still remain available to you but new addresses will not be added automatically anymore. In other words: it behaves like any other additional contacts folder that you might have created manually.
If you are no longer using this mailbox with Outlook 2010 or Outlook Web App (OWA) 2010, then it is recommended to cleanup the Suggested Contacts folder and then delete it.
Re-enable the Suggested Contacts folder feature
If you liked the option to automatically create contacts for any new person you have emailed with, you can choose to add it back with a 3rd party add-in.
- Add Email Address by Sperry Software (discount code: BH93RF24 )
- Add Contacts by MAPILab (discount code: 4PM76A8 )
Both add-ins will allow you to select a contacts folder to create the new contact in and/or to assign it a specific category.
