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How to Recover Outlook Contacts

Recover Outlook Contacts

Outlook is a multi-purpose personal information management system, launched by the tech giant, Microsoft. It is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite. Almost every business makes use of MS Outlook for email management and calendar scheduling. However, we tend to lose all our data at times. This may include valuable contacts from Outlook. Every contact is extremely valuable. If your contact is near you, you can easily get it back. But what if they are not reachable? What if your only way of reaching them was through Outlook? Getting back your contacts manually is not a simple task. This can become really hectic.

Therefore, it is always better to work towards getting back your lost data. In other words, restoring your lost contacts is the best option. But, do you know how to recover your deleted contacts? If your answer is “No”, then you have reached the right destination. We have listed down a few methods to help you get back all your deleted contacts. Just follow every step mentioned below and you can easily restore your contacts!

Method 1 – Recover Contacts from the Deleted Items Folder

What is the Deleted Items Folder?

In many cases, you may tend to accidentally delete an Outlook contact. On the other hand, you may have even deleted a contact on purpose, but changed your mind later. In both cases, you want to get your lost contacts back.

Human errors are unavoidable. Therefore, to cope up with these accidental errors, a lot of applications provide in-built recovery solutions. Just like the Recycle Bin on your computer or like the Trash folder in Gmail, Outlook has a folder called the Deleted Items. When you accidentally or purposely delete something on Outlook, it temporarily moves to the Deleted Items folder. It stays there for a certain period, during which you can restore it. However, it gets permanently deleted after a period of time. After this, you cannot get your deleted items back.

How to Recover Deleted Items From it?

In this method, we will be checking the Deleted Items folder for the file that you are searching. If it is there, you can easily recover it. Just follow the steps given below and you will be able to get back your contacts easily –

  1. Open MS Outlook on your device ( Either the application on your PC or your mobile application).
  2. On the side panel, you will find a list of all the email folders available (like Inbox, Drafts etc.,). Open Deleted Items from the list.
  3. Search for the particular contact or email that you want to recover. To make things easier, you can even use the Search bar on the top of the page (Shortcut: Ctrl + E) or the Sort by Icon column to group all the contacts.
  4. Once you find the contact that you are looking for, Right click on it. From the options listed, click on Move and then Other Folder.
  5. A list of all folders will appear. Select the Contact folder. This will move the contacts that you selected to your contact book.

That’s it. You have now successfully restored all your deleted contacts from the Deleted Items folder to your contact book folder. However, in some cases, you may not find your deleted contacts in the Deleted Items folder. This may be because you have deleted your contacts a long time ago. It has passed the threshold period and is now permanently deleted. Likewise, you may have even cleared the Deleted Items folder before recovering your contacts. In such cases, this method does not suit you. Keep reading to find the next best method.

Method 2 – Recover Contacts From Recoverable Items Folder

If you cannot find your deleted contacts in the Deleted Items folder, they may have probably been moved to the Recoverable Items folder. The Recoverable Items is a hidden folder. Items are moved to this folder if you do any of the following things –

  • Deleted a single contact from the Deleted Items Folder.
  • Cleared or Emptied the Deleted Items Folder.
  • Permanently Deleted a contact by clicking Shift + Del.

So, if you have done any of the things mentioned above, your contact is probably present in the Recoverable Items folder. As mentioned earlier, it is a hidden folder. Here is what you should do to find it and recover items from it –

  1. Open MS Outlook from your device (From your PC).
  2. On the side panel, you will find a list of all the email folders available (like Inbox, Drafts etc.,). Open Deleted Items from the list.
  3. Make sure that the Home tab is selected (There is a list of tabs on the top).
  4. Now click on Recover Deleted Items from Server from the options below Home.
  5. A list of all the recoverable contacts will appear here. Find the specific contact that you want to recover. To make things easier, click on the Subject header to sort items in that column. All contacts will have a blank From column, making it easier to find.
  6. Choose the particular contact that you want to recover. Now click on Restore Selected Items.
  7. Hit Ok.

After you restore them, all these contacts are now moved to the Deleted Items folder. Go back to that folder and carry out all steps mentioned in Method 1.

If your Recover Deleted Items from the Server option is greyed out or disabled, then you may be offline. Try connecting your application to the internet. If that does not work, then you might not be using an Exchange Account. You can use this option only if you have an Exchange Account.

Method 3 – Recovering your Contacts through Backup File

Do you already have a backup of your deleted contacts? If so, you can easily import your PST files to your Outlook account. You can do this on the same computer, a different computer, or even to a different email account. Here is how you can do it –

  1. Open MS Outlook from your device (From your PC).
  2. Go to File from the Outlook Menu.
  3. Select Open & Export. Now, from the options listed choose Import/Export. If you are using MS Outlook 2007 and 2003, you can go to File and then Import and Export.
  4. From the dialog box that pops up, select Import from another program or file and then click Next.
  5. Depending upon the version of the Outlook Application that you are using, choose Outlook Data File (.pst) or Personal Folder File (PST).
  6. Now hit Next.
  7. Now, select the location of your backup file. If you want to change the location, click on Browse, and then select the location of your PST file.
  8. From the next set of options, choose any of the following –
    1. Replace duplicates with items imported – If any duplicate items are found, it replaces those items with the items in this file.
    2. Allow duplicates to be created – Imports all of the data and makes multiple copies of the data that are redundant.
    3. Do not import duplicates – All duplicate data is not imported and remains in the backup.
  9. Click on Next.
  10. Select all other options – whether to create subfolders, location of subfolders and other things like that.
  11. After selecting all the settings, click on Finish.

Don’t have a backup PST file that you can import? Then this method is not for you. However, there are other methods listed for you below. Keep reading them to find the perfect fit.

Method 4 – Importing Address Books from your Account

Have you updated your Outlook account or installed a new version to your system and found your contacts to be empty? Well, don’t panic. It is just that Outlook has not imported your contacts to your account yet. If it has not done it on its own, you should do it manually. Just follow the steps mentioned below and you will get all your contacts back in no time!

  1. Open MS Outlook from your device (From your PC).
  2. From the Menu in the top-left corner, select File.
  3. Now click on Account Settings. A drop down box appears with a list of options. From the list, select Account Settings again.
  4. This will take you to a new page. On the top right corner, open Address Books.
  5. A list of address books will appear below. If you have created any address book on your own, click to open it. Else, click on Outlook Address Book.
  6. Now your contacts will be imported to your Outlook account.

Method 5 – Contacting the MS Outlook Support Team

If you have tried all of the above methods and you still cannot recover your deleted contacts, then they may be permanently deleted. There is almost no possibility to get your contacts back. However, you can try using other third-party data recovery software to try recovering your contacts. In addition, there is one method that can help you out – the Microsoft Support Team. You can try contacting the Microsoft Support Team to help you get your contacts back. Here is how you do it –

  1. Go to the official MS Outlook Support page.
  2. Type in your problem on the search box to the top of the page.
  3. As you start tyoing, a list of suggested queries appear below. If your problem is listed, click on it. A collection on official articles to solve your problem appears below. Read the preferred document and follow the instructions that are listed below.

However, there is no guarantee that you will get back your lost data. Although, there is no harm in trying out every method possible.

References

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