How to Add and Edit Contacts in Outlook (and Import from a Spreadsheet)
Outlook remembers everyone you've emailed, but those auto-complete suggestions aren't real contacts — they vanish if you change computers and they don't sync to your phone. Proper contacts live in People, with a name, phone number, address and notes. Here's how to build and keep that list.
Quick reference
| What you want | How |
|---|---|
| Add from an email | Hover over the sender's name → Add to contacts |
| Add from scratch | People → New contact |
| Import a list | People → Manage contacts → Import contacts (CSV) |
| Find duplicates | Manage contacts → Clean up contacts / Link contacts |
1. Add a contact from an email
The quickest way: open an email from the person, hover over (or click) their name at the top, and choose Add to contacts. Outlook fills in the name and email address; add a phone number if you have it and click Save.
2. Add a contact from scratch
New Outlook and Outlook on the web:
1. Click the People icon in the left-hand bar.
2. Click New contact.
3. Fill in the name, email, phone and anything else. Click Add more for extra fields like a second address or birthday.
4. Click Save.
2. Click New contact.
3. Fill in the name, email, phone and anything else. Click Add more for extra fields like a second address or birthday.
4. Click Save.
Classic Outlook:
1. Click People at the bottom left (or press Ctrl + 3).
2. Click New Contact, fill in the form and click Save & Close.
2. Click New Contact, fill in the form and click Save & Close.
3. Edit a contact
Click the contact, then Edit (new Outlook) or double-click it (classic). Change what you need and save. Adding a photo helps when several people share a name, and the photo shows in their emails.
4. Import contacts from a spreadsheet
Got a list in Excel — customers, club members, a class list? Save it as a CSV file first (File → Save As → CSV UTF-8), with headings in the first row such as First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Mobile Phone.
New Outlook and Outlook on the web:
1. Open People.
2. Click Manage contacts → Import contacts.
3. Click Browse, choose the CSV and click Import.
2. Click Manage contacts → Import contacts.
3. Click Browse, choose the CSV and click Import.
Classic Outlook:
1. File → Open & Export → Import/Export.
2. Import from another program or file → Comma Separated Values.
3. Browse to the file, choose Do not import duplicate items, and pick Contacts as the destination.
4. Click Map Custom Fields to check the columns match Outlook's fields, then Finish.
2. Import from another program or file → Comma Separated Values.
3. Browse to the file, choose Do not import duplicate items, and pick Contacts as the destination.
4. Click Map Custom Fields to check the columns match Outlook's fields, then Finish.
5. Export your contacts
The reverse: Manage contacts → Export contacts (new) or Import/Export → Export to a file → CSV (classic). Good for a backup, or to move your contacts to another service.
6. Clean up duplicates
• New Outlook: click Manage contacts → Clean up contacts to find and merge duplicates.
• Classic Outlook: if two entries are for the same person, open one, copy the missing details across, and delete the other. Switching to List view (View → Change View → List) and sorting by name makes duplicates easy to spot.
• Classic Outlook: if two entries are for the same person, open one, copy the missing details across, and delete the other. Switching to List view (View → Change View → List) and sorting by name makes duplicates easy to spot.
7. Contacts on your phone
Contacts in a Microsoft 365, Exchange or Outlook.com account sync to the Outlook mobile app automatically. To have them in your phone's own Contacts app too, open the Outlook app → Settings → tap the account → Sync contacts.
Troubleshooting
The import put everything in the wrong fields. The CSV headings didn't match. In classic Outlook, use Map Custom Fields; in new Outlook, rename the headings in Excel to match Outlook's (First Name, E-mail Address and so on) and import again.
Names appear as "Last, First". File → Options → People → Default "File As" order in classic Outlook; in new Outlook, Settings → People → Display order.
Auto-complete suggests an old wrong address. That's not a contact — it's the auto-complete list. Hover over the suggestion and click the X to remove it.
Wrapping up
Add people as proper contacts from their emails, import any lists you've got in Excel, and let your Microsoft account sync them to your phone. Then the next time you change computer, everyone comes with you.
