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I am (and have been since upgrading to this version) unable to create a contact list or contact group. When clicking on file then new in outlook the "Contact List" is greyed out. I have tried to follow these instructions:
How to Enable Contact Lists using Office365 Outlook on a Mac
Open Outlook.
Select Outlook, Preferences, and the General tab.
Uncheck the option titled "Hide On My Computer folders"
Close tabs and return to email. ...
Create a List Title and Add new members.
Your contact list will be shown in the Smart Folders group.
I do NOT have the option titled "Hide On My Computer Folders"
Please advise. This has been missing for way too long and we require a way to have group contact distribution lists!
Thank you!!
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Hi @Robyn Broening ,
Is there any update on this thread? If the issue has been resolved, please mark the helpful replies as answers, this will make answer searching in the forum easier and be beneficial to other community members as well. Thanks for your understanding.
This has not in any way been resolved!
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I don't even know who to ask about the status of this. It seems such an obvious element of any email program. Instead, every time I have to enter every name (or do a funky "reply all" and then remove the message that it contained).
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I am having the same problem. When Outlook upgraded to the New Outlook for Mac (2023), I lost my email lists and some of my notes in my contacts. If I go up to "File" and hit "new," the "new contacts list" is greyed out, even though I do NOT have the "hide on my computer folders" checked. This is a very simple thing to do with email, and it's maddening it doesn't work on the new Outlook for Mac.
@Faery Fu-MSFT There has still been NO resolution to this issue. The need for contact or distribution lists isn't just a nice to have....it is imperative. It should be standard issue. The fact that it has taken this long is not acceptable. It makes this program almost impossible to use. Please advise as to when this feature will be added back to the Outlook program.
I completely agree with you, Robyn. Is there anyone from MSFT monitoring this thread or have they just given up replying?
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To anyone still watching this thread, I noticed this is in the beta version for 365 if you have that. It took a minute to get that going with all the updates, but the option seems to be there. So if you can use beta (and have 365), it looks like there’s an option now. I haven’t made a list yet, just saw it was selectable. Feel free to add on if you try it and find issues. The MS poster had a link to details, I’m away from my laptop currently.
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Harmony, Dumb question: how do we have access to beta? thank you.
Not dumb, Jim! It was kind of hidden. I found the features list on the Feature Parity Page.
The Office Insiders page shows how to do the beta. I found I had to switch to it, then do the updates, it took a couple tries (and maybe opening and closing it) before it came up.
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Hi @Robyn Broening ,
Welcome to our forum!
Are you referring to the issue shown in the image below?
If so, as i know, the issue will occur when you use New Outlook. For the "Contact Lists" feature, it is not available in New Outlook for Mac. More information: The new Outlook for Mac.
As a workaround, it's suggested that you could revert to the Legacy Outlook to use this function (via Help>Revert to the Legacy Outlook).
Hope the above help!
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Hi @Robyn Broening ,
Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back. If you think my reply is helpful to you, please remember to mark it as an answer. Warm thanks.
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What is going on with MS? This problem was identified in 2022 and has still not been addressed - I use contact lists to email a number of project teams and groups and so am forced to revert to the Legacy version each time MS moves me over to the new version.
I agree with Bernie: what is going on? This is something that was flagged last year and it's still not resolved/available? The workaround is way too kludgy. Not satisfactory at all. Please update us on the expected timeframe for what should be a simple, and essential, fix. Thank you.
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This is absolutely unbelievable. I can't even drag contacts from Legacy into New Outlook. When I drag, only one stays. It means I have to reenter every contact. And no categories is ridiculous. And all the chatter from Microsoft about reverting to Legacy is wrong. I tried and I can't get Legacy to reopen. I use our domain email set up through gmail for security and to avoid any black ball issues the hosting company may encounter. The interface with gmail doesn't work any more with Legacy. So I'm stuck. Before the interface broke, I tried setting some things up in New Outlook for Mac, then reverted back to Legacy, Legacy was corrupted and when I went back to New, any data entered was lost. A cluster all around.
Ugh. Can someone from MSFT respond to this please?
I can no longer use "Legacy Outlook" for Mac, as it's gone. this is why I waited until the end to upgrade. How could Microsoft have designed this with such an obvious flaw?
Hi, @ChristyZhang-MSFT it's definitely "later this year" - any updates or a ticket we can track and upvote?
I received the "answer" below in reply to another post - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1343597/how-(when)-can-i-create-contact-lists-in-new-outlo
Post title is "How (when) can I create contact lists in NEW Outlook for Mac v16.77"
I am amazed at how MS could put out and push users toward New Outlook for Mac knowing "some features are not perfect". There's a big difference between "not perfect" and non-existent.
A better description is "many standard features are missing because we don't care much about Mac users."
I think the MS product manager for Office for Mac was the product manager for Windows Millennium Edition (ME). If you're too young, look it up, it was a fiasco.
Hi @Gary Herwood ，
We apologize for the bad experience, as the new Outlook for Mac is still a work in progress and some features are not perfect. According to the official website, Microsoft is adding the feature to its roadmap and is expected to rollout in September.
Reference: Outlook: Contact lists
Given the number of times they said it was going to rollout last year, I'm not holding my breath. it was added to the list in Jan, 2022. My goodness...
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I have complained to Microsoft about this for months. I'll believe it when I see it.
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This is the main reason I resisited moving to the new Outlook for as long as possible. New version seems to be the only way now (impossible to switch back?), but in a few ways its worse than the old one. Its currently making my working day harder, when I'm sure its supposed to make my working day smoother.
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Once again, I received a "Try the new Outlook for Mac!" pop-up. Once again, for YEARS, the option of creating a contact list is unavailable. Why does MS continue to kick the can on this important feature? If it weren't for the fact I HAVE to use this for my business, I would stick with Apple products because they work.
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It's almost February 2024 and still no option for creating contact lists in Outlook for Mac. Doesn't matter if I switch back to legacy Outlook, the option stays greyed out. Since I'm not invested in this feature I would like to know what would be the easiest way to send a group of people an e-mail. And how you keep this group organised at a company wide (multiple campuses) level. I don't want to add the same 30+ people individually to an e-mail and I want one place where I can manage this group and share it with my colleagues.
I'm able to create a group in the web version of Outlook but I'm not able to use it in the new and legacy Outlook for Mac app.
Does anyone know who at MSFT is the point person on this? It's way way way overdue and beyond annoying.
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This is still a problem in V16.82. Very frustrating!