Prefill email address

Question

Prefill email address

Moody, Dempsey 0

In outlook, when I begin an email the incorrect email address prefills in the "To:" line. The recipient has multiple emails associated with their outlook profile. Can we change the order of emails listed in his profile to change the prefill when a sender types an address?

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3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hornblower409 14,690

@Jay1 Tran said

Begin typing the recipient’s name in the To field. When the incorrect address appears, click the X next to it, or highlight it and press Delete.

Microsoft removed the ability to delete a single email address from the Suggested People/Autocomplete list months ago. Please edit your Answer to avoid confusing future visitors.

The only way to remove a bad entry from the Suggested People/Autocomplete list is to clear the entire list.

See the Answer by "Hornblower409 May 1 2026" - "How to convert your Autocomplete List to Contacts and erase the List" at
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5871874/manually-removing-an-email-address-from-the-sugges?orderby=newest&page=1#answers

Jay1 Tran 605 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-11T22:38:07.4066667+00:00

Hi Hornblower409,

Thank you for the correction and for bringing this to my attention. I appreciate the update regarding the current behavior of the Suggested People/Autocomplete list.

I've updated my response to avoid confusion and now instruct customers to highlight the recipient's name and press Backspace/Delete to remove it from the message field.

Thank you again for helping ensure the guidance remains accurate and up to date.

Answer 2

Hi Dempsey,

Thank you for reaching out.

Changing the order of the email addresses in the recipient’s profile generally will not control which address Outlook prefills. Outlook may use previously entered recipients, saved contacts, or your organization’s address directory when displaying suggestions.

To resolve the issue, please try the following steps:

Remove the incorrect suggestion

Click New Email to open a blank message. This does not create a new email address.
Begin typing the recipient’s name in the To field.
When the incorrect address appears, click the X next to it, or highlight it and press Delete.
Enter and select the correct email address.

Check the sender’s Outlook contacts

Open People in Outlook and search for the recipient.
Check for an outdated or duplicate contact containing the incorrect address.
Edit the incorrect contact, save the changes, and then try again.

User's image

Verify the recipient’s primary email address

If the issue affects multiple senders, please reach out to your IT admin to confirm that the preferred address is configured as the recipient’s primary email address. The other addresses can remain as aliases, but changing their displayed order will not establish which address is primary.

In case you do not know who is your IT admin, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

I hope your issue gets resolved soon. Any updates would be greatly appreciated.

Jay1 Tran 605 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-11T22:42:13.66+00:00

Hi Dempsey,

Have you had a chance to review the information provided? Any updates would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 3

Yes. In classic Outlook, the address list search order can be changed, and that affects which address lists Outlook checks first when resolving recipients.

To change it manually:

In Outlook, go to Home > Address Book.
Select Tools > Options.
Under When opening the address book, show this address list first, choose the default address book if needed.
To change lookup order, select Custom.
Use the up and down arrows to reorder the address books.
Select OK.

Important: this changes the order of address lists/address books that Outlook checks first. The provided documentation does not state that Outlook can reorder multiple email addresses within a single person’s profile/contact card to control which one prefills in the To: field.

For classic Outlook in business environments, administrators can also set the address list resolution order programmatically by using MAPI IAddrBook::SetSearchPath.

References: