How to Recover Deleted Contacts in Outlook for Windows

Amy Dennis

Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: Recover Emails • Proven solutions

With a tool as efficient as Outlook, you do not have to worry about storing and organizing your contacts- for it does the needful on its own. However, with all those great functionalities, you are also heavily dependent on your Outlook data. If you are not aware of ways to recover Outlook contacts, then you are unprepared for the most commonly occurring issue- lost or deleted contacts. This can happen when:

• You accidentally format your PC without any backup
• A virus/Trojan deletes the data on your PC
• A problem while updating Outlook
• Deleting your Outlook account intentionally/accidentally

• Part 1: How to Recover Outlook Contacts from PST Files
• Part 2: How to Recover Deleted Contacts in Outlook

No matter what the issue may be, the bottom line is that you are now left without your Outlook contacts. However, with free email recovery software, you can recover them with ease.

Part 1: How to Recover Outlook Contacts from PST Files

A PST or Personal Storage file is the folder fie that Microsoft Outlook uses for storing a particular user's data. A.PST file generally has a 2GB size and contains all your data including your emails, contacts, calendar events as well as other items used by the Outlook software.

Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is one of the most trusted methods to recover Outlook contacts. It repairs corrupted or damaged PST files and recover email and items from repaired PST files. Outlook PST Repair works with MS Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 & 2000.

Outlook PST Repair Tool

• Recovers all mailbox components within the files such as emails, attachments, contacts, calendar items, journals, notes, etc.
• Recovers accidentally deleted Emails that were purged by mistake or lost due to unplanned system formatting
• Allows saving recovered mails in EML, MSG, RTF, HTML, and PDF formats
• Supports repair of encrypted & password protected PST files
• Enables you to arrange scanned emails using various criteria such as "Date", "From", "To", "Subject", "Type", "Attachment", and "Importance"
• Repairs corrupt Outlook file created in MS Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002 (XP), & 2000 and MS Office 2016, 2013, 2010 (64-bit version), 2007 & 2003;Supports Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista.

Download Windows Version

 

Steps to Repair PST files and Recover Deleted Contacts

Step 1 Outlook PST Repair home screen has two options – "Select a corrupt Outlook PST file" and "Find the PST file". Let's select the "Find the PST file" option to repair PST files and process to recover Outlook contacts.

Step 2 Search the drive location to look in the PST files. Select the PST file to repair which display in the "Find Results" section.

Step 3 Once the PST file has been selected, click the Scan button. After a while, all the repaired PST file email and items folders will be shown in left sidebar.

Step 4 Select the contact items from the repaired PST files and save them on the desired location.

Outlook PST Repair tool also supports to recover emails, tasks, and calendar events from PST files with just a few clicks. You are shown a counter for the total emails and contacts recovered. All your deleted data is organized by folders to let you preview and recover the stuff you need. You have the option of previewing the contacts and emails before recovery.

Part 2: How to Recover Deleted Contacts in Outlook

Apart from using the Outlook PST Repair tool, you can recover Outlook contacts in Windows in two other ways.

1. Recover a contact that's still in your Deleted Items folder

After you have deleted contacts from Outlook, they are present in the folder marked "Deleted Items". If you are looking to recover an item from there, follow the steps ahead:

Step 1 Go to the email folders list in Outlook, and then select the folder named "Deleted Items".

Step 2Now press CTRL+E or use the column that says "Search Deleted Items" for searching the contacts that you are trying to recover. You can also sort/filter them from the Icon column.

Step 3 When you have found the contact that you want, right-click on it, select Move, and then select Other Folder.

Step 4 And select the Contacts folder from the list that appears.

2. Recover Outlook Contacts that's no longer in your Deleted Items folder

If the contact you are trying to recover is not present in the Deleted Items folder, then you can look for it in the folder marked Recoverable Items. To do that, follow the steps ahead:

Step 1 Go to the folder named "Deleted Items", and ensure that the "Home" tab is selected at the top. From this, select the option that says "Recover Deleted Items from Server".

Step 2 For finding a contact in the window that appears, click on the Subject header and all items in the column will be sorted by Subject. Similarly, you can click on the "From" column to sort by the sender names. From here, search for the contacts that you are looking for.

Step 3 From the contacts, select the ones that you are looking to recover, choose "Restore Selected Items" and then click on Ok. All the contacts that are recovered from here will then go to the Deleted Items Folder. From here on, you can follow the steps in the previous method to recover them.

With all these methods, you now know the best ways to recover Outlook contacts. In addition, you can also learn how to recover Outlook password here. You can use the Outlook recovery tool or do it directly from Outlook. No matter what the reason behind losing your Outlook contacts may be, you can be sure that you will recover them with ease!