Microsoft 365 - Remove Addresses From the Auto-Complete List

Owned by Mark Howell, created
Last updated: Jan 04, 2024 by Mark Howell
2 min read

Step-by-step guides

Source: https://kb.wisc.edu/office365/48716

Many clients have the ability to remember what addresses you have sent messages to, this is known as your auto-complete list. Sometimes you may enter the wrong address for a recipient or the recipient changes their address. The steps below will guide you through the process of either removing an address from this list or clearing the entire list.

Note: If you are experiencing an error indicating that no match is found or that the message cannot be sent because one of the addresses is invalid, clearing your Auto-Complete list could solve the issue.

More information about AutoComplete list.

Your auto-complete list is not backed up. If you delete an entry or remove all entries from the auto-complete list, there is no way to recover this.

Outlook on the web

  • Removing an address from your auto-complete list

    1. In Outlook on the web, click the New button to start composing a new email.

    2. In the To: field, start typing an email address.

    3. Click the "X" which appears at the end of the auto-complete entry you want to delete.

    4. Type a few more characters of the email address and note that the auto-complete entry persists - if it persists, it may take up to 24 hours for the change to be reflected. Check back in 24 hours to see if it still appears.

There is not a way to clear the entire auto-complete list from Outlook on the Web. One must be on the desktop version of Outlook to have that feature.

 Outlook for Windows

  • Removing an address from your auto-complete list

    1. Open Outlook.

    2. Click the Mail tab on the bottom of the screen so you are viewing your mailbox.

    3. Click New Email.

    4. In the new e-mail window, start typing the address you want to remove in the To: field. When it appears, click the X button next to the address.

If you do not have the ability to delete an entry, then either the address is coming from the directory or your personal contacts. You cannot delete the entries from the directory but you can delete/update entries within your personal contacts (e.g. People).

  • Clearing out the entire auto-complete list

    • Open Outlook.

    • Click the File tab at the top of the screen.

    • Click Options.

    • In the "Outlook Options" window, click the Mail tab in the left hand pane.

    • Scroll down to "Send Messages" and click the Empty Auto-Complete List button.

 Outlook for Mac

  • Removing an address from your auto-complete list

    1. Open Outlook.

    2. Click the New Email button.

    3. In the new e-mail window, start typing the address you want to remove in the To: field. When it appears, click the X button next to the address.