Suggested recipients not populating when composing email

Question

Suggested recipients not populating when composing email

Damien 0

Hi,

I run outlook via web browser and over the past few days, when composing an email, the suggested peoples list does not populate.

I have done some basic research and cleared cache, restarted PC and browsers but nothing seems to work. I have followed steps to access "Suggested People" in the Privacy and Data section of settings, and I can see an "activate expanded contacts suggestions" button however no matter how many times I click the button, nothing happens.

I am not sure if there is an overriding security setting on the browser (Microsoft Edge) or on the PC itself. I have tried accessing Outlook web under a different browser (Google Chrome) and the same thing happens.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

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1 answer

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Answer 1

Darren-Ng 12,765 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear @Damien,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on your description, Outlook on the web is not displaying suggested recipients/autocomplete when composing emails and enabling "Expanded contact suggestions" does not appear to work.

To better understand the issue, could you please provide the following information:

Are you using a work/school account or a personal account?
Does the issue affect only your account, or are other users experiencing the same problem?
When typing in the To field, do you receive no suggestions at all, or directory/GAL suggestions but not recent recipients?
Can you still search for and manually select recipients from the address book?
Does the issue occur on all devices, or only on a specific computer?

Since you have already cleared the browser cache and tested multiple browsers, this suggests the issue may be related to the account or service configuration rather than the browser itself.

The additional information above will help determine the appropriate next troubleshooting steps.

Looking forward to your update.

Damien 0 Reputation points

2026-07-14T02:57:06.6+00:00

Can you repeat that? No message.
Darren-Ng 12,765 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T03:03:03.94+00:00

Hello,

Please try to reload and check my previous information above.

Thank you.
Damien 0 Reputation points

2026-07-14T03:54:20.87+00:00

Hi and thanks, computer is on the fritz.

I have worked out through CoPilot that the issue is with Microsoft server back end failing and returning a 500 Internal Server Error.

But to answer your questions, this is a work account and is affecting my account only. No suggestions appear at all and require complete manual entry of an email address. I have tried accessing my account on multiple computers and the same issue occurs.
Darren-Ng 12,765 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-14T05:28:34.62+00:00

Hello,

Thank you for your update,

If the issue affects only your account, I recommend asking your Microsoft 365 administrator to review your mailbox and organization settings. If multiple users are affected, the administrator may need to check for any service-related or configuration-related issues within the tenant.

Besides that, can you manually search and select users from the Global Address List (GAL)?

If GAL searches also fail, the issue may be related to Exchange Online or your tenant configuration. If GAL searches work but suggested recipients do not appear, the issue is more likely related to the AutoComplete/Suggested Recipients cache for the mailbox.

For reference Manage suggested recipients in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields in Outlook
Darren-Ng 12,765 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-16T06:53:20.1+00:00

Hello,

Just checking in to see if the above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back. Warm thanks.