How to Clear or Add Contacts to Outlook Auto-Complete List

Outlook Auto-Complete can suggest some contacts or email addresses when you’re typing in the “To” field. This article will teach you how to reset the auto-complete list and add new contacts or addresses to it.

So-called “Auto-Complete” refers to the suggestions which will pop up when you type some letters or other characters in the “To” field. This feature is able to keep a list of the addresses that you’ve sent emails to. Unlike the “Suggested Contacts” folder in the new versions of Outlook, Auto-Complete is capable of remembering the contacts or addresses irrespective of whether they are saved in your contact folder. This is not only its advantage, but also its shortcoming in that it will record your mistyped addresses, too. To address this issue, here are the 3 methods to reset the auto-complete list.

Clear Outlook Auto-Complete List

Method 1: Use “Empty Auto-Complete List” Button

1. To start with, launch Outlook program and go to “File” menu.
2. Then select “Options”, which will bring out the “Outlook Options” window.
3. Next switch to “Mail” tab and locate “Send messages” label.
4. After that, click on “Empty Auto-Complete List” button.
5. Finally click “OK” button to exit the window and back to Outlook.

Method 2: Start Outlook with “cleanautocompletecache” Switch

1. For a start, close Outlook properly.
2. And then head to “Start Menu”.
3. Next type “outlook.exe /cleanautocompletecache” in the search box.
4. Eventually, after the according program shows up, click on it to start Outlook with the task of cleaning the auto-complete list.

Method 3: Clean Auto-Complete in the RoamCache Folder Manually

1. In the first place, exit Outlook correctly.
2. Then go to “Start Menu” and click “Computer”.
3. In the popup Windows Explorer, copy and paste the following folder path in the address bar. “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\RoamCache”

4. Next press “Enter” key button to jump to the destination “RoamCache” folder.
5. After that, you can delete all the Auto-Complete dat files in this folder.

Add Contacts/Addresses to Outlook Auto-Complete List

After clearing the Auto-Complete list, you must wish to add contacts or addresses to it. Please bear in mind a fact that creating the contacts or addresses in the “Suggested Contacts” folder cannot achieve it. You should follow the steps below:

1. Firstly, start outlook and shift to “Send/Receive” tab.
2. Click on “Work Offline” button in “Preferences” group.
3. Then back to “Home” tab and press “New E-mail”.
4. In the new message, you can fill in the contacts/addresses in the “To” field.

• Directly type addresses in “To” line.
• Or click “To” button and select contacts/addresses in the new dialog box.

5. After filling all your desired contacts/addresses in the “To” field, press “Send” button.
6. Next return to Outlook mail pane and move the outgoing email from “Outbox” folder to “Drafts” folder.
7. Later click “Work Offline” button under “Send/Receive” tab again. Outlook will recover to working online.
8. Now you can open a new message and have a try. The auto-complete list will work as normal.

Cope with Outlook Corruptions Efficiently

If your Outlook crashes unexpectedly, don’t panic. You can take the common steps to diagnose and resolve the issues. Firstly, you can try to restart Outlook to see if your PST file is corrupt. Assuming that you cannot access Outlook as normal, it is likely that the file is damaged. Now the Scanpst.exe will come in handy. However, it often fails in handling serious problems. Thus if it gets failed in the end, you can recur to a third party repair tool, like DataNumen Outlook Repair. It’s well versed in Outlook PST file fix.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including repair SQL file error and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com