New Outlook: Shadow contacts not stored in Outlook.com, no sync/export and missing Birthday calendar
I’m reporting a reproducible data‑integrity issue in the New Outlook for Windows that affects Outlook.com contact storage and synchronization. 🔍 Summary When a contact is created in the New Outlook, the client appears to save it successfully. However, the resulting contact is not stored in the user’s Outlook.com account as a normal cloud contact. Instead, it becomes what I would describe as a local “shadow contact” in the New Outlook cache. ⚠️ Observable Behavior • The contact appears in Outlook.com → People, but does not show “Stored in: Outlook” • The contact does not appear in Outlook.com CSV exports • The contact does not sync to mobile devices connected to the same account • The contact does not populate the Outlook.com Birthday calendar • The contact is lost if the New Outlook app is reinstalled or its local store is cleared 🧪 Steps to Reproduce 1. Open the New Outlook for Windows 2. Create a new contact and add a birthday 3. Save the contact 4. Open Outlook.com → People 5. Locate the contact — it will appear, but the “Stored in: Outlook” field is missing 6. Export contacts from Outlook.com (CSV) — the contact will not be present 7. Check a mobile device configured with the same Microsoft account — the contact will not be present 8. Check the Outlook.com Birthday calendar — the birthday will not appear 9. Reinstall the New Outlook app — the contact will be gone ✅ Expected Behavior • Contacts created in the New Outlook should be stored as first‑class Outlook.com contacts • They should appear with a proper “Stored in: Outlook” location • They should sync across devices, export via Outlook.com, and populate the Birthday calendar ❌ Actual Behavior • Contacts created in the New Outlook are effectively “shadow contacts” stored in a local cache • They look normal in the New Outlook UI, but they are incomplete, non‑synchronizing objects from the service’s perspective 📉 Impact • Silent data loss risk for users who assume contacts are in Outlook.com when they are not • Inconsistent contact and birthday data across devices and services • Split contact store model: • Real Outlook.com contacts • Local shadow contacts created by New Outlook 📎 What I’ve Already Done • Submitted feedback through the New Outlook (Help → Feedback → Report a Problem) • Submitted a detailed report via the Windows Feedback Hub • Contacted Microsoft Support, who advised that escalation must occur via Feedback 📣 Request I’m posting this here to document the issue publicly and to ask: • Can anyone from the Outlook / Exchange / Outlook.com team confirm this behavior? • Can other users reproduce this with the steps above? Given the data‑integrity implications, I’m hoping this can be brought to the attention of the relevant engineering team. Any confirmation, additional data points, or official guidance would be appreciated.
New Outlook Randomly Assigning/Overriding Categories to Calendar Items
I use Categories to color code and organize my calendar. In the New Outlook, the system is randomly assigning categories to some of my calendar items. For example, I have one item that has no category assigned, but now it uses my "Misc Meeting" category. Another one I'd already labeled with the "Analyst Team" category and now it's added "Phone Call" to the item (which is making the wrong color display). In both of these examples, if I right click to access the categories and correct them (or even just "Clear all categories"), once I submit, after a few seconds the incorrect category labels and colors come back. Help?I am unable to delete an event from Outlook
Per https://community.spiceworks.com/t/outlook-calendar-keeps-coming-back-after-deletion/961999/7?u=rokejulianlockhart, I'm unable to delete a calendar event, for it re-appears upon: window.reload() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvcOVLD5RDc depicts what I see, but I've also attached an H265 MPEG-4 file in case that's ever unavailable.
Press three times to go one step back in Outlook webmail
So using Outlook webmail, if I open an e-mail in a custom folder Future Problems, two levels down from the account root folder, go to Inbox, view an e-mail, and then press Back button on the mouse, the e-mail closes out of the reading pane and I remain in the Inbox. If I press the Back button again, the URL changes in the address bar to reflect the ID of the e-mail in Inbox that just got closed. It's not supposed to do that, is it? No. It's an annoying bug. Does Microsoft care? Where do I report it? If I press the Back button again, for the third time, then it finally takes me back to my custom folder. I can see its ID in the address bar. If I press the... you see where this is going? This is broken as hell! If I press the Back button one more time, the ID in the address bar changes to reflect that of the e-mail in Future Problems, but it doesn't actually press on and open it. No. It just sits there. Is this what Outlook users have to deal with every day? This would drive me crazy. It's the little things like this that add up to a dysfunctional experience. Crumbling, unresponsive, frustrating... take a pick. The devil is always in the details! I can send more your way if you promise to get it fixed. I have written a detailed report on this, with steps on how to reproduce it and what goes wrong. Can I have your good name and address? Where do I send it?
TokenFactory IFrame Issue
As of recent, my organizational outlook email, as well as other people who are associated with different organizations are having an issue on the Safari browser such that Outlook keeps attempting to download a TokenFactory IFrame component. This file has no data, and I have only found that I can reproduce the issue on Safari. This seems to be an issue with two-factor authentication, but I'm not entirely sure.
