They changed the design - try right-clicking on the contact list and Delete.
Unable to remove permanently deleted account from contact list in OWA
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MATHEW, NEBU
0
Reputation points
Hi,
Upon some testing from our end, we have come to find that we are not able to remove any permanently deleted accounts from a contact list in Outlook web. I have attached an image so that you get an idea of what I am referring to when telling a contact list.
The account may have been added when the account was initially active but later after the account is permanently deleted we are unable to remove them.
Please note this is happening only from OWA and not from Outlook desktop.
Can you please confirm the below ?
- Is this is a known flaw or is it an issue which has recently appeared ?
- If this is a known flaw, is Microsoft already working on it and when is it expected to be fixed ?
Microsoft 365 and Office | Other
1 answer
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Diane P 3,925 Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-08-22T14:38:44.9333333+00:00 -
MATHEW, NEBU 0 Reputation points
2025-08-22T14:41:28.59+00:00 This action is to delete a contact list.
I am referring to a member added to the contact list. If there is a permanently deleted account present as a member in the contact list, then we are not able to remove them. It will reappear.
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Diane P 3,925 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-08-22T15:01:45.3033333+00:00 Did you click Edit on the right side of the list?
I'll test it and see if I can repro.
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MATHEW, NEBU 0 Reputation points
2025-08-22T15:07:10.0333333+00:00 Yes I have tried to but its the same.
If you want to reproduce and if you have a dev environment, try the below- Create a user account ******@contoso.com
- Add the above account as a member to a contact list in your Outlook
- Delete the account from the admin center ( including permanently deleting the account from Azure, otherwise the user will remain in Deleted users for 30 days - this is to bypass that )
- Once deleted, try to remove this user from your contact list. You will see that it will reappear.
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Diane P 3,925 Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-08-23T00:57:52.6666667+00:00 Two I added to the test group were deleted from my Microsoft 365 tenant a long time ago. I added a 3rd one who still had a licensed mailbox, then deleted the mailbox and (later) permanently deleted it in Entra.
The two I deleted a long time ago stayed gone. The one I deleted today is coming back. It can take 2 hours or more for everything to sync - while I deleted the mailbox and had the address removed from the account earlier today, I forgot to permanently delete it until about an hour ago. I check it again after 2 hours then report it to the product team.
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Brian Jojade 0 Reputation points2025-08-28T18:03:39.0366667+00:00 We are experiencing the same issue. Even further, if we delete the contact list and re-create the list with the same name, the offending inactive contact shows back up! This is clearly a major bug.
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