contacts disappeared from my phone

Thanks for reaching out. Let’s get this sorted out.

When your Hotmail account is removed from a phone, the contacts tied to that account will also disappear from the phone’s Contacts app. The good news is that those contacts are usually still stored in the Microsoft account cloud, not lost.

If you no longer know the password, you’ll need to reset it here:

https://account.live.com/password/reset

Once you regain access, you can re-add the account to your phone:

On iPhone:

• Go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Add Account
• Sign in with your Hotmail credentials and make sure "Contacts" is toggled on.

On Android, and may vary by brand:

Go to Settings > Accounts > Add Account > Exchange or Outlook.com

Sign in with your Hotmail credentials and sync Contacts.

If your contacts were synced to the account, they should reappear. I would also recommend to export your contacts and then import them into another email service like Gmail, Yahoo, or even back into your phone directly.

See these articles for reference.
Import and export Outlook email, contacts, and calendar
Import or export contacts in Outlook using a .csv file
Export contacts from Outlook.com or Outlook on the web
I can't sign in to my Microsoft account

Troubleshooting verification code issues

Let me know if you still have questions or if you are having trouble resetting your password. I will do my best to help.

Note: Please use the Add a comment section below this message to reply, instead of using the Answer field, so that I’ll be notified of your response.