Microsoft Outlook has a feature called Auto-Complete list which is used to fill the email address automatically in the To, Cc, and Bcc fields when the user starts to type the first letter of the email address. While this feature is very useful it also does not work sometimes. The issue might be because of outdated Outlook versions, changes in the Outlook settings, corrupted files, cache problems, problematic add-ins, etc. But this issue can be solved easily. In this article, we have a few solutions that are simple and easy so that you can apply them and check if the auto-complete list is working fine. Let us start!
Method 1 – Enable Auto-Complete List Option In Outlook
Step 1 – Open the Microsoft Outlook
Step 2 – Go to the file tab at the top left corner
Step 3 – At the bottom left side, click on the options
Step 4 – In the opened Outlook options window, click on mail
Step 5 – Scroll down at the right side and find send messages
Step 6 – Enable the option Use AutoComplete List to suggest names when typing in the To, Cc, and Bcc lines by clicking on the checkbox beside it (a tick mark should be present)
Step 7 – To save the changes click on ok and then check if the issue is resolved.
Method 2 – Reset Auto-complete By Clearing Its Cache
Step 1 – Open the run prompt using Windows + R keys together
Step 2 – Type the following path in the run prompt and hit enter. This will open the following path in windows explorer (file explorer)
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook
Step 3 – Right click on RoamCache folder and from the appeared list click on rename
Step 4 – Give the folder name as old_RoamCache
Step 5 – AutoComplete cache will be present in the RoamCache folder hence all the old cache files will be present in old_RoamCache folder after renaming. Now when you launch the Outlook, it will create a new RoamCache folder.
Method 3 – Clear The Auto-Complete List Setting
Step 1 – Open the Microsoft Outlook
Step 2 – Go to the file tab at the top left corner
Step 3 – At the bottom left side, click on the options
Step 4 – In the opened Outlook options window, click on mail
Step 5 – Scroll down at the right side and find send messages
Step 6 – The auto-complete list will have a maximum of 1000 entries in it. If you do not want to keep them, you can delete them by clicking on the empty auto-complete list button
Step 7 – By doing this, it will remove all the entries
Step 8 – In the appeared pop up click on yes. Then check if all works fine
Note: For autofill to display the email addresses again you will have to enter all the email addresses again for once.
Method 4 – Open Outlook In Safe Mode
Step 1 – Open the run prompt using Windows + R keys together
Step 2 – Type the below command in the run prompt and hit enter
outlook /safe
Step 3 – If the Outlook opens without any issues then there might be problem with the Outlook add-ins. Try to delete all the add-ins and then enable them one by one to check which add-in is the culprit
Method 5 – Check For Latest Outlook Updates And Apply Them
Step 1 – Open the Microsoft Outlook app
Step 2 – Click on the file that is at the top left corner
Step 3 – On the left side, click on the office account
Step 4 – Click on the update options drop-down and from the appeared list click on update now
Step 5 – Wait for the update to finish and then check if the issue is solved.
Method 6 – Disable Outlook Add-ins
Step 1 – Open Microsoft Outlook and click on the file tab at the top left corner
Step 2 – At the bottom left corner click on options
Step 3 – In the opened window, click on add-ins
Step 4 – On the right side, at the bottom select COM Add-ins from the manage dropdown
Step 5 – Click on Go button
Step 6 – Uncheck all the add-ins by selecting the checkboxes ( a tick mark should not be present in the checkbox)
Step 7 – Click on ok. Now check if the issue is resolved
Step 8 – If the issue is resolved then the add-ins were creating the problem. If you want to know exactly which add-in was causing the issue then enable one by one and test the Outlook application.
Method 7 – Repair The Corrupted .PST Files Using SCANPST.EXE Tool
Step 1 – Close the Outlook app and all its traces
Step 2 – Open the Windows explorer (File explorer) using Windows + E keys together
Step 3 – Navigate to the following path in the File explorer
Note: The below path might vary according to your OS version. So navigate to the appropriate path where there is scanpst.exe file. You can search it manually using find option as well
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
Step 4 – Double click on SCANPST.EXE file
Step 5 – Click on browse and specify the path of pst file
Note: The default pst file might be located in different paths based on the version. You can also manually search them using find option
For Outlook 2013 version onwards the path might be
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
For Outlook 2010 version onwards the path might be
Documents\Outlook Files
Step 6 – Once the location is specified click on start to perform a scan
Step 7 – If there are any inconsistencies they will be listed
Step 8 – Click on the checkbox beside Create a backup of the scanned file (a tick mark should be present). This creates a backup, incase if the process goes wrong you can restore the backup
Step 9 – Click on repair. Wait till the process is completed. Once done check if the problem is resolved.
That’s it! I hope the above provided information is helpful and easy to follow. Let us know which method did you apply and got the issue resolved. Thank you!!