Categories In Outlook.com

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Categories In Outlook.com

TCATHF 175

How do I delete unused categories in Outlook.com. There is a large list of categories in people which go back several years, and I cannot work out how to delete them

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Answer 1

Hornblower409 8,200

@TCATHF said

How do I delete unused [Contact/People] categories in Outlook.com

You can't. Contact/People cats are not the same as Mail cats and Microsoft has not provided any way to manage them.

There is a long thread I've been involved with that offers multiple "solutions" that don't work:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-sg/answers/questions/4375594/how-to-delete-a-category-in-contacts

All you can do is use the in-App Help -> Feedback -> Make a suggestion, or Vote for and Comment on this existing Feature Request:

Add the ability in New Outlook to Delete a Contact/People Category
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/2af4e80b-beb9-f011-aa43-7c1e526e4a18

(You must "Sign In" at the top right of the Feedback page before you can vote).

TCATHF 175 Reputation points

2026-04-17T04:23:59.92+00:00

Has Outlook.com always had this problem, or is it only since MS decided to make things easier for users by revamping the People App?
Hornblower409 8,200 Reputation points

2026-04-17T04:33:21.03+00:00

@TCATHF said

Has Outlook.com always had this problem

At one point if you removed the cat from any Contacts it would go away. That stopped working a long time ago.

Answer 2

Brian Tillman 25,040 Independent Advisor

Turns out I did not have the "New contacts" feature enabled. I'm not familiar with that feature yet, so I can't help. Sorry.

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Answer 3

Brian Tillman 25,040 Independent Advisor

Hi. I'm Brian and I'll try to help.

Since you posted in the Outlook Web forum, I'll assume you're accessing your Outlook mailbox using a web browser. If that's the case, visit https://outlook.live.com/mail/options/accounts-category/categories to see your category list and add, edit or remove them there.

TCATHF 175 Reputation points

2026-04-16T03:23:20.1866667+00:00

Hi

Thanks for the link, but it will only bring up the category list used in Mail. The one in People is very lengthy and contains categories that haven't been used for years. You can add a new category to a contact, which will then be added to the list, making it even longer, but I've yet to find a way to manage the People category list, and get rid of the old, unused, categories.

Answer 4

Martin Šamudovský 180

Hi, TCATHF

Outlook.com doesn’t offer a direct “delete category” button in the People/Contacts section, but you can remove categories by clearing them from every contact that uses them.

Steps to remove a category:

Open Outlook.com and go to People.

Select the category you want to remove from the left sidebar.

Open each contact listed under that category.

Click Edit, scroll to Categories, and uncheck the unwanted category.

Save the contact.

Once no contacts use that category, Outlook.com automatically removes it from your list.

If you have many contacts, I can help you plan a faster cleanup approach.

Hope this helps,

Martin

Note: this response is drafted with the help of AI systems.

TCATHF 175 Reputation points

2026-04-16T03:28:15.6+00:00

Hi

You can remove a categories from contacts, but that will not remove it from the category list, which seems to contain every category that you've ever created.

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Categories In Outlook.com

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