how to get contacts automatically added to contact list in outlook

Dear @Kirby Boynton

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

Based on your concern, I can see that you had problem when you added manually a contact and it did not show up in your contact list. Besides that, you wondered if there is a feature to automatically add contacts to contact list in Legacy Outlook for Mac.

With the first problem about contact did not appear in the contact list, please kindly double-check this:

Set your preferences to Show my "On My Computer" folders and then return to finish creating your contact list. Go to Outlook button > Settings... > in Outlook settings box, choose General under Personal Settings > uncheck Hide On my Computer folders

After that, you will see On My Computer show up with your Contact list. In this time, the New Contact list button will be not grey out anymore and you can use it normally. Please kindly check it and see if it works for you. Reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-contact-list-or-distribution-list-in-outlook-for-mac-c5230b49-5e00-481b-a2ce-66f388f7bd34#id0edd=legacy_outlook_for_mac

With the second concern about feature for adding contact automatically:

Normally, we have to add contact manually, and I have found in all available documents from Microsoft, but there is no confirmation for this feature. Also, I found this article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/import-email-messages-contacts-and-other-items-into-outlook-for-mac-6cc48404-a65c-4b8c-a12a-95a905249414

It stated that you can import to your Legacy Outlook with a .olm file and its content will be in the On My Computer section like in your first concern above. So, if you already have a contact list in .olm, you can try this feature to see if it can help you.

Additionally, I see that Microsoft recommends us switch from legacy Outlook for Mac to Outlook for Mac which uses modern technology designed for better performance, security, and reliability. You can see details in here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/end-of-support-for-legacy-outlook-for-mac-7b9cf644-7035-4345-a151-8c1c7a65ac25

I hope this information can help you and please kindly correct me if I misunderstand your concern. Wish you a great day!

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