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Delete contacts in Hotmail 📨

Clean up the Hotmail address book that's syncing to your iPhone. Hotmail is now part of Outlook.com, so management happens at outlook.live.com.

Download on the App Store Bulk-clean the iPhone side · 4.7 ★ · 100K+ users

Why Hotmail contact deletion is awkward

Hotmail rebranded to Outlook.com years ago, but the @hotmail.com addresses and the underlying contacts persist. If your iPhone syncs the account, every Hotmail-era contact shows up in iOS Contacts — including the inevitable duplicates accumulated since 2005.

Step-by-step

  1. 1

    Sign in at outlook.live.com

    Use your Hotmail credentials. Click the People (contacts) icon in the left rail.

  2. 2

    Multi-select and delete

    Tick contacts to remove → Delete. Outlook.com supports range-select with Shift+click for batches.

  3. 3

    Find and merge duplicates

    People → Manage → Clean up duplicates. Outlook surfaces matched clusters.

  4. 4

    Verify iPhone sync

    iPhone Settings → Mail → Accounts → [Hotmail/Outlook account] → Contacts. If on, deletions propagate to iPhone.

  5. 5

    Bulk-clean the iPhone side

    Cross-account duplicates (Hotmail + iCloud + Gmail variants of the same person) are common. Delete Contacts on iPhone catches what no single email provider can see.

How Delete Contacts helps

Hotmail accounts often carry the oldest, dustiest contacts — people you haven't messaged in a decade. Delete Contacts gives you a fast iPhone-side tool to clean what propagated, on-device.

FAQ

Hotmail contacts — FAQ

Is Hotmail the same as Outlook.com?
Yes. Microsoft rebranded Hotmail to Outlook.com in 2013. Your @hotmail.com address still works, but management happens at outlook.live.com. Hotmail-era contacts are stored there.
Why do I have Hotmail contacts I never added?
Hotmail historically auto-added every email recipient as a contact. After 15+ years that adds up. Outlook.com → People → Settings → Save contacts you email → off to stop the auto-add.

Ready to feel proud of your contact list?

Join iPhone owners around the world who manage hundreds of contacts with the most intuitive, gesture-first cleanup tool.

Download on the App Store Requires iOS 17 • 13.5 MB download
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