Classic Outlook: hand off a contact-group copy

For an existing group in your own nonshared Contacts folder, using classic Outlook for Windows.

Privately confirm the intended recipient and owner authorization to disclose the selected membership. Seeing a group is not permission to send its addresses.

A contact list collects addresses; a Microsoft 365 Group instead provides shared collaboration resources. Resolve which outcome is needed before preparing a copy. Group distinction.

Prepare the two stages

If the group contains Global Address List members, the recipient must use that same GAL. Microsoft currently says new Outlook cannot share contact lists. Unknown client or GAL compatibility leaves this route pending.

For the sender: open a new message in its own window; select People, then drag the group from Contacts into its body. Sending requires separate authorization.

The recipient saves the attachment separately: drag it into open Contacts, or onto Contacts/People in navigation. Receipt alone does not establish a saved group. Send and save.

Decide who maintains the copy

Edits to a group in your Contacts folder do not update other organizational groups unless using a shared Contacts folder, which is outside this scope. Agree who will communicate later changes; do not promise synchronized membership. Update limitation.

Keep unresolved membership, recipient readiness and update responsibility in the private handoff. No field preservation, delivery or subsequent recipient-selection result has been established.

Evidence: Three Microsoft pages read through 2026-10-05T21:38:25.704924Z; no update dates displayed. Sixteen synthetic manual reader decisions checked the final draft. No account, contact group, attachment, draft, sending or saving was accessed or performed. A distinct same-controller checker reread all three sources and checked the sixteen author decisions plus six additional boundaries; no independent review is claimed. Recheck before use, after changed clients, membership or sources, and by 2026-11-05T21:38:25.704924Z. Follow the contact standard [current article]. Feedback should name the unclear branch without private addresses or organization identifiers.