I've always enjoyed the use of categories to help organize my Contacts in Outlook.  However, since upgrading to Outlook 2013, I no longer have access to this feature.  My old contacts still maintain their categorizations and I can access my categories list for old contacts.  However, when I add a new contact there is no place to indicate which category I want to assign them to. 

In the ribbon, it appears that the Categorize button should appear within the Tags section of Contacts, but it doesn't.  When I go into the ribbon customization, I can see that Categories is present in this section, but grayed out.

What settings changes or updates are needed for me to be able to assign categories to newly added contacts?

Which mail account type are you using?
Which view is your Contacts folder set in?
Are you trying to do this from an opened contact or a selected contact in your Contacts folder?
Are you perhaps using an add-in which could limit this functionality? For instance, the iCloud add-in from Apple?

I'm using IMAP.  

I use Business Cards as my default view, but have tried all views.

I can view and manage categories from old contacts that I previously entered when using Outlook 2010.  However, when I add a new contact using Outlook 2013, there is no place for me to go and add or manage category information.  The Categories button is also missing from my Contacts>Tags ribbon.

The following Add-ins are Active:

• Evernote.Outlook
• Outlook Change Notififier
• Business Connectivity Services Add-in
• Microsoft SharePoint Server Colleague Import Add-in
• Microsoft Exchange Add-in
• OneNote Notes about Outlook Items
• Outlook Social Connector 2013
• Lync Meeting Add-in for Microsoft Office 2013
• Salesforce for Outlook Add to Salesforce Toolbar
• Redemption Helper Outlook Extension
• TeamCompanion for Outlook

If you are using email acoung against IMAP, this is because not all IMAP implementations properly support the category property on a message.

Please check this:

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/outlook-categories-flags-and-imap-accounts/ 

Tony Chen
TechNet Community Support

• Marked as answer by Tony Chen CHNMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, July 29, 2013 8:50 AM

I am having precisely the same problem.  I have more than 6,000 records in my contact folder.  Categories has helped me group my customers according to the work they do and products they manufacture.  When I drill down in the ribbon under the "Tags" subgroup, I can see the grayed out "categorize" functions I want, but there seems to be no way to activate them.  I hope someone knows how to make the Outlook 2013 ribbon do the same things that Outlook 2007 and 2010 did.