Contacts Moved

[Michael Q]

Once upon a time I had all my contacts, and would appear in the left
column under "Contacts," over 500 entries. Now, and I don't know when or how
it happened, the entry - Contacts has 26 items, Contacts (2) has 80 items,
Shared Contacts has 3 items, and Contacts (Backup) has 559.
Obviously, when trying to input addresses to send emails, if such is not
in the "Contacts" folder (where they ALL use to be), the Name entered on the
"To" line is not recognized (as they once were). Even though a name is in
the Backup folder or the other folders, it only reads name from the Contact
folder.
How can I get ALL the names and email addresses, etc. moved to the
"Contact" folder? Of course I don't want to do any damage to the "Backup"
folder.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook did not do this. You did.
If you cannot provide the steps used to create the problem, no one can guess
them for you.
Unless you provide more information, your only solution is to restore your
Outlook Data File from your most recent backup.
What is a "backup folder?" Outlook has no such thing.