Deleted contact in Outlook 2007

[LurfysMa]

I have a new Dell laptop with the #$@#$$%$ touchpad. It's been a week
and I am still dragging stuff I don't want to drag and selecting stuff
I don't want to select. AAARRRRRRGGGGGGG.

Anyway, I had a contact open in Outlook 2007 and I did something with
the touchpad and the contact disappeared. I don't know if I deleted
it, renamed it, hid it, or what.

Would I be able to delete it with just one errant touchpad action?
Wouldn't it ask me to confirm it?

I tried Ctrl-Z but Edit | Undo is greyed out. Will Undo undo a deleted
contact?

If I didn't delete it, where could it be?

I tried various searches with no luck.

Any ideas where to go to get it back?

I do have a backup, so I guess I can copy the previous pst file over
and then copy that contact.

Any ideas where I sent it?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If you touched and clicked the big X delete button on the ribbon, you might have deleted it. But if you did, it would be in your Deleted Items folder. Outlook doesn't ask for confirmations on deletions, because the deleted items ... are in Deleted Items.

Don't copy the backup .pst file!!! Just open it in OUtlook with the File | Open | Outlook Data File command and copy the item you need.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[LurfysMa]

If you touched and clicked the big X delete button on the ribbon, you might have deleted it.
But if you did, it would be in your Deleted Items folder.
Outlook doesn't ask for confirmations on deletions, because the deleted items ... are in Deleted Items.

Don't copy the backup .pst file!!!
Just open it in Outlook with the File | Open | Outlook Data File command and copy the item you need.

In the folder where outlook.pst lives, there are 2 other pst files:
archive.pst (with a time stamp of a month ago) and outlook-xp.pst
(which is the pst file created when Outlook was installed and before I
copied my old Win2K pst file over.

No backup.pst file. (Actually, there is one in another completely
different tree structure, but that was also copied over from the Win2K
system, I think, and it has a date of a month ago.)

I was able to recover my lost contact from my system backup, but it
sounds like my Outlook is not operating properly. I don't know where
deleted items are going.

I just ran a little test. I deleted another contact that I no longer
need. It disappeared without any confirmation. I reran the search and
there is still no backup.pst.

When I expanded the search to look for *.pst*, it turned up a file
named ~outlook.pst.tmp.

Can I turn on confirmations so that it will prompt me before deleting
things?

What would be ideal would be a setting so that Delete prompts and
Shift-Delete does not.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

No backup.pst file.

I was not referring to a file named backup.pst but to the file that you mentioned when you said, "I do have a backup, so I guess I can copy the previous pst file over and then copy that contact." Only you know what the name of that file is.

What would be ideal would be a setting so that Delete prompts and
Shift-Delete does not.

That makes no sense to me. Shift+Delete permanently deletes an item. That's what you need a prompt to warn you about. And that's how Outlook is set by default -- did you change that setting in Tools | Options?

I just ran a little test. I deleted another contact that I no longer
need. It disappeared without any confirmation. I reran the search and
there is still no backup.pst.

Did you look in your Deleted Items folder? Did you check for a filtered view in that folder?
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[LurfysMa]

I was not referring to a file named backup.pst but to the file that
you mentioned when you said, "I do have a backup, so I guess I can
copy the previous pst file over and then copy that contact."
Only you know what the name of that file is.

I misunderstood what you were saying. When you said:

"Don't copy the backup .pst file!!!"

I missed the space between "backup" and ".pst".

That makes no sense to me. Shift+Delete permanently deletes an item.
That's what you need a prompt to warn you about. And that's how
Outlook is set by default -- did you change that setting in Tools | Options?

In Windows Explorer, if I highlight a file and press delete, I get a
warning message. If I say "yes", it goes to the recycle bin. Even
though I can get it back from the recycle bin, I like the warning
message because it's a nuisance to go get it from the recycle bin.

If I press shift-delete, I get a different warning message. If I say
"yes", it is permanently deleted.

I think this is a reasonable approach. It seems to "make sense" to the
Windows developers. I was suggesting a parallel approach for Outlook
with the Deleted Items folder acting as the recycle bin.

If there is a setting to "warn before deleting", please let me know.
All I could find was the option to "warn before permanently deleting",
which is checked.

Did you look in your Deleted Items folder?

I did.

I just checked again. It is there, but at the very bottom of several
screens of items. The other contact that I intentionally deleted is
right there at the top, so I didn't think to look through the whole
folder.

Why is one deleted contact at the top and another that was deleted at
the same time at the bottom? Apparently, it is because be default the
deleted items folder is sorted by "Received date", which for contacts,
is the date that it was originally created.

Now we can talk about something that makes "no sense". The Windows
recycle bin sorts deleted items by the date they were deleted so that
the most recently deleted items are at the top. Does that make sense
to you? It does to me. Apparently, there is no such feild in the
Outlook Deleted Items folder.

If I am wrong, please advise. I would like my Deleted Igtems folder
sorted by date deleted, if this is possible.

Did you check for a filtered view in that folder?

No. This is a brand new installation. I haven't touched most of the
options at all and not the views.

How come your lines do not wrap? They extend way off the right edge of
my screen. I am using Forte Agent to read this. Most of the other
posts wrap.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You've already located the one setting that Outlook has related to warnings for deletions.

Feel free to create a new view for the Deleted Items folder that sorts and/or groups by your own criteria. The Modified date might come closest to what you want.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

On Tue, 15 May 2007 07:29:10 -0400, "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]"

If there is a setting to "warn before deleting", please let me know.
All I could find was the option to "warn before permanently deleting",
which is checked.

Did you look in your Deleted Items folder?

I just checked again. It is there, but at the very bottom of several
screens of items. The other contact that I intentionally deleted is
right there at the top, so I didn't think to look through the whole
folder.

Why is one deleted contact at the top and another that was deleted at
the same time at the bottom? Apparently, it is because be default the
deleted items folder is sorted by "Received date", which for contacts,
is the date that it was originally created.

 

[rapslef]

You've already located the one setting that Outlook has related to warnings for deletions.

Feel free to create a new view for the Deleted Items folder that sorts and/or groups by your own criteria. The Modified date might come closest to what you want.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

As there is no way to get confirmation for a delete, is there a way to
move the 'Delete' item from the Contact -> Actions ribbon to somewhere
else? It's right next to the "Save & Close", which just screams bad
UI !!

Googling for "ribbon customize" only turns up developer code for
writing extensions, is there no way to move the "Delete" button short
of writing a patch?

Anything to move the "Delete" button further away from the "Save &
Close" button would be nice.

Felspar

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The ribbon cannot be customized by end users, only by developers or with an add-in that a developer creates to allow such customization. See http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize/index.php

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers