Email address auto completion doesn't always work in Outlook 2003

[Ivar Sand]

When I type in the first few letters of the email address of an outgoing
email a menu of suggested email addresses appears, but it is sometimes empty
when I would expect it to show email addresses in my address book or email
addresses of people I have sent emails to or received emails from previously.
How do I correct this?

 

[Russ Valentine]

Autocompletion is not a robust or reliable feature. It frequently stops
working usually because Outlook loses its connection to its autocompletion
cache. This can happen for a number of reasons, most often because Outlook
is not exiting completely and thus not writing to the cache. Make sure you
run no add-ins or sync software that might hold Outlook open after you exit.
After you find and resolve the problem that is preventing Outlook from
exiting properly, you may need to create a new Outlook profile to get
autocompletion to work again. If you're lucky you'll be able to migrate your
old cache to the new profile following directions here:
http://www.ingressor.com/autocompletetips.htm

 

[Ivar Sand]

Thanks.

I need auto completion for only a few email addresses. Can I include them by
editing the NK2 file directly?

But then again I cannot find the NK2 file … I’ve searched all through C:
without finding it. My Outlook is: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
(11.8313.8221) SP3.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I need auto completion for only a few email addresses. Can I include them by
editing the NK2 file directly?

But then again I cannot find the NK2 file … I’ve searched all through C:
without finding it. My Outlook is: Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
(11.8313.8221) SP3.

The NK2 file is in a folder that's usually hidden. Open Windows Explorer and
enter
%AppData%\Microsoft\Outlook in the Address field. Click Go. It will be
there.

You can't edit the NK2 file directly without a third-party tool, but it's easy
to add addresses to it Open a new message window, enter the address in the To
field, then press Ctrl-K. The address will resolve (signified by it becoming
underscored) and get added to the NK2 file. The address can be entered by you
typing it or by you adding it from the Contacts.