No contacts in address book - Outlook 2007

[Bill S]

Hi,

I installed Vista Ultimate on a new drive on my home built machine. I
exported my contacts into an Access database from my XP drive onto another
drive that houses all my pst files. When Outlook 2007 installed on the Vista
drive it automatically created a personal pst file in
C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. When I imported my contacts
they imported into the new personal pst file and not the old pst I deliver my
mail to on the other drive. Unknown to me at this time the contacts were
already in my old pst file. I dropped and dragged all the contacts from the
new file to the old file (since I had made some changes) and then deleted the
old file and restarted Outlook. Now, when I try to create a distribution
list and click the Select Members button there are no contacts listed.

When I right click the contacts folder and select the properties > Outlook
Address Book tab the show this folder as an email address book check box is
checked and grayed out.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,

Bill S

 

[Gordon]

Hi,

I installed Vista Ultimate on a new drive on my home built machine. I
exported my contacts into an Access database from my XP drive onto another
drive that houses all my pst files. When Outlook 2007 installed on the
Vista
drive it automatically created a personal pst file in
C:\Users\Bill\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. When I imported my
contacts
they imported into the new personal pst file and not the old pst I deliver
my
mail to on the other drive. Unknown to me at this time the contacts were
already in my old pst file. I dropped and dragged all the contacts from
the
new file to the old file (since I had made some changes) and then deleted
the
old file and restarted Outlook. Now, when I try to create a distribution
list and click the Select Members button there are no contacts listed.

When I right click the contacts folder and select the properties > Outlook
Address Book tab the show this folder as an email address book check box
is
checked and grayed out.

May I ask what on earth possessed you to export to Access in the first
place? As posted here most days - all you need to do is to copy the pst file
and open it in the new instance of Outlook.

 

[Bill S]

Thanks for the prompt rude replies. Nice forum, ask for help and get
berated. This is my first visit to this forum so I do not know what is
“posted here most daysâ€. I reviewed a few threads and did not find a
solution to my problem so I posted. After reading the replies I noticed the
need for a very clear explanation as to the background and the details. I
feel as I did just that. Had you read the post and comprehended it Gordon
you would have saved your valuable time with your reply to my post.

Gordon, I never had a problem like this with my contacts. I did what you
stated (4 years ago) since all my pst files are already on a shared drive
(stated in my post). My question pertained as to how I can associate the
contacts in my old pst file with the address book in my new instance of
Outlook. Most things in Microsoft applications are pretty easy to figure
out, this one has me stumped.

How could exporting to Access be incorrect when Outlook offers the option to
do so? That answers two questions, “what prompted me…?†the answer is
Outlook and “my incorrect attempts…â€

Russ, if Outlook provides a tool to export to Access and import from Access
why is this not supported?

I will quickly lay out the steps to export to an Access database. File >
Import and Export > Export to a file > Here is where you select Microsoft
Access 97-2003.

Thanks for the links and the advice Russ.

I created a new profile and can now see the contacts when I try to add them
to a distribution list. Still confused as to how a tool provided by Outlook
can corrupt a profile.

Thanks again,

Bill S

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Russ, if Outlook provides a tool to export to Access and import from
Access
why is this not supported?

I will quickly lay out the steps to export to an Access database. File >
Import and Export > Export to a file > Here is where you select Microsoft
Access 97-2003.

Thanks for the links and the advice Russ.

I created a new profile and can now see the contacts when I try to add
them
to a distribution list. Still confused as to how a tool provided by
Outlook
can corrupt a profile.

Import and Export are appropriate for moving data from Outlook to another
application or from another application to Outlook, never
Outlook-to-Outlook. Export and import always loses data. By reusing the
original PST, you retain access to all the data and metadata in the PST.

Installing Office 2007 often creates a mail profile that is broken from the
beginning, with a misconfigured Outlook Address Book service. The fix for
that is to create a new profile, as you discovered.

I'd advise you to use the original PST from prior to the export, if at all
possible. Add it to the mail profile and make it the delivery location.

 

[Bill S]

Thanks Brian. Hopefully this will keep working for me. I did not have
versioning turned on for the volume where the pst files are stored until
yesterday. I deleted the pst file the new profile created after making the
old pst file the delivery location. Ironically, the old profile is working
now as well. Go figure. I guess becasue the new profile is using the same
pst file? I spent two hours messing with every setting and option I could
find and every button I could click. The good thing is I probably came
accross something I will need in the future but did not know where to find
it... now I know. I remember having to create new profiles in Express 6.0,
this is the first time I had to do this for Outlook since I started using it
in Office 97.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback. Take care!

Bill S

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I remember having to create new profiles in Express 6.0,
this is the first time I had to do this for Outlook since I started using
it
in Office 97.

Um, Outlook Express doesn't have profiles, it has Identities and you can
switch identities while OE is still open.

Mail profiles have been available in Outlook since Outlook 98. It and
Outlook 2000 needed to be installed in Corporate/Workgroup mode to
manipulate them without using the registry, however.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Microsoft's news servers are whacked out and only displaying a random
selection of the actual posts. Accordingly, I can't see which of my posts
you are replying to, and you didn't quote it. However, it appears that Brian
has covered all the follow up questions you posed back to me. If not, let me
know what else you need help with.