Outlook 2003 Suggest names not working

[Mark W]

Hello,

I have a few users using Outlook 2003 where the "Suggest names" feature is
not working as it should. It seems to only remember the names for a day or
so, possibly until the user logs off or shuts down the computer.

For the vast majority of our users, this is working without issue.

I have searched and found a lot of other people having the issue, but have
tried all of the steps that I can find and still am not having any luck.

I have tried renaming and deleting the NK2 files in their outlook profile.
I have tried completely recreating their outlook profile.
I have tried completely recreating their entire windows profile, still with
no luck.

Is it possible this setting is being pushed to these users only from the
exchange server somehow? Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Recreating the mail profile is the correct way to solve it. However, since
it appears to break instantly for you, it could be either that you have
something installed that causes this to break or that the settings don't get
saved properly after the users logoff.

Does it work when users close their Outlook within their logged on session
and then start Outlook again a few minutes later?
Are you using Roaming Profiles? Verify that the settings actually get
written back to the server.

 

[Mark W]

Thanks Robert,

We are not using roaming profiles.

It does work when the users close and reopen outlook with the same session.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

In that case the function works correctly. Restarting Outlook would in this
case be similar to restarting your machine. I would look at the nk2-file
when your restart the machine; is it still there with the same properties
after rebooting the machine?

 

[Mark W]

The files are still there after restarting the machine. They do not seem to
be getting deleted as the file creation dates are the same as when I last
created them, 11/20/08 and 12/02/08 in the case of two of our users.
However, when I used the NK2view utility today to view the entries, one file
has one entry and the other has five, when they should both should have many
more.

It seems like somehow the files are getting periodically emptied and
repopulated with a few of the most recently used email addresses. I'm going
to start saving copies of the files to see how they change over time in case
that might give me more useful information.

Any other suggestions or information I can share that might help?

Thank you!

 

[Mike Shen]

Hi,

Thank you for posting.

From your post, I understand that the NK2 file is not getting update
correctly. You have recreate Outlook profile and Windows profile but cannot
get the issue solved. If I'm off base, please feel free to let me know.

Firstly, please understand the Nickname cache file loads up in memory. New
names\addresses are written into the NK2 file upon exit. If the Outlook is
not closed properly, the New names\addresses will not be written into NK2
file.

Base on the current situation, please attempt the following method to
troubleshoot the issue

Step 1: Remove third-party add-ins:
===========================
Export and Remove the following registry key:

HKey_local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins
HKey_Current_user\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins

Step 2: Clean Boot:
=================
1. Run MSCONFIG.EXE. (MSCONFIG is a built-in tool for Windows XP\2003
systems.)
2. In the Services tab, click "Hide All Microsoft Services" and click
"Disable All".
3. In the Startup tab, click "Disable All". Click OK. (This will
temporarily prevent third-party programs from running automatically during
start-up.)
4. Restart the computer

Please check whether the issue still persists. If the issue persists,
please attempt the following method:

Method 1: Please Open Outlook in Safe Mode (/Safe), create several
autocomplete entries, close Outlook. Restart Windows and check whether new
autocomplete entries exist.
Method 2: Please Open Outlook in Safe Mode (/Safe), create several
autocomplete entries, Restart Windows without closing Outlook, please check
whether the new autocomplete entries exist.

In addition, please help me gather following information:

Take process explorer to dump the Outlook Process:
=========================================
1. Start Outlook
2. Download and extract Process Explorer from

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

3. Run Procexp.exe
4. On the View menu make sure "Show lower pane" is checked.
5. Press CTRL + D
6. In the Process Explorer window, scroll down the list of files and then
select Outlook.exe.
7. Click "Company Name" to sort by company name. Check if there is
third-party Company's' add-ins.
8. You can also click File->Save As->Save the file as text message and send
to me at (e-mail address removed)

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Mike Shen
Microsoft Online Community Support
==================================================
Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx#notif
ications.

With newsgroups, MSDN subscribers enjoy unlimited, free support as opposed
to the limited number of phone-based technical support incidents. Complex
issues or server-down situations are not recommended for the newsgroups.
Issues of this nature are best handled working with a Microsoft Support
Engineer using one of your phone-based incidents.