Contacts present but Address Book empty

[Cecil Britton]

I did a reinstall of Outlook 2003 a while back and somewhere along the way
something became corrupted, I think. The first time I created a new email
and clicked on To: to choose a recipient I got an error message saying
something to the effect that the Address Book could not be created from the
..pst file. The pst file I was using was the one I had exported before the
reinstall. My contacts folder did import just fine.

I looked at the Contacts folder properties and everything is set correctly
there, I also created a new user Profile and re-imported the .pst file into
that profile and the result was exactly the same. I also tried exporting the
pst file, uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook. Unfortunately when you
simply remove Outlook from the computer and then put it back it does not
create a new clean pst file for you to import old data to it. I guess the
only solution is to uninstall Office altogether and reinstall it, I know that
will put a clean and blank copy of Outlook on the computer. That is a pretty
extreme step to fix what should be a simple thing to fix.

I hope some of you gurus can offer an easier fix than a total uninstall and
reinstall of Office. Thanks in advance for any assistance, I need to get a
fix so I can sort my addresses into categorized folders again.

 

[DL]

As stated here repeatedly niether import or export is the correct way to
save outlook data or reconnect data.
And no uninstalling then reinstalling will not create a clean pst.
Read here for both saving and reconnecting data and other FAQ's
http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/backupandrestore.htm
I just hope you have a real copy of your previous data, and not merely
exported data

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

If you have Contacts in the Contacts folder but they are not accessible when
you click on the To button, check these settings:

Make sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right
click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is
the box to enable as email address book is checked?

If this is grayed out...

Go to Tools | Email Accounts, choose View or change existing directories or
address book. Is the Outlook Address Book present? If it isn't listed, add
it and close and restart Outlook. If it is listed, then remove it and close
then restart Outlook and repeat these steps to add it.

If you are using Outlook 2007 and the the checkbox is grayed, you'll need to
make a new profile as you can't add the Outlook Address Book service due to
a bug.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

 

[Cecil Britton]

Thanks Diane for the reply. I should have noted that I'm using Office 2003
for now. And yes the checkbox in the properties dialog for the Contacts
folder is checked. I tried adding another profile to the existing email
account but that one did the same thing as the old one. I have good backups
of all my personal folders so I am going to just try uninstalling office
altogether and reinstalling everything from scratch. That seems like the
only alternative to me right now.

If you have Contacts in the Contacts folder but they are not accessible when
you click on the To button, check these settings:

Make sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right
click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is
the box to enable as email address book is checked?

If this is grayed out...

Go to Tools | Email Accounts, choose View or change existing directories or
address book. Is the Outlook Address Book present? If it isn't listed, add
it and close and restart Outlook. If it is listed, then remove it and close
then restart Outlook and repeat these steps to add it.

If you are using Outlook 2007 and the the checkbox is grayed, you'll need to
make a new profile as you can't add the Outlook Address Book service due to
a bug.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

I did a reinstall of Outlook 2003 a while back and somewhere along the way
something became corrupted, I think. The first time I created a new email
and clicked on To: to choose a recipient I got an error message saying
something to the effect that the Address Book could not be created from
the
.pst file. The pst file I was using was the one I had exported before the
reinstall. My contacts folder did import just fine.

I looked at the Contacts folder properties and everything is set correctly
there, I also created a new user Profile and re-imported the .pst file
into
that profile and the result was exactly the same. I also tried exporting
the
pst file, uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook. Unfortunately when you
simply remove Outlook from the computer and then put it back it does not
create a new clean pst file for you to import old data to it. I guess the
only solution is to uninstall Office altogether and reinstall it, I know
that
will put a clean and blank copy of Outlook on the computer. That is a
pretty
extreme step to fix what should be a simple thing to fix.

I hope some of you gurus can offer an easier fix than a total uninstall
and
reinstall of Office. Thanks in advance for any assistance, I need to get
a
fix so I can sort my addresses into categorized folders again.

 

[DL]

An uninstall / reinstall will do nothing to the Profiles and is unlikely to
do anything that a Detect Repair wont do
BTW You dont add a new Profile to the mail account, you create a new profile
then add the data file & the accounts

Thanks Diane for the reply. I should have noted that I'm using Office
2003
for now. And yes the checkbox in the properties dialog for the Contacts
folder is checked. I tried adding another profile to the existing email
account but that one did the same thing as the old one. I have good
backups
of all my personal folders so I am going to just try uninstalling office
altogether and reinstalling everything from scratch. That seems like the
only alternative to me right now.

If you have Contacts in the Contacts folder but they are not accessible
when
you click on the To button, check these settings:

Make sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right
click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book.
Is
the box to enable as email address book is checked?

If this is grayed out...

Go to Tools | Email Accounts, choose View or change existing directories
or
address book. Is the Outlook Address Book present? If it isn't listed,
add
it and close and restart Outlook. If it is listed, then remove it and
close
then restart Outlook and repeat these steps to add it.

If you are using Outlook 2007 and the the checkbox is grayed, you'll need
to
make a new profile as you can't add the Outlook Address Book service due
to
a bug.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



Outlook Tips by email:
mailto:[email protected]

EMO - a weekly newsletter about Outlook and Exchange:
mailto:[email protected]

You can access this newsgroup by visiting
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx or point
your
newsreader to msnews.microsoft.com.

I did a reinstall of Outlook 2003 a while back and somewhere along the
way
something became corrupted, I think. The first time I created a new
email
and clicked on To: to choose a recipient I got an error message saying
something to the effect that the Address Book could not be created from
the
.pst file. The pst file I was using was the one I had exported before
the
reinstall. My contacts folder did import just fine.

I looked at the Contacts folder properties and everything is set
correctly
there, I also created a new user Profile and re-imported the .pst file
into
that profile and the result was exactly the same. I also tried
exporting
the
pst file, uninstalling and reinstalling Outlook. Unfortunately when
you
simply remove Outlook from the computer and then put it back it does
not
create a new clean pst file for you to import old data to it. I guess
the
only solution is to uninstall Office altogether and reinstall it, I
know
that
will put a clean and blank copy of Outlook on the computer. That is a
pretty
extreme step to fix what should be a simple thing to fix.

I hope some of you gurus can offer an easier fix than a total uninstall
and
reinstall of Office. Thanks in advance for any assistance, I need to
get
a
fix so I can sort my addresses into categorized folders again.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I tried adding another profile to the existing email
account but that one did the same thing as the old one.

What are you saying? You can't add profiles to accounts. You add accounts to
profiles. Profiles are not folders.