Help fixing contacts?

[Charles]

My contacts seem to have gotten slightly messed up. If I pick contacts
on the left pane, it all looks normal, but if I go to tools>address
book I can select between "Outlook Address Book", "contacts", or
"contacts" (two instances of contacts). Only the second instance of
contacts has any actual contacts. When I go to send an E-mail and
click "to", I have to pick between two copies of contacts too. How do
I merge this all into one, or simply get rid of the bad one? I could
delete one under tools>address book>tools>options, but they are both
called "contacts" so I'm afraid I'll delete the wrong one.
"Properties" has no useful information. Thanks.

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[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

It is necessary for you to post your Outlook version for us to provide an
answer. For Outlook 2002 and 2003 just remove the invalid reference here:
Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or address
books > Outlook Address Book > Change.
If you remove the wrong one, just remove the other and add back the first.

 

[Charles]

It is necessary for you to post your Outlook version for us to
provide an answer. For Outlook 2002 and 2003 just remove the invalid
reference here: Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing
directories or address books > Outlook Address Book > Change. If you
remove the wrong one, just remove the other and add back the first.

Thanks for the reply. This is Outlook 2003. When you say to just add
back an address book I removed, where would I find it? I have to admit
I really don't understand how Outlook works. Are the addresses stored
i nthe same giant file as my mail messages? If so, I'm confused about
how I could just add and remove the address part.

It would be helpful if Outlook would give some tiny tidbit of
information about these address books, like what filename they are
associated with...

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[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You're about to get more confused. Outlook does not even have an address
book. All your data is stored in the Contacts Folder in your Outlook data
file and nowhere else. All the address book does is present you with a view
of the electronic addresses that are contained in your Contacts Folder.
When you look in the dropdown list in the address book view, what you're
seeing is a list of the Contacts Folders it can show you. That list is only
a reference to the Folders, not the folders themselves. So you are not
removing any data, just a reference to a folder.
The Outlook Address Book is a deeply dumb and dysfunctional feature. It
hangs on to old and outdated reference to Contacts Folders, which can
accumulate over the years as you migrate to different installations or add
and remove folders. You can safely remove or re-add these references right
where I told you without ever touching your data.