MSN Messenger Contacts have disappeared

[Batloaf]

I have recently changed my .Net passport to my new email
address.
Now I have found that all my contacts from Windows
Messenger have disappeared.
I tried changing back to my old email address, but still
they are not there.

Is there any way I can retrieve my contacts?

Would my old contacts be stored in a file on my pc
somewhere?

I only noticed the 'Save Contacts' option after I changed
my email address for my .net passport.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings,

Unfortunately if you've changed your address back they're already gone, I'm afraid they're
gone for good from the server. If you're lucky, they may still be in the registry where
Messenger keeps a contact cache of your contacts. To find these, click Start, then Run, type
"regedit" and click OK. Then navigate to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService\ListCache key (they look like Windows
Explorer folders), click ListCache on the right if you haven't already done so, and start
double-clicking the "AllowN", "BlockN", etc. (where N is a number) values and you should
start seeing some of your contacts. Good luck!
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com

 

[Sthompson]

So what is going on when I have changed nothing but between one day and the
next over half of my contact names just vanish?

Regards

Simon T