Outlook Contacts are missing when I click To, Cc or Bcc buttons

[Igor]

-My laptop used to have Windows XP and Outlook 2007 which were backed up.
- Sony support reformatted drive and installed Windows Vista Pro which
included trial "Office 2007 Small Business with Outlook".
- Trial Outlook 2007 with "Business Manager .." was uninstalled and latest
MS Office with normal Outlook 2007 was installed instead (except SQL
Server component of old installation could not be deleted completely as it is
required by some Sony program, but BUS.. instance of server was deleted.
- PST files were restored from XP backup and worked well except this weirdo
empty contacts when 'To | CC | BCC' is pressed (Contacts per se are fine).
- MS help suggested solutions
(http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102194281033.aspx?pid=CH100776981033 ) did not help:
- suggested check box in "show this folder as an email address book" is
grayed out
- suggested entry in "Show this address list first" dropdown would not
contain Contacts entry it is supposed to contain
- creation of new mail Outlook profile and setting it as default does
not change anything
Other discussion threads of similar name were analyzed and were found as not
helpful as they basically repeat information in the MS Help link given above.
Please, help
Thanks,
Igor

 

[Gordon]

-My laptop used to have Windows XP and Outlook 2007 which were backed up.
- Sony support reformatted drive and installed Windows Vista Pro which
included trial "Office 2007 Small Business with Outlook".
- Trial Outlook 2007 with "Business Manager .." was uninstalled and latest
MS Office with normal Outlook 2007 was installed instead (except SQL
Server component of old installation could not be deleted completely as it is
required by some Sony program, but BUS.. instance of server was deleted.
- PST files were restored from XP backup

How were these pst files "restored"?
Your symptoms suggest they were imported. If this is the case then you
must create a new mail Profile (Control panel-Mail-Show Profiles-Add)
and add the pst files to the profile - do NOT use the import function
otherwise you will just duplicate the problem.
see if that helps.

 

[DL]

Have you looked in Tools>Account settings>Address book tab
to see if an 'Outlook Address Book' has allready being configured?

Presumably you recovered your pst data backup by restoring it, and not
simply opening the data file within outlook?

 

[Igor]

Thanks, DL, suggested approach did work.
For the Re, the following was performed:
1. New mail account created and set as default - using instructions on the
page: http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm
2. Outlook 2007 opened and using menu File->DataFileManagement opening
DataFiles tab Outlook is directed to use my old .pst files. Note, dialogue
popped upped saying that file is not Unicode, blah-blah-blah, but the only
real option to do that is to say OK.
[As you pointed out, importing .pst file takes enormous amount of time,
usually would not complete w/o errors and would corrupt mail account]
3. Outlook restarted and using same DataFiles tab .pst file created for new
mail account is removed logically, and after Outlook is closed, file is
removed physically.

 

[DL]

If you are continueing to use the pre 2007 format pst you will need to keep
an eye on the pst size so that you dont reach the file size limitation, and
the lose data

Thanks, DL, suggested approach did work.
For the Re, the following was performed:
1. New mail account created and set as default - using instructions on the
page: http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm
2. Outlook 2007 opened and using menu File->DataFileManagement opening
DataFiles tab Outlook is directed to use my old .pst files. Note, dialogue
popped upped saying that file is not Unicode, blah-blah-blah, but the only
real option to do that is to say OK.
[As you pointed out, importing .pst file takes enormous amount of time,
usually would not complete w/o errors and would corrupt mail account]
3. Outlook restarted and using same DataFiles tab .pst file created for
new
mail account is removed logically, and after Outlook is closed, file is
removed physically.

Have you looked in Tools>Account settings>Address book tab
to see if an 'Outlook Address Book' has allready being configured?

Presumably you recovered your pst data backup by restoring it, and not
simply opening the data file within outlook?

 

[Timo]

have had the same problem with a solution:
If you have imported your old pst outlook then they will appear under all
contacts
if you right click the contact folder and select properties then click
outlook Address book and find the show this folder greyed out: this confirms
that the outlook Address book has been activated but not migrated to the new
mail addess area. To do this
click tools then address book. at the top click tools and options and remove
all names in the bottom box and make sure both the top boxs are set to
contacts.
now open a new email and click the to button. make sure the address book is
set to contacts. Right click in the main box where there should be email
address and click new entry. make sure the bottom box is set to contacts and
the top box high lights new contacts and ok. Enter an email name and email
address and save. This will merge the folders to the same contact folder when
outlook is restarted. If you have more than 1 contact folder then right click
each and properties, click the outlook address book and tick the box to add
that folder.
This has worked for me every time.
Timo