Where Have My e-Mail Contacts Gone?

[BobRob]

This morning on my PC when I pressed the “to†button on a new e-mail my
contacts list did not show. It was fine last night as I sent an e-mail using
the “to†button just before shutting down.

I use Windows XP Home edition and recently upgraded to MS Office Pro 2007.
My Contacts are all displayed and when I right click the contacts button and
look at Properties I note that the box is ticked alongside the words “Show
this folder as an e-mail Address Bookâ€. The tick box and words are greyed out.

I am fortunate as I can make a direct comparison with settings on my laptop
which also uses MS Pro 2007 (it runs Vista Home premium) and it works
perfectly including the contacts showing when the â€to†button is pressed. I
periodically update the laptop by copying the Pst file from the PC to it.

How can I get my Contacts to display when I press the “to†button on a new
e-mail?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

This morning on my PC when I pressed the “to†button on a new e-mail my
contacts list did not show. It was fine last night as I sent an e-mail using
the “to†button just before shutting down.

I use Windows XP Home edition and recently upgraded to MS Office Pro 2007.
My Contacts are all displayed and when I right click the contacts button and
look at Properties I note that the box is ticked alongside the words “Show
this folder as an e-mail Address Bookâ€. The tick box and words are greyed
out.

You did something to damage your Outlook Address Book service. Unfortunately,
Outlook 2007 doesn't allow you to fix it without creating a new mail profile.

 

[BobRob]

Brian,

Set up a new profile and all is working fine. Many thanks. BUT a further
question on the same subject of Address Books.

On my when I press the "to" button the address book is displayed but
unpopulated. When I type in ROBBIE in the search box all Robbies are
displayed. On my Laptop the adress book displays with all contacts listed and
when I type in ROBBIE the Robbies are listed. I am curious , why the
difference? I cannot see anoption button which will change the vew.

 

[Russ Valentine]

You need to set the address book view to display your Contacts Folder. If
you set it to display the Outlook Address Book it will be blank because the
address book contains no entries, just the folders that contain the entries.
Change the default display for the address book view here:
Tools > Account Settings > Address Book Tab > Outlook Address Book >
Change... >

 

[BobRob]

Russ,

Where do I go after change. The pop up box shows Outllook Address Book
Contacts New Personal Folders followed by a button with the label "Remove
Address Book". BTW New Personal Folders is my revised Profile.

Your advice is very welcme.

 

[Russ Valentine]

I might have given you the wrong path for your version. If it's not there,
just open the address book view and go to Tools > Options... to set the
default display folder.
--
Russ Valentine

Russ,

Where do I go after change. The pop up box shows Outllook Address Book
Contacts New Personal Folders followed by a button with the label "Remove
Address Book". BTW New Personal Folders is my revised Profile.

Your advice is very welcme.

 

[BobRob]

Russ,
I am still not sure where to go next. When I go to Address Book / Tools
/Options I see
Show this address list first Contacts
When sending mail......following order Contacts
In other words I cannot see any means of setting a default folder.
More thoughts please.

 

[Russ Valentine]

That's what "Show this address list first Contacts" does!
It tells the address book view which folder to display as its default.

 

[BobRob]

Russ,
Thanks for your speedy response. However, my addess book is still NOT
populated when I click the "to" button. When I enter a first or last name and
press the "go" button the corresponding names appear. The address book used
to be populated and I would prefer to return to this view (but not essential)
rather than view an empty box.
Any more suggestions.

 

[Russ Valentine]

I can't offer any suggestion until you tell me how you configured your
address book view. If you set it to display the folder that contains your
Contacts first, then you will see those Contacts immediately when you open
the address book view.

 

[BobRob]

Russ,
I did not configure my address book view in a specified way. All I know is
that when I go to Address Book / Tools
/Options I see
Show this address list first Contacts
When sending mail......following order Contacts configure my address book
view.
Would this unusual sequence of events be caused by setting up a new profile?
See my first question, Brian’s answer and my second question.

 

[Russ Valentine]

I don't understand your post. If the Contacts Folder you configured to show
first is the one that contains your Contacts, then you will see your
Contacts when you open the address book. If that is not happening, then you
have not specified the correct Contacts Folder.
Attempting an in place upgrade of Outlook will not work. Your Outlook
profile will be corrupt. You must create a new one.

 

[BobRob]

Russ,

I have given my issue a lot of thouht and it seems that I have two
options.. One is to do as you say and create a new profile and then inport my
old data file into the new profile. Secondly, leave things as they are - "if
it ain't broke don' t try and fix it". I have decided to take the second
route as although my contacts do not display in the normal way when I press
the "to" button they do display when I enter a contact name (e.g. Russ or
Valentine).

Thanks for all your help, time and patience.

 

[Russ Valentine]

Creating a new profile is easy to do. If you attemtped an upgrade of Outlook
without doing so, you will likely run into other problems that will require
you to do so. If you decide to proceed, whatever you do do not import your
PST file. That will just make a mess of thing all over again. Just open your
PST file in the new profile and set it as your default.