Two Contacts folders

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MartyR - 12 Sep 2005 13:54 GMT

I recently reintalled everything on my PC. In attempting to restore my
Contacts from a backup copy, I seem to have ended up with two Contacts
folders. Worse, the default is the empty one and the default is the
only one used to lookup "To:", etc. field values. Can anyone explain 1)
what the data structures are, 2) How Outlook juggles them, 3) How to
fix my problem.

-MartyR

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Brian Tillman - 12 Sep 2005 15:37 GMT

> I recently reintalled everything on my PC. In attempting to restore my
> Contacts from a backup copy, I seem to have ended up with two Contacts
> folders. Worse, the default is the empty one and the default is the
> only one used to lookup "To:", etc. field values. Can anyone explain
> 1) what the data structures are, 2) How Outlook juggles them, 3) How
> to fix my problem.

You first: what version of Outlook and EXACTLY what did you do to "restore"
your Contacts?

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Brian Tillman

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Diane Poremsky [MVP] - 12 Sep 2005 19:35 GMT

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.

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Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
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>I recently reintalled everything on my PC. In attempting to restore my
> Contacts from a backup copy, I seem to have ended up with two Contacts
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> -MartyR

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MartyR - 13 Sep 2005 08:19 GMT

Thanks, Diane. Even though the box to enable the Contacts folder as
email address book was checked and NOT greyed out, I removed it,
restarted Outlook, and added it and restarted a second time. That got
rid of the empty Contacts folder and left the real one working. I have
no idea how I managed to restore the Contacts after I reinstalled
Office 2003, but I did overwrite the Outlook.pst file with my old one
to recover my old 1GB+ data. I guess that this screwed up my Contacts
folder.

-MartyR

> If you have Contacts in the Contacts folder but they are not accessible when
> you click on the To button, check these settings:
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
> >
> > -MartyR

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