Revisiting no entries in address book

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j lunis - 24 Jul 2008 15:50 GMT

A few weeks ago I posted that the address book in O2007 (CTRL-SHIFT-B)
did not contain any entries I had in my Contacts. None of the
suggestions here seemed to work and I tried them all numerous times.
I now have entries and am posting here because AFAIK I have found a
solution. Can't explain it but it may help others.
I decided to bite the bullet and reenter all 400+ contacts into
Outlook's Contacts and see if this would get me back in business.
Before wasting all the time to find out it wouldn't work, I added one
contact and went to the Address Book to see if it 'took.' The new
contact was listed. To make sure it worked, I highlighted the Contact
and pressed "TO:.' Instantly all contacts in my in my Contacts folder
appeared in the Phone Book. Is that great or what!?

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Diane Poremsky {MVP} - 24 Jul 2008 16:16 GMT

Um. Yeah, its great but that tells me you either have two contacts folders
and the one with the original 400 was not enabled as an address book or you
have 400 duplicate contacts that don't have resolved electronic addresses.

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Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
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> A few weeks ago I posted that the address book in O2007 (CTRL-SHIFT-B) did
> not contain any entries I had in my Contacts. None of the suggestions
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> all contacts in my in my Contacts folder appeared in the Phone Book. Is
> that great or what!?

Reply to this Message

j lunis - 24 Jul 2008 16:37 GMT

> Um. Yeah, its great but that tells me you either have two contacts
> folders and the one with the original 400 was not enabled as an address
> book or you have 400 duplicate contacts that don't have resolved
> electronic addresses.

And you are right, I think.
But before I start, I need to add one point. I imported? these files
from O2003 to O2007. It was at that point I lost all my contacts in
Address Book.
I do, in fact, have 2 Contacts folder, one in my folder (if that is the
correct terminology) and one in my wife's. I enabled both as phone
books after every new profile creation (8-10 of them) and checked each
many times as I tried to troubleshoot. Once enabled, the "Show this
folder as an email address book" remained enabled for both although the
check box dimmed which I presume is normal. In every case, on checking
Address Book, neither Contact's folder showed any entries. Now they
both do.
'don't have resolved electronic addresses?" I have no idea what that means.
Just to re-emphasize my original point, I have no idea why what I did
worked and I do not claim to have found an undocumented fix for the
problem. My point was, for those who have the same problem and have
tried the same procedures, IF they have made the same mistakes I made,
this may be an easy way to resolve the problem. I am hoping this may
save time and aggravation for the posters and those who seem to always
be here answering questions every day.

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Diane Poremsky {MVP} - 24 Jul 2008 21:07 GMT

> check box dimmed which I presume is normal

No, its not. I'm guessing the import messed up the address book service.
Except since recreating the addresses worked, the address book service is
not completely hosed. Assuming the old contacts are not in the one with
these new contacts, you could locate both contacts folders and drag the old
contacts to the new folder.

If the box is grayed out for both the old and new folder, then you should
eventually make a new profile. But as long as it seems to work right, I
wouldn't be in a rush.

Occasionally when importing contacts, more often from CSV or other sources
outside of Outlook, the email addresses are in the email field but not
underlined - when they are underlined they are resolved and ready to use. I
don't think this is your problem - I think the address book service is
messed up.

Signature

>> Um. Yeah, its great but that tells me you either have two contacts
>> folders and the one with the original 400 was not enabled as an address
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> aggravation for the posters and those who seem to always be here answering
> questions every day.

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j lunis - 25 Jul 2008 15:32 GMT

>> check box dimmed which I presume is normal
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> ready to use. I don't think this is your problem - I think the address
> book service is messed up.

Well, the addresses are underlined and, therefore, resolved. Since I
have a usable phone book and everything seems to be OK, I am going to
take your advice and leave things alone.
Checkbox dimmed out - don't care.
All contacts viewable from both Contacts folders - I'm happy.

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