Outlook contacts not listing all names when clicking To: field

  • Thread starter Thread starter megt
  • Start date Start date
M

megt

Hi,

I've read through many posts on this same issue, and I have not yet
seen it resolved. I will try to give as much info as possible,
including any troubleshooting steps:

I have Outlook 2002 SP-1 and Windows XP. When I click the To: field to
select and address that is on my Contact list, some addresses are not
listed. When I open the Contact folder I see all the names listed. It
is as though there is a subset of names within my Contact folder and
that is what is listed.

If I open an email, and right click on the from address, and choose
"add to contacts", the name will appear on the list that I access when
clicking the To: field. It also appears when I open my Contact folder.

If I add a contact from the "New" "Add Contact" menu, the new contact
appears in my Contact folder, but doesn't appear in my To: list.

I have followed the steps listed by Russ Valentine to verify that my
Outlook Address Book has not lost track of the connection to its
Contacts Folder.
1) Chosen Tools Email Accounts, then View or Change Existing
Directories or Address Books.
2)My Outlook Address Book is Listed, as well as my Personal Address
Book (which has nothing in it by the way).
3)I select my OAB and choose Change. I see the following listed:
"Contacts: Personal Folders".

I have right clicked on the Contact folder and selected "Show this
folder as an email address book". I have removed and added the OAB as
as an address book. Nothing works. It is as if there is a special
subset or folder hidden somewhere that Outlook sees when you click the
To: button that I can only successfully add to by right clicking on an
address in an email I've received and selecting "add to contacts". I
have searched the MS support site and can find nothing.

This could have a simple solution, but it is by far the most
non-intuitive mess I've seen in quite a while.

Any help with finding a solution to this would be greatly
appreciated!!

Meg
 
There are a couple of possibilities I can think of.

One is that you may have more than one Contacts Folder in your Profile (it's
easy to create an extra inadvertently). Use View > Folder List... to see
your entire Folder tree, expand any collapsed folders and see if you have
any extra Contacts Folders or subfolders.

Another is that your profile contains an outdated reference to a Contacts
Folder that has been moved or deleted. Look for any "phantom" references to
additional Contacts Folders here:
Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or address
books > Outlook Address Book > Change. >
Remove any duplicate listings to Contacts Folders.

The easiest way to fix problems such as this is simply to remove the Outlook
Address Book Service from your profile, restart Outlook, then re-add the
service, taking care to point it to your default Contacts Folder. Or you can
just create a new profile from scratch and configure it to use the same PST
file you are currently using.
 
Hi,

Thanks for your speedy response. Your suggestions haven't worked, but
I'm not sure that I was doing what you wanted (I'm pretty new to
fooling around with Outlook, so bear with me).

Here's what I've done:

Completed removed the profile and recreated a new one by 1)Removed
Profile from the Mail Setup window. 2)Created a new profile 3)pointed
to my outlook.pst file located in my
c:\documentsandsettings\megt\application data\microsoft\outlook folder

Checked Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories
or address
books > Outlook Address Book > Change. > - there was only one contact
folder listed.

Checked my outlook folder list for duplicate "contacts" folders. None.

This is driving me crazy :). I should be able to create a contact by
going to New from the contact list view, right? And then I should be
able to see it when I click the To: button in a new email, right? If
that is true, then there is either a bug or my system is corrupt. I
know there is some difference between the contact list and the address
book which I don't get at all. Is that what is going on here? And why
is there a difference between the contact list and address book?

I have googled myself silly trying to find a solution to this. I have
found lots of incidents of this happening, but have seen no solution to
it yet.
 
When things are working correctly the Outlook address book will display all
the electronic addresses that exist in your Contacts Folder. It is not a
separate file.
I, too, have seen many posts like yours, but none that aren't fixed by
simply resetting the connection between the Outlook Address Book and your
Contacts Folder with the steps I posted. So something else is wrong here,
but I have no way of knowing what without more information. Do you have any
other clues as to what brought this on such as changes made to your
installation, synching your Contacts Folder to a PDA or importing Contacts
form another file? Have you tried using the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe)
to see if there are any errors in your PST file? Are you certain that the
Contacts missing from your Address book have valid (i.e., underlined)
electronic addresses?
 
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