Are MS Outlook 2003 contact records soft deleted?

[mgtblynch]

I'm trying to use the synchronize contacts option with a blackberry device.
When I edit my contacts in OL2003 I only have about 85 "active" contacts, all
others have been deleted and no longer show up in the contact list, which is
correct; but when I use the synchronize feature the application is pulling in
over 700+ contacts. I only have one contact folder (personal) and have
probably had over 700 contacts in the past. Several questions: 1) are
contacts records "Soft" deleted? 2) can the folder be "reorganized" to get
ride of old deleted records or 3) is there an internal "Flag" or custome
field that can be used to filter only the active contacts?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm trying to use the synchronize contacts option with a blackberry device.
When I edit my contacts in OL2003 I only have about 85 "active" contacts,
all
others have been deleted and no longer show up in the contact list, which is
correct; but when I use the synchronize feature the application is pulling
in
over 700+ contacts. I only have one contact folder (personal) and have
probably had over 700 contacts in the past. Several questions: 1) are
contacts records "Soft" deleted? 2) can the folder be "reorganized" to get
ride of old deleted records or 3) is there an internal "Flag" or custome
field that can be used to filter only the active contacts?

What do you mean by "contact list" and "active contacts"? Your sync software
should include all of the contacts you have in the default Contacts folder and
nothing else. There are no settings in Outlook that control a sync process.
It is completely controlled by the sync software you use. Outlook is a
passive data store.

 

[mgtblynch]

I'm actually talking about the contacts in the MS OL2003 address book. It's
the default name of the file that contains all of the email addresses; when I
open the address book on OL2003, it shows all of the current address contacts
for my address book. I have about 85-90 addresses in this list. I have
deleted hundreds of others over the past several years.

When using the sync application for the blackberry, it just asks what
address book I want to synch with on the blackberry. I point it to the same
address book in OL2003, but it comes up with over 700 addresses, most of the
ones I have already deleted from my address book. I get the same thing when
I export the address book to my iPod. I also tried an outlook address book
recovery tool (on a temporary copy of my address book) and it too said there
were over 700+ addresses "recovered". The issue seems to be the permanent
deletion of an address/contact from the address book in OL2003. When viewing
the address book I only see about 85-90 addresses, which I consider "Active"
addresses because they are the only ones I want to be in the address book,
but "other" processes like the iPOD and Blackberry synch applications think
all of the "deleted" addresses are still valid. I just need to know how to
make the deleted addresses go away permanently or be able to distinguish the
"active" addresses from the deleted addresses.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm actually talking about the contacts in the MS OL2003 address book. It's
the default name of the file that contains all of the email addresses; when
I
open the address book on OL2003, it shows all of the current address
contacts
for my address book. I have about 85-90 addresses in this list. I have
deleted hundreds of others over the past several years.

The address book contains nothing. Outlook stores all contacts in Contacts
folders. The "Address Book" is a view of those of your contacts folders that
you have enabled as address books. You are shown all contacts that have
electroninc addresses in that view,m, but they're still in the contacts
folders you have. You should never modify a contact via the Address Book
interface. Deleting something there does NOT delete the contact itself, it
merely removed the email address field in the contact record. The contact
still exists, so naturally your sync software will sync them. You can have
700 contacts and have email addresses assigned to only 85 of them. Only 85
will apear in the Address Book interface (since there are only 85 electronic
addresses) but the PDA will see all 700 of them. Again, never manipulate
contacts in any way but through the contacts folder(s) containing them.

 

[mgtblynch]

Excellent!!! I did not know this... It works. Thank you very much for
helping resolve a complexing issue.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Excellent!!! I did not know this... It works. Thank you very much for
helping resolve a complexing issue.

You're welcome.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Blackberry syncs all contact folders that are enabled as an address book.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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