Can't Fax to Contacts Unless An E-Mail Address Is Defined

[rpaque]

Hello,

I'm at a company using a network fax machine, a Canon ir2020 using
Outlook as the contact manager.

Everyone else in the company using Outlook 2003, has no issues in
sending faxes to anybody in their contacts.

I was given a brand new computer, complete with Outlook 2007...

I can no longer send faxes to anybody unless they have an e-mail
address defined in their contact card. I have verified this by
comparing MANY cards... the only difference between a faxable contact
and a nonfaxable contact is the lack of an e-mail address.

Does anybody have any suggestions to remedy this?

Thanks!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Explain how this is an Outlook question.

 

[Ryan P.]

Explain how this is an Outlook question.

..
..
Because Outlook 2007 is not handling contact information properly.
Outlook 2003 does. Therefore, the question is "What changed in Outlook
2007 that messed up the way contact information is stored?"

And if its a setting that needs to be changed in Outlook 2007 rather
than a rather annoying bug, what is that setting?

 

[Ryan P.]

Explain how this is an Outlook question.

..
..
Actually, the better question would be is how can I get Outlook 2007
to pass along a contact's fax number to a fax server when the contact
doesn't have an email address?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You are using a third party product that happens to include integration with
Outlook as one of its features. They alone are responsible for supporting
that integration. It appears to me they have not updated their product to
work with Outlook 2007. This is not an Outlook issue. What did Canon say
when you asked them how to integrate with Outlook 2007?
Integration with Microsoft Fax products did not change in Outlook 2007. It
does not require that a fax recipient also have an email address.

 

[Ryan P.]

You are using a third party product that happens to include integration
with Outlook as one of its features. They alone are responsible for
supporting that integration. It appears to me they have not updated
their product to work with Outlook 2007. This is not an Outlook issue.
What did Canon say when you asked them how to integrate with Outlook 2007?
Integration with Microsoft Fax products did not change in Outlook 2007.
It does not require that a fax recipient also have an email address.

..
..
Ahh, I understand what you mean.

I have not received a response from Canon support yet on this issue.

I highly doubt they have updated the Fax driver for 2007, as its about
3 years old. I'm curious to find out exactly what changed in the way
2007 handles contact information that led to this break in the fax
software. One would think that the same contact card from 2003 would
work the same way in 2007.

Now there's an idea... Is there a known issue with importing contacts
made under 2003 into 2007? Perhaps its the contact itself that is
broken, not Outlook or the fax software? I won't be able to test this
theory until Monday, unfortunately.

I do thank you for the quick replies!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That's important new information. There is an excellent chance that is the
problem. Importing has never been the correct way to transfer Outlook data.
Doing so is a frequent cause of corruption of electronic addresses and other
information loss.
Always use the supported method for data transfer: Copy the Outlook data
file and open it in the new installation. Nothing else works.
Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

 

[Ryan P.]

That's important new information. There is an excellent chance that is
the problem. Importing has never been the correct way to transfer
Outlook data. Doing so is a frequent cause of corruption of electronic
addresses and other information loss.
Always use the supported method for data transfer: Copy the Outlook data
file and open it in the new installation. Nothing else works.
Take a look at these pages for info on Outlook data backup or transfer:
http://www.slipstick.com/config/backup.htm
http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010771141033.aspx

..
..
The problem is that these contacts are on the public contacts list,
which everyone has access to.

I will read the links, but with a public contacts folder, won't the
contacts be "reset" to 2003 every time they are accessed by anyone else
in the office?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You're the one who said you imported these Contacts from Outlook 2003 to
Outlook 2007. If that is not the case, why did you say that?

 

[Ryan P.]

You're the one who said you imported these Contacts from Outlook 2003 to
Outlook 2007. If that is not the case, why did you say that?

..
..
Sorry I'm not making myself clear.

The contacts are in a public folder on the network. All these
contacts were made with Outlook 2003. My PC is the only one in the
company to have Outlook 2007. All the other software, including the OS,
should be the same.

In order to access these contacts from print-to-fax, we must copy
these contacts from the public folder to a local folder. This is
strictly for faxing (we are a construction company, and send out mass
faxes to our subcontractors regularly). All contact maintenance is done
in the network contacts folder.

Since we can't fax from the public contact list, I have no way of
knowing whether its the import/copy process or the original contact
"cards" that Outlook 2007 doesn't like. Since the PC's with Outlook
2003 are able to do this with no problems, I tend to agree with you now
that its the transfer process.

As I said before, when I return to work on Monday, I will try to move
the contacts per the instructions in the links you provided and see if
there is a difference.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

By local folder, do you mean a PST file or a Contacts Folder in an Exchange
mailbox?
Another thing to keep in mind is that if this was not a clean install of
Outlook 2007 and was an upgrade, your current Outlook profile is corrupt and
must be recreated from scratch before things will work correctly.

 

[rpaque]

By local folder, do you mean a PST file or a Contacts Folder in an Exchange
mailbox?
Another thing to keep in mind is that if this was not a clean install of
Outlook 2007 and was an upgrade, your current Outlook profile is corrupt and
must be recreated from scratch before things will work correctly.

.
.
It is a Contacts folder in a mailbox that is accessible from every
Outlook user in the Exchange.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Two more things to check, then:
1. Be sure you transfer these Contacts using Copy and Paste, not Import.
2. Make sure their fax addresses are resolved after you make the transfer.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

By local folder, do you mean a PST file or a Contacts Folder in an
Exchange
mailbox?
Another thing to keep in mind is that if this was not a clean install of
Outlook 2007 and was an upgrade, your current Outlook profile is corrupt
and
must be recreated from scratch before things will work correctly.

..
..
It is a Contacts folder in a mailbox that is accessible from every
Outlook user in the Exchange.

 

[Ryan P]

Two more things to check, then:
1. Be sure you transfer these Contacts using Copy and Paste, not Import.
2. Make sure their fax addresses are resolved after you make the transfer.

Thanks.

I copied and pasted contacts per your suggestion, with the same results.

I also created new cards in a new contact folder (in Outlook 2007) and had
the same results. I had to put in a fake email address in order to print to
fax.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Behavior cannot be replicated with supported software.

 

[Ryan P]

Behavior cannot be replicated with supported software.

..
..
Thanks for trying!

 

[Ryan P]

Just as a follow up...

With nothing to lose, I did a complete uninstall of hte XP fax drivers, and
installed the Vista drivers. That seems to have taken care of the issue.
All fax numbers appear as they should regardless of their e-mail status.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.

Ryan

Behavior cannot be replicated with supported software.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks.

I copied and pasted contacts per your suggestion, with the same results.

I also created new cards in a new contact folder (in Outlook 2007) and
had the same results. I had to put in a fake email address in order to
print to fax.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not following. I don't understand how you could have had both XP Fax
drivers and Vista Fax drivers on the same partition.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Just as a follow up...

With nothing to lose, I did a complete uninstall of hte XP fax drivers,
and installed the Vista drivers. That seems to have taken care of the
issue. All fax numbers appear as they should regardless of their e-mail
status.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.

Ryan

Behavior cannot be replicated with supported software.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Two more things to check, then:
1. Be sure you transfer these Contacts using Copy and Paste, not
Import.
2. Make sure their fax addresses are resolved after you make the
transfer.

Thanks.

I copied and pasted contacts per your suggestion, with the same results.

I also created new cards in a new contact folder (in Outlook 2007) and
had the same results. I had to put in a fake email address in order to
print to fax.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Ryan P]

I'm not following. I don't understand how you could have had both XP Fax
drivers and Vista Fax drivers on the same partition.

..
..
I'm referring to the fax drivers from Canon, not from Microsoft. I
downloaded the Vista drivers from Canon for the ir2020 and uninstalled the
existing XP drivers. It may have been a unified driver package which
contained driver updates for XP as well, but it wasn't described that way on
the website. Problems with Outlook 2007 weren't even mentioned.

The windows fax software itself wasn't touched unless Canon's drivers
replaced something behind the scenes.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Aha. That explains everything. Thanks for the follow up and for confirming
my suspicion.