conctacts and addressbook confusion

[Dabbler]

My client has received error messages that his pst file is full. I created a
new high capacity pst file and moved his email but am not sure how to move
his contacts.

Also he has two "Contacts" in his list, one appears to be from the old PST
file and one from the Address book. I'm not clear on the difference between
Address Book and Contacts in PST file. Isn't the Address book just another
PST file?

If someone could either clue me in or point me to a write up I would greatly
appreciate it.

Thanks much!

 

[Russ Valentine]

You would move Contacts the same way you moved email. Why can you do one but
not the other? All Outlook data is in the same file.
"...two Contacts in his list?" What do you mean by that? How do we know to
what list you're referring?
There is no address book in Outlook. The address book view is just a view of
the Contacts Folder. All data resides there.

 

[Dabbler]

No that's not right. The contacts that appear in the Contacts section are
not the same as those in the Addressbook.

We can add new contacts to the Contacts in Personal Folders but we get error
message when trying to add a new contact to the Addressbook.

When my client chooses Tools/Addressbook he sees a pulldown menu on the
right top of the dialog. I contains two entries, both are labeled 'Contacts'.
If we choose the first entry it lists one set of contacts and I can't figure
out where these are stored. If we choose the second identically labeled
'Contacts' it lists the contacts in the Contacts section.

So we have two different sets of contacts, one appears to be stored in
Personal Folders which contains his current inbox and I've identified the PST
file. The other one is stored in 'Personal Folders' but in the left
navigation pane there doesn't appear to be a folder for it and I'm not sure
which PST file contains it.

Ideally we would like some way to find out which contacts are in what we
call the Addressbook contacts which aren't in the current inbox PST. There
doesn't appear to be any menu option for exporting or printing the contacts
from the Addressbook.

Hence my confusion.

Thanks for any help with this!

 

[Russ Valentine]

What I posted is correct. What do you need me to repeat that isn't clear?
There is no address book in Outlook. All data resides in Contacts Folders.
The address book is simply a view of the electronic addresses that reside in
your Contacts Folders. The address book view contains no data and the view
must never be used to add or edit data--which is why you get that warning.
Your client's address book view is corrupt if it contains a reference to a
Contacts Folder that no longer exists. Just remove any reference that is no
longer valid.
Why you have more than one set of PST files in the profile only you can
explain. Most likely it is a result of your having migrated data
incorrectly.

 

[Dabbler]

Russ what I'm looking for is some insight into the situation my client finds
himself in. Note that I inherited this tech support situation I haven't done
any migration. Clearly we are seeing two DIFFERENT sets of contacts when
viewed using the Addressbook from the tools menu. I only see one set of that
data when using the contacts folder in the left nav pane.

So what I need is some advice on how to access the second set of contacts
which appear in the Addressbook view but don't appear in the contacts. There
are 3 PST files involved - Archives and two Personal Folders PST files. But
the contacts folder only appears in one of the two Personal Folder files.

Thanks.

Michael

 

[Russ Valentine]

Since there can be no such thing as Contacts that appear in the address book
view that do not exist in a Contacts Folder, seems it should be a
straightforward matter to examine your entire folder hierarchy using Folder
List view. You'll find either more than one set of Contacts Folders.

 

[Dabbler]

Au contraire mon frere.. there's only one Contacts folder in the entire
folder hierarchy when using Folder List view. It's in the Personal Folders
hierarchy that has the default inbox folder. The other Personal Folders
hierarchy does not contain any of the default folders such as sent mail and
it does not show a Contacts folder. Although it is in this PST file that I
suspect the contacts where looking for lie.

Thanks.

Michael

 

[Russ Valentine]

The mere fact that you have 2 Personal Folders tell us where the problem is.
Fact remains that nothing can appear in the address book view that does not
exist in a Contacts Folder somewhere in your profile. If you can ever figure
out how your predecessor managed to create 2 separate data files, you will
figure out what caused the problem. Since there is no need for 2 files, why
don't you just close the one that isn't the default?

 

[Dabbler]

Well you hit the nail on the head! The reason we don't just close the second
one is twofold. The tech person who preceded me setup the second personal
folders so my client could organize old mail into folders there. The second
reason we don't remove it is because the second set of contacts are probably
contained in it (if not I have no idea where they are) but since some of the
contacts are not duplicates we don't want to loose them. I think what
happened is the second Personal Folders was added probably due to an out of
space condition in primary Personal Folders and the tech didn't know how to
upgrade it to the new PST UNC format. To compound that my client added new
contacts using the address book view which lists two Contacts in the pull
down and the first one is the old contacts. So there are contacts floating
around out there and we want to either print them out or export them so we
can sort things out manually and save the newly added contacts that were
added to the wrong (old) contact list. But I swear there is only one Contacts
folder appearing in the folder list.

 

[Russ Valentine]

So the plot thickens. And the story line is far too fragmented to permit
anyone to unravel it from the distance of a newsgroup. Next time post all
the information you have clearly and accurately at the outset. Not enough
information here yet. I'm busy. I quit.

 

[Dabbler]

so by that you mean to say you're stumped ?

So the plot thickens. And the story line is far too fragmented to permit
anyone to unravel it from the distance of a newsgroup. Next time post all
the information you have clearly and accurately at the outset. Not enough
information here yet. I'm busy. I quit.

 

[Russ Valentine]

Not at all. I just can't solve it from the distance of a newsgroup with such
incomplete information. I gave you the answer. I just can't search your
profile for you for the Contacts you can't find.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Well you hit the nail on the head! The reason we don't just close the second
one is twofold. The tech person who preceded me setup the second personal
folders so my client could organize old mail into folders there. The
second
reason we don't remove it is because the second set of contacts are probably
contained in it (if not I have no idea where they are) but since some of the
contacts are not duplicates we don't want to loose them. I think what
happened is the second Personal Folders was added probably due to an out of
space condition in primary Personal Folders and the tech didn't know how to
upgrade it to the new PST UNC format. To compound that my client added new
contacts using the address book view which lists two Contacts in the pull
down and the first one is the old contacts. So there are contacts floating
around out there and we want to either print them out or export them so we
can sort things out manually and save the newly added contacts that were
added to the wrong (old) contact list. But I swear there is only one
Contacts
folder appearing in the folder list.

The Address Book interface can access a folder only if it is configured to
hold contact items. That doesn't mean, however, that the folder itself must
be named "Contacts". In a second, non-default PST, you can name the contacts
folder anything you want. Whatever name it has, however, will be reflected in
the Address Book interface. Are you positive you're using the Folder List
view (Ctrl-6)? What do you see in the Contacts view (Ctrl-3)?