How to delete a duplicate Contacts file

[John Tempest]

When I want to send a new e-mail, and I click on
the "To..." button a message box comes up
titled "Microsoft Outlook" with the following message:
"The address list could not be displayed. The Contacts
folder associated with this address list could not be
opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you do not
have permissions. For information on how to remove this
folder from the Outlook Address Book, see Microsoft
Ourlook Help."
Pressing OK brings up the dialog box "Select Name"; there
are no names displayed; the "Show Names from the:" combo
box is showing "Contacts". If this is opened it shows two
folders named "Contacts" in the list below "Outlook
Address Book".
If the second listed "Contacts" folder is selected, all
the names appear, and I can move a name to the
email "To.." list.

The problem seems to be that I have some screwed up links
in that I have a second "Personal Folders" folder (which
now contains absolutely nothing), but which Oulook will
not allow me to remove (along with its subfolders [all
empty]). I think this situation arose after backing up all
my data, installing a new Hard Drive and installing the OS
from scratch. When I reinstalled MS Office, it created a
blank outlook .pst file, and when I imported (or did I
just repoint to the original pst file?) from the back-up,
I got the duplicated folders which then gave rise to this
problem with the contacts.

To clarify; in my Outlook Folder List I have 5 folder
groups:
1. Personal Folders (with the special icon, and containing
all the proper folders and sub-folders)
2. Archive folders (generic folder group icon)
3. Hotmail (generic folder group icon)
4. MSN (generic folder group icon)
5. Personal Folders (generic folder group icon, and empty)

If I try to access the 5th folder group, I get an Alert
Dialog (Warning icon: The operation failed. An object
could not be found.)

Whatever I do, I cannot seem to get rid of this
duplicate "Personal Folders" Group. This is where I am
looking for guidance. I don't know where this list of
folder groups is generated - is it the registry? or the
Outlook.fav file or some other file? I have deleted an old
outlook.pst file which was about 265k in size and located
in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\ Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook" which is where one of the previous
OS's kept personal data; the current outlook files are
in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook"

TIA for any helpful suggestions

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook version?

 

[John Tempest]

Currently Outlook 2003 beta 2, but the problem was there in Outlook 2002. OS
= Windows XP Pro.

John Tempest

Outlook version?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

When I want to send a new e-mail, and I click on
the "To..." button a message box comes up
titled "Microsoft Outlook" with the following message:
"The address list could not be displayed. The Contacts
folder associated with this address list could not be
opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you do not
have permissions. For information on how to remove this
folder from the Outlook Address Book, see Microsoft
Ourlook Help."
Pressing OK brings up the dialog box "Select Name"; there
are no names displayed; the "Show Names from the:" combo
box is showing "Contacts". If this is opened it shows two
folders named "Contacts" in the list below "Outlook
Address Book".
If the second listed "Contacts" folder is selected, all
the names appear, and I can move a name to the
email "To.." list.

The problem seems to be that I have some screwed up links
in that I have a second "Personal Folders" folder (which
now contains absolutely nothing), but which Oulook will
not allow me to remove (along with its subfolders [all
empty]). I think this situation arose after backing up all
my data, installing a new Hard Drive and installing the OS
from scratch. When I reinstalled MS Office, it created a
blank outlook .pst file, and when I imported (or did I
just repoint to the original pst file?) from the back-up,
I got the duplicated folders which then gave rise to this
problem with the contacts.

To clarify; in my Outlook Folder List I have 5 folder
groups:
1. Personal Folders (with the special icon, and containing
all the proper folders and sub-folders)
2. Archive folders (generic folder group icon)
3. Hotmail (generic folder group icon)
4. MSN (generic folder group icon)
5. Personal Folders (generic folder group icon, and empty)

If I try to access the 5th folder group, I get an Alert
Dialog (Warning icon: The operation failed. An object
could not be found.)

Whatever I do, I cannot seem to get rid of this
duplicate "Personal Folders" Group. This is where I am
looking for guidance. I don't know where this list of
folder groups is generated - is it the registry? or the
Outlook.fav file or some other file? I have deleted an old
outlook.pst file which was about 265k in size and located
in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\ Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook" which is where one of the previous
OS's kept personal data; the current outlook files are
in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook"

TIA for any helpful suggestions

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You should be able to simply R click and Close all but your default Personal
Folders file. Then remove the outdated references to Contacts Folders here:
Go to Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or
address books > Outlook Address Book > Change. >

If you've really got things knotted up, you can just reset your Outlook
Address Book by removing and re-adding it. Clean up the mess of extra
Personal Folders first.
You may need to re-enable the Contacts Folder as an e-mail address book by R
clicking the Folder > Properties and check the "Show this folder as an
E-mail address book" box. Make sure you restart Outlook after making these
changes.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Currently Outlook 2003 beta 2, but the problem was there in Outlook 2002. OS
= Windows XP Pro.

John Tempest

Outlook version?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

When I want to send a new e-mail, and I click on
the "To..." button a message box comes up
titled "Microsoft Outlook" with the following message:
"The address list could not be displayed. The Contacts
folder associated with this address list could not be
opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you do not
have permissions. For information on how to remove this
folder from the Outlook Address Book, see Microsoft
Ourlook Help."
Pressing OK brings up the dialog box "Select Name"; there
are no names displayed; the "Show Names from the:" combo
box is showing "Contacts". If this is opened it shows two
folders named "Contacts" in the list below "Outlook
Address Book".
If the second listed "Contacts" folder is selected, all
the names appear, and I can move a name to the
email "To.." list.

The problem seems to be that I have some screwed up links
in that I have a second "Personal Folders" folder (which
now contains absolutely nothing), but which Oulook will
not allow me to remove (along with its subfolders [all
empty]). I think this situation arose after backing up all
my data, installing a new Hard Drive and installing the OS
from scratch. When I reinstalled MS Office, it created a
blank outlook .pst file, and when I imported (or did I
just repoint to the original pst file?) from the back-up,
I got the duplicated folders which then gave rise to this
problem with the contacts.

To clarify; in my Outlook Folder List I have 5 folder
groups:
1. Personal Folders (with the special icon, and containing
all the proper folders and sub-folders)
2. Archive folders (generic folder group icon)
3. Hotmail (generic folder group icon)
4. MSN (generic folder group icon)
5. Personal Folders (generic folder group icon, and empty)

If I try to access the 5th folder group, I get an Alert
Dialog (Warning icon: The operation failed. An object
could not be found.)

Whatever I do, I cannot seem to get rid of this
duplicate "Personal Folders" Group. This is where I am
looking for guidance. I don't know where this list of
folder groups is generated - is it the registry? or the
Outlook.fav file or some other file? I have deleted an old
outlook.pst file which was about 265k in size and located
in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\ Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook" which is where one of the previous
OS's kept personal data; the current outlook files are
in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook"

TIA for any helpful suggestions

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Are you're sure you can't just R click the extra Personal Folders and close
them? Only default folders cannot be closed. If not, you'll have to do it
through the registry:
Try going into your registry at this point:
(Win 9x/ME) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Messaging
Subsystem\Profiles\<your profile name>
(Win NT/2000/XP) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\<your profile name>
Look in the tree under that point (it should be full of keys with long
hexidecimal value names) and look for a section that references the PST file
you want off of your folder tree. Export that section (for safety) and then
delete it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Comments interleaved below:

You should be able to simply R click and Close all but your default Personal
Folders file. Then remove the outdated references to Contacts Folders here:
Go to Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or
address books > Outlook Address Book > Change. >

There are no duplicately named folders within the default Personal Folders
group. The other Personal Folders group cannot be expanded, presumably
because it is empty and the file it may have been pointed to has been
deleted. If you click on this folder you get a message saying the "object
can't be found". However it is not possible to remove it or close it,
probably because it is named "Personal Folders" and there is some
programmatic restriction on what you can do with a folder named "Personal
Folders". Unfortunately it cannot be renamed either for the same reason.
However, theres is still the redundant empty duplicately named "Contacts"
folder somewhere (not visible in the Folders List) which unfortunately is
first in the list and results in the message about being unable to find
addresses etc.

If you've really got things knotted up,

Yep. That seems to be the case.

you can just reset your Outlook
Address Book by removing and re-adding it. Clean up the mess of extra
Personal Folders first.

Ha! That seems to be the thing that Outlook is preventing me from doing.
Some file, somewhere, is storing this corrupted information about the
folders and I need some utility to repair it. I notice that there are files
in the "Documents and Settings\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook" path with the extensions ".srs", ".NK2", ".sfd", and
".xml". Possible one of these contains the folder structure and pointers to
file paths of the ".pst" files. The only one I can read is the ".xml" file
whose structure I am not fully aware of, but it seems to mirror the fact
that I have 5 folder groups: "Personal folders (default)", "Archive
folders", "Hotmail", "MSN", and the redundant "Personal Folders". From the
structure of the data I would guess that the redundant Personal Folders
files has an id=1, and the proper default Personal Folders has an id=5
(explaining, perhaps, why the ghost "Contacts" subfolder is listed before
the real "Contacts" folder. It would be possible to play around with this
file, though I would guess that one would also have to straighten up other
references such as the GUIDs that are attached (and which possibly also
appear in the registry file) [NB My computer (and everyone else's computer
is full of GUIDs many of which will be leftovers from previous OS's, prior
versions of applications, and results of temporary operations. Microsoft
neglected to attach any other meaningful data to these to associate their
individual purpose, or seems to have any thought about how this info can be
cleared out!]


It would be very useful, in the circumstances, to have a utility [Perhaps
someone with Outlook programming experience has already produced something
like this] which recognized corrupted data (absence of abjects/pointers) and
generally allowed one to remove things that would otherwise be protected in
normal use. Provided that one knew the data structure of the appropriate
files, it wouldn't be a particularly cumbersome task to produce such a
program.

John Tempest

 

[Karen]

Did you get an answer to your question? If not, try article Q319901
or 319901 in the microsoft knowledge data base (it doesn't require
messing with the registry). I had the exact problem and this worked
perfectly for me. Also, when you delete the address book, don't worry
about deleting the contacts - they will all be there when you add the
new book.

Are you're sure you can't just R click the extra Personal Folders and close
them? Only default folders cannot be closed. If not, you'll have to do it
through the registry:
Try going into your registry at this point:
(Win 9x/ME) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Messaging
Subsystem\Profiles\<your profile name>
(Win NT/2000/XP) HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\<your profile name>
Look in the tree under that point (it should be full of keys with long
hexidecimal value names) and look for a section that references the PST file
you want off of your folder tree. Export that section (for safety) and then
delete it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Comments interleaved below:

You should be able to simply R click and Close all but your default Personal
Folders file. Then remove the outdated references to Contacts Folders here:
Go to Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or
address books > Outlook Address Book > Change. >

There are no duplicately named folders within the default Personal Folders
group. The other Personal Folders group cannot be expanded, presumably
because it is empty and the file it may have been pointed to has been
deleted. If you click on this folder you get a message saying the "object
can't be found". However it is not possible to remove it or close it,
probably because it is named "Personal Folders" and there is some
programmatic restriction on what you can do with a folder named "Personal
Folders". Unfortunately it cannot be renamed either for the same reason.
However, theres is still the redundant empty duplicately named "Contacts"
folder somewhere (not visible in the Folders List) which unfortunately is
first in the list and results in the message about being unable to find
addresses etc.

If you've really got things knotted up,

Yep. That seems to be the case.

you can just reset your Outlook
Address Book by removing and re-adding it. Clean up the mess of extra
Personal Folders first.

Ha! That seems to be the thing that Outlook is preventing me from doing.
Some file, somewhere, is storing this corrupted information about the
folders and I need some utility to repair it. I notice that there are files
in the "Documents and Settings\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook" path with the extensions ".srs", ".NK2", ".sfd", and
".xml". Possible one of these contains the folder structure and pointers to
file paths of the ".pst" files. The only one I can read is the ".xml" file
whose structure I am not fully aware of, but it seems to mirror the fact
that I have 5 folder groups: "Personal folders (default)", "Archive
folders", "Hotmail", "MSN", and the redundant "Personal Folders". From the
structure of the data I would guess that the redundant Personal Folders
files has an id=1, and the proper default Personal Folders has an id=5
(explaining, perhaps, why the ghost "Contacts" subfolder is listed before
the real "Contacts" folder. It would be possible to play around with this
file, though I would guess that one would also have to straighten up other
references such as the GUIDs that are attached (and which possibly also
appear in the registry file) [NB My computer (and everyone else's computer
is full of GUIDs many of which will be leftovers from previous OS's, prior
versions of applications, and results of temporary operations. Microsoft
neglected to attach any other meaningful data to these to associate their
individual purpose, or seems to have any thought about how this info can be
cleared out!]


It would be very useful, in the circumstances, to have a utility [Perhaps
someone with Outlook programming experience has already produced something
like this] which recognized corrupted data (absence of abjects/pointers) and
generally allowed one to remove things that would otherwise be protected in
normal use. Provided that one knew the data structure of the appropriate
files, it wouldn't be a particularly cumbersome task to produce such a
program.

John Tempest