Multiple Personal Folders and Contacts

[Christine]

I am running Windows XP Professional and Office Professional 2003. I attempted to import my mail and contacts from my Outlook 2002 PST file. This worked, but now I have 3 Personal Folders listed (they are really the same folder, since whatever I do to an item in one personal folder, shows up in the others). I also have 2 versions of Contacts, one named "Contacts" and another named "Contacts in Personal Folders"

Whenever I try to address a message, the contacts cannot be found; the error message reads: "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 Office Outlook Help." After I click OK, the Select Names dialog box appears, and I can select from 3 lists "Outlook Address Book", "Contacts", and "Contacts" again. Selecting the 2nd "Contacts" list displays my names

Every time I exit Outlook, I must go through this again to adress my e-mail messages. I have 3 questions relating to this

1) How do I get Outlook to start with a blank new data file (PST) with only one Personal Folders? I tried removing the PST files, but Outlook will not start without one

2) How do I properly import my messages from the existing PST file without getting duplicate Personal Folders and duplicate Contacts

3) How do I make sure that Outlook will use my Contacts list for addressing e-mail without having to tell it to do so each time

Any help that could be provided would be greatly appreciated

Christin

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Yuck. Now you see why we say over and over again: never import a PST file.
Just reuse the one you were using before.
You didn't provide enough information to unravel your mess.
Do you still have your old PST file? If so, just create configure Outlook to
use the old PST file as its data file.
- Go to Tools > Options > Mail Setup > Data Files > Add...
- Add the PST you'd like as your new default, then Close > OK to exit the
Options dialog
- Go to Tools > E-mail Accounts > View or change existing e-mail accounts
- Select the PST you just added in the "Deliver New e-mail to the following
location" dropdown (it will most likely appear just below the current
default Personal Folders file) > Finish
- Exit and Restart Outlook
- You can now close the previous default PST (R-click on that pst folder
while in Folder View and select "Close <foldername> Folders"). If you have
any information in your former PST that you'd like to transfer to your new
default PST, you can drag and drop from one to the other before you close
the old one.

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I am running Windows XP Professional and Office Professional 2003. I

attempted to import my mail and contacts from my Outlook 2002 PST file. This
worked, but now I have 3 Personal Folders listed (they are really the same
folder, since whatever I do to an item in one personal folder, shows up in
the others). I also have 2 versions of Contacts, one named "Contacts" and
another named "Contacts in Personal Folders".

Whenever I try to address a message, the contacts cannot be found; the

error message reads: "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
Office Outlook Help." After I click OK, the Select Names dialog box appears,
and I can select from 3 lists "Outlook Address Book", "Contacts", and
"Contacts" again. Selecting the 2nd "Contacts" list displays my names.

Every time I exit Outlook, I must go through this again to adress my

e-mail messages. I have 3 questions relating to this:

1) How do I get Outlook to start with a blank new data file (PST) with

only one Personal Folders? I tried removing the PST files, but Outlook will
not start without one.

2) How do I properly import my messages from the existing PST file without

getting duplicate Personal Folders and duplicate Contacts?

3) How do I make sure that Outlook will use my Contacts list for

addressing e-mail without having to tell it to do so each time?

 

[Christine]

Russ:

Thanks for the help. Believe me, had I known this would happen, I would never have imported any folders!

I was able to follow all of your steps, but when I try to remove the old data folders I get the message "The operation failed. An object could not be found." So now I have an "OLD Folders" data folder, which is the data folder from my old PST file, and which looks perfect, with no duplicate, and 4 "Personal Folders" which are really the same folder shown 4 times. Any ideas on getting rid of that? Should I try using scanpst.exe?

Thanks, Christine

 

[Christine]

Russ

I was able to find another way to fix the problem of the multiple "Personal Folders"--I just created a new Mail Profile in the Control Panel, which created a fresh, new PST file. I then started Outlook with the new profile, opened the data file with my old folders, copied items into the Personal Folders in my new profile, then closed the old data file. Everything works perfectly now

Thanks, again

Christine

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Two choices. We can use the registry to blow away the extra PST file
references in your profile, or you can just create a new profile from
scratch and set it to use the correct PST. The latter is probably easier.
Your call.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ:

Thanks for the help. Believe me, had I known this would happen, I would

never have imported any folders!

I was able to follow all of your steps, but when I try to remove the old

data folders I get the message "The operation failed. An object could not be
found." So now I have an "OLD Folders" data folder, which is the data folder
from my old PST file, and which looks perfect, with no duplicate, and 4
"Personal Folders" which are really the same folder shown 4 times. Any ideas
on getting rid of that? Should I try using scanpst.exe?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Right. That was option two.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ:

I was able to find another way to fix the problem of the multiple

"Personal Folders"--I just created a new Mail Profile in the Control Panel,
which created a fresh, new PST file. I then started Outlook with the new
profile, opened the data file with my old folders, copied items into the
Personal Folders in my new profile, then closed the old data file.
Everything works perfectly now!

 

[Mark]

Russ,

I was having the same problem so I tried the solution mentioned here. I was able to set up my existing pst file as the default to which e-mail is delivered, etc. However when I tried to close the two (2) existing personal folders it gives me the error:

"The operation failed. An object could not be found."

It won't delete either of the othe personal folders.

Please help.

Thanks,

Mark

----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: -----

Right. That was option two.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ:

"Personal Folders"--I just created a new Mail Profile in the Control Panel,
which created a fresh, new PST file. I then started Outlook with the new
profile, opened the data file with my old folders, copied items into the
Personal Folders in my new profile, then closed the old data file.
Everything works perfectly now!

 

[Mark]

By the way, the version of Office I have is Office 2003 for Students and Teachers. The old (existing) pst file is from Office XP

----- Mark wrote: ----

Russ

I was having the same problem so I tried the solution mentioned here. I was able to set up my existing pst file as the default to which e-mail is delivered, etc. However when I tried to close the two (2) existing personal folders it gives me the error

"The operation failed. An object could not be found.

It won't delete either of the othe personal folders

Please help

Thanks

Mar

----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: ----

Right. That was option two
--
Russ Valentin
[MVP-Outlook

Russ

"Personal Folders"--I just created a new Mail Profile in the Control Panel
which created a fresh, new PST file. I then started Outlook with the ne
profile, opened the data file with my old folders, copied items into th
Personal Folders in my new profile, then closed the old data file
Everything works perfectly now

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

What steps did you use exactly? If you really created a new profile, those
old PST's that you can't close would not be in it.
What you should do is create a new profile from scratch. Configure your mail
accounts. This new profile wizard will force you to create a new (empty) PST
file by default. Once you open this profile, you can then configure it to
use your older PST as its default instead.

- Go to Tools > Options > Mail Setup > Data Files > Add...
- Add the PST you'd like as your new default, then Close > OK to exit the
Options dialog
- Go to Tools > E-mail Accounts > View or change existing e-mail accounts
- Select the PST you just added in the "Deliver New e-mail to the following
location" dropdown (it will most likely appear just below the current
default Personal Folders file) > Finish
- Exit and Restart Outlook
- You can now close the previous default PST (R-click on that pst folder
while in Folder View and select "Close <foldername> Folders").
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

I was having the same problem so I tried the solution mentioned here. I

was able to set up my existing pst file as the default to which e-mail is
delivered, etc. However when I tried to close the two (2) existing personal
folders it gives me the error:

"The operation failed. An object could not be found."

It won't delete either of the othe personal folders.

Please help.

Thanks,

Mark

----- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote: -----

Right. That was option two.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ:

"Personal Folders"--I just created a new Mail Profile in the Control Panel,
which created a fresh, new PST file. I then started Outlook with the new
profile, opened the data file with my old folders, copied items into the
Personal Folders in my new profile, then closed the old data file.
Everything works perfectly now!