Outlook 2003 Contacts corrupt

[UK User]

With no obvious cause the Contacts folder on my Mum's computer appears to
have become corrupt. All other Outlook folders are fine. She is unable to use
addresses for new email messages, some data is missing, the Contacts cannot
be exported, syncing with a PDA does not work. We have tried scanpst (does
not complete) and scndsk with no success. From what I can see in this forum
the only solution may be to create a new pst file and export all other intact
Outlook data to it. Then use this file to replace the current one (I assume
by simply dragging it into the appropriate folder) and then syncing with the
pda to restore the missing entries.

Any thoughts on this or advice would be welcome. Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Nowhere would you see a recommendation to create a new PST file nor to
export Outlook data. Nowhere would you see a recommendation to overwrite a
PST file. Nothing would corrupt your installation more quickly. Perhaps you
have provided a clue as to why your installation is corrupt if you think any
of these is a solution.
Provide a more accurate description of the problem you are having and what
steps lead up to it.

 

[UK User]

Well actually Russ...
"You need a new PST, I suspect. Create a new one with File>New>Outlook Data
File. Make it your delivery location (exactly how is version-specific and you
decided mentioning your version wasn't important). Then copy the data that's
still good from the folders in the old PST to the corresponding folders in the
new PST and close the old PST when finished. You'll simply leave the bad data
behind in the old PST you won't use any more.
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook] "

In answer to your question there was no obvious cause for the corruption so
no obvious steps to report unless creating an email message is particularly
unusual. Anyway for whatever cause the Contacts has become corrupt and I was
hoping someone such as yourself might have a suggestion as opposed to a
slightly superior tone. It would be much appreciated.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You have provided no evidence for your claim that "the Contacts has become
corrupt." As I said, a more complete and accurate description of what works
and what doesn't is a prerequisite to providing the correct solution. Simply
creating a new PST file is rarely a solution for anything. Note that the
description you posted contains none of the steps you proposed.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Well actually Russ...
"You need a new PST, I suspect. Create a new one with File>New>Outlook Data
File.

I certainly did not include any indication in my advice that you should "use
this file to replace the current one" by "simply dragging it into the
appropriate folder." I gave fairly explicit instructions without knowing the
version of Outlook of the person to whom I wrote that recommendation. I have
no way to tell if that person was you or not. Since you say SCANPST fails,
there may indeed be no way to recover the contacts and you may need to create
a new PST in order to get a working Contacts folder, but it would help if you
described what's missing or malfunctioning more clearly.

 

[UK User]

Thanks.

All I can describe is that a large folder of Contacts is not not showing all
the entries. If the "To" button is pressed in an email the message "The
address book could not be displayed’ comes up. The Contacts folder cannot be
exported as an error occurs and the same happens if a repair with scnpst is
attempted. Sync with a pda fails for Contacts. All these factors lead lead me
to suspect the Contacts folder is corrupted in some way. I don't know what
other information I can provide which would help? We have a backup of the pst
file but unfortunately is is a few months old.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

My conclusion would be that your Outlook Address Book Service is corrupt,
not your Contacts. It is not unusual for the Outlook Address Book to “lose
track†of the connection to its Contacts Folder when you move or import your
PST or update your Outlook version or operating system. Use the following
steps to reset the connection. Note that in some instances you may actually
have to remove the Outlook Address Book completely from your Profile, close
Outlook, and then re-add it before you can get it to work.

For Outlook 2002/2003:
Make sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right
click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is
the box to enable as email address book checked?
If this is grayed out...Go to Tools | Email Accounts, choose View or change
existing directories or address book. Is the Outlook Address Book present?
If it isn't listed, add it and close and restart Outlook. If it is listed,
then remove it and close then restart Outlook and repeat these steps to add
it.

For Outlook 2007, you add and repair the address book service using a
different steps:
Tools > Account Settings > Address Book Tab. Is the Outlook Address Book
present? If it isn't listed, add it and close and restart Outlook. If it is
listed, then you can no longer repair this service by removing and re-adding
it. Instead you must create an entire new Outlook profile from scratch and
add the Outlook address book service to it.

More details available here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;287563&Product=ol2002

 

[UK User]

Thanks but I think we have already tried that as a KB article recommendation
to fix "The address book could not be displayed" error. We will try again
though just in case. It is frustrating as we have already spent 3 hours and
various Google searches trying to find a solution before I tried this forum.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Based just on the following problems you describe:

#1 - Error occurs on export of folder
#2 - ScanPST cannot complete
#3 - Sync fails

There is a very high probability that an error occured during a "PDA Sync"
which resulted in a corrupt PST file - similar problems have been reported
here more than once but not typically to the degree you have encountered.
The primary reason for mentioning this is that <IF> this is indeed the
case - the issue is not one that was/is caused by Outlook but rather by the
Sync software which has corrupted the Outlook data (PST) file (Outlook takes
absolutely no part in the <external> Sync process which is what actually
updates the PST file).

One thing you may wish to try is to simply create an entirely new profile
and add the original PST to it. If the PST is indeed corrupt (as is more
than likely the case given that ScanPST fails indicating a really serious
problem) - you will run into the same issue with the new profile in terms of
accessing the contacts (Sync excluded for this exercise). This exercise is
merely to exclude everything else (corrupt profile/OAB Service etc) and
confirm that the PST file is indeed corrupt in which case creating a new PST
file and salvaging as much info as possible from the original would seem to
be the logical conclusion to this problem (NOT by EXPORTING but by <copying>
the data from one folder to another for all folders involved).

Karl
___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[UK User]

Thanks. That sounds like an excellent strategy. It's a very basic question
but assuming we confirm that the pst file is corrupt how would we COPY the
good data to the new pst and how would we then use this new pst to replace
the corrupt version.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

First, for the sake of this discussion, we are dealing with an otherwise
generic installation of Outlook with only the default folders in play given
no info to the contrary. If you have additional folders, custom forms etc
etc - you'll need to deal with those in addition to the steps below (as a
precaution - backup up your original PST file so you have a copy should the
need arise for any reason):


#1 - Create a new profile letting it create a new PST file with all the
requisite default folders (your new PST file will be named Outlook#.pst
(actual number will depend on how many new PST files have ever been
created). If it's anything other than Outlook1.pst - suggest you make sure
that you what the actual file name is of the original corrupt PST file
(which would otherwise be Outlook.pst). You'll need to open your original
profile --> right-click on the root of the original PST file -->
Properties --> Advanced (you'll see the full path and file name for that PST
file)

#2 - With Outlook started using the newly created profile using the newly
created PST file - from file menu --> Open --> Outlook Data File (opening
the original PST file)

#3 - At this point - you will now have 2 PST files open in your Outlook
session which under normal circumstances are going to look identical with
the same folder structure - lets call new PST - "PN" and the old one "PO"
for this exercise. Go to the FolderView in the Nav pane so you can see all
folders. The process for each folder would be as follows - will use Contacts
in this case but same for other folders such as Inbox etc

***Since this is dealing with a corrupted PST file with the objective being
to recover as much info as possible - going to suggest a somewhat longer
approach. It is very possible that only one or just a few items (i.e. one or
more contact items are totally corrupt but the rest may all still be ok - it
may strictly depend on what is being accessed inside the file - no way to
know for sure)

a) Expand the contacts folder from the "PO" file
b) highlight a nominal number of contacts (don't know how big your folders
are so everything is relative) - highlight a batch by highlighting one
contact - hold shift key down - click on the contact at the end of the group
you want to deal with (i.e. 10 just to start to see what happens)
c) once the contacts are highlighted - right-click --> Move To Folder
(selecting Contact folder in "PN")

*** if you find that some contacts are moved but it stops at some point -
redo steps a) thru c) selecting the next contact next after the contact that
didn't get moved and see if that one works. If it doesn't, would try 5 or 6
more after that. If all of those fail, move to the bottom of the contact
list and highlight a few at the end to see if those move etc. Hopefully you
get the idea.

Rinse and repeat the above until done for all folders. The degree to which
you will be able to recover any data strictly depends on what exactly has
been corrupted inside the PST file. Worst case scenario is obvious but you
may also end up with almost all your data getting moved over.

Once all that is complete - right-click on "PO" and close the PST file
removing it from the profile and proceed accordingly. You're done with the
old PST file at this point.

Good luck.

Karl
___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

With no steps to repro, the troubleshooting steps for errors like this would
be, in order:
1. Repair the Outlook Address Book Service (where we started since you never
bothered to include what you'd already tried)
2. Repair the PST file using the Inbox Repair Tool
3. Create a new Outlook profile
4. Create a new PST file, set it as your default, then copy the data from
your old PST file to the new. Close the old.

 

[UK User]

Thanks for that detailed response. I'll have a go.