Outlook Address Book Won't Show Contacts

V

vicmike

I have thoroughly reviewed, and tried, the various suggestions posted here,
and elsewhere in the Windows Community, for solving this problem. Nothing has
worked so far.

On a new machine, using VISTA and Outlook 2007, I used Windows Easy Transfer
to copy files from Windows XP & Outlook 2007. The new Outlook Address Book
(OAB) does not recognize the contacts information in the .pst file.

On the first try at transfer, the mail, tasks, and calendar info copied
successfully, and worked fine, but the Contacts info did not display. Based
on advice elsewhere on this forum, I concluded that the Contacts file was
probably in the wrong format, from being copied over from prior versions of
Office. I changed that as instructed, prepared a temporary .pst file, copied
that to the new machine, then cust & pasted that data from the temp .pst
Contacts display into the default .pst Contacts display. That process brought
all of my contacts into Outlook 2007 and in that location, the contact data
is all useable. (For example, from any contact card, I can create a new mail
message and the email address opens in a new message box.)

But, I still cannot open a new message and select an address from the OAB.
It is blank.

In Mail > File > Data File Management > Address Books Tab, the OAB is
displayed. However, it does not list itself when Change is clicked.

In Contacts > Properties > OAB tab, the "Show this folder as an OAB" is
grayed out.

Research here took me to this page:

Contacts are not available in the Address Book
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/contactsinaddressbook.htm

This page accurately describes the problem, and ends with the advice to
"recreate your mail profile," because the OAB service is corrupted.

That leads to these instructions:

Adding/Recreating a Mail Profile
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

I created a new mail profile, but the problem remains identical. So I am at
a deadend.

--vicmike 7/24/08
 
V

vicmike

Ok, in detail:

From Outlook 2007, Mail – Tools > Options > Mail Setup Tab > Account
Settings Email Accounts > Email Tab > New > Choose MS Exchange Etc. Button >
Fill in personal Data in Auto Account Setup > [Wizard successfully completes
POP-3 email account setup] > Finish > Back to Account Settings > Select newly
created profile and set as default for sending email > Restart Outlook.

The new profile opens using the already-existing default .pst file, the same
one that was previously transferred by Windows Easy Transfer (WET). So it
retains the original problem; the Outlook Address Book does not recognize or
display any of the Contacts. So, I presume that the newly created profile is
now already corrupted??

--vicmike


Russ Valentine said:
Creating a new profile is the only way to fix the corruption caused by WET,
and it does work if you do it correctly. Tell us how you created a new
profile. Make sure you gave it a unique name.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
vicmike said:
I have thoroughly reviewed, and tried, the various suggestions posted here,
and elsewhere in the Windows Community, for solving this problem. Nothing
has
worked so far.

On a new machine, using VISTA and Outlook 2007, I used Windows Easy
Transfer
to copy files from Windows XP & Outlook 2007. The new Outlook Address Book
(OAB) does not recognize the contacts information in the .pst file.

On the first try at transfer, the mail, tasks, and calendar info copied
successfully, and worked fine, but the Contacts info did not display.
Based
on advice elsewhere on this forum, I concluded that the Contacts file was
probably in the wrong format, from being copied over from prior versions
of
Office. I changed that as instructed, prepared a temporary .pst file,
copied
that to the new machine, then cust & pasted that data from the temp .pst
Contacts display into the default .pst Contacts display. That process
brought
all of my contacts into Outlook 2007 and in that location, the contact
data
is all useable. (For example, from any contact card, I can create a new
mail
message and the email address opens in a new message box.)

But, I still cannot open a new message and select an address from the OAB.
It is blank.

In Mail > File > Data File Management > Address Books Tab, the OAB is
displayed. However, it does not list itself when Change is clicked.

In Contacts > Properties > OAB tab, the "Show this folder as an OAB" is
grayed out.

Research here took me to this page:

Contacts are not available in the Address Book
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/contactsinaddressbook.htm

This page accurately describes the problem, and ends with the advice to
"recreate your mail profile," because the OAB service is corrupted.

That leads to these instructions:

Adding/Recreating a Mail Profile
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

I created a new mail profile, but the problem remains identical. So I am
at
a deadend.

--vicmike 7/24/08
 
B

Brian Tillman

vicmike said:
On a new machine, using VISTA and Outlook 2007, I used Windows Easy
Transfer to copy files from Windows XP & Outlook 2007. The new
Outlook Address Book (OAB) does not recognize the contacts
information in the .pst file.

There's the problem. Easy Transfer Wizard fails to create a viable mail
profile. You'll need to create one yourself manually.
http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm
 
G

G. Smith

"You'll need to create one yourself manually"

I created a new profile. It did not correct the problem. Who knows the fix?
 
J

Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)

A

ants pants

In the left hand pane where you find the inboc, contacts, sent items etc ..

*Right click on "contacts" (A dialog box will op[en called "Contacts Properties"
*Click the tab that says "Outlook Address Book"
*Tick the box that says "Show this folder as an email address book"
 
G

Gordon

In the left hand pane where you find the inboc, contacts, sent items etc
..

*Right click on "contacts" (A dialog box will op[en called "Contacts
Properties"
*Click the tab that says "Outlook Address Book"
*Tick the box that says "Show this folder as an email address book"


Posted and mailed

To whom are you talking and about what?
The "forum" that you are posting in leaches off the Microsoft News servers
in order to make it look far busier than it really is. Everyone who uses the
MS News servers sees your post on it's own - we have NO IDEA what you are
talking about and to whom you are talking.

This is not your fault - the fault lies with the forum owners who do not
explain to members that their posts end up on global Usenet newsgroups.
If you MUST continue to post in this "forum" then please at least quote the
post you are replying to, and do NOT change the subject line.

You would be far better off however, using a news reader and subscribing to
these news groups direct.

Setting up Outlook Express/Windows Mail to access Microsoft newsgroups
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Accessing the MS newsgroups in Outlook Express/Windows Mail Newsreader
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroupsetup.mspx


Thank you
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top