Outlook contacts dissappeared

[TJ]

Having had to do a multiple restore for XP for the
umpteenth time. The last time all the contacts in my
Outlook 2000 disappeared. I tried re-importing,
reinstalling all to no avail. I right-clicked the
contacts in Outlook bar and the Outlook Address Book tabl
where it says show this folder as an email address book is
greyed out and cannot be checked. Any ideas, cause
otherwise I've lost 3 years of contacts and I'm going back
to W98.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

If you would like to post an accurate description of what you did and why,
we could try to troubleshoot. What you've posted is simply a rambling rant
that provides no clues. It also appears that your issues are more with the
operating system than with Outlook.

 

[TJ]

Sorry for the rant but I'm frustrated since I read every post in outlook about contacts disappearing before I posted. All I did was go to restore using system restore to a good point. Then reinstalled office. Opened Outlook and all came in except contacts and address book. Contacts is blank and Outlook Address Book tab in properties is greyed out. If I open Address Book under tools there is a little contacts icon in the left window where the names should be. The only error message I get is that i should run the inbox repair tool and I cannot locate that because i have XP on a partition (OEM) and no disks. If I open Address Book, under tools>accounts there is nothing in the Internet Accounts>Directory Service. I do not have my internet connected to avoid new emails while I resolve this and to avoid getting anything else I don't want. I tried to import but there appear to be no .iaf files even after a search. I am using my laptop to post.

 

[TJ]

Oh yeah. Half my calendar entries disappeared. Anything that was a recurring stayed. Single items disappeared. I even tried importing my backup .pst since I always back up important files. Same problem. If I import the same file into one of my laptops not running XP, no problems encountered. If it's an XP problem, I'll go to that group, but I don't know which problem it is.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

But what made you run system restore and then reinstall Office? That's a
pretty draconian solution for most problems. Rather hard to recover anything
after that.
Have you searched for all your PST files and opened each until you found
your Contacts data? Why can't you add the Outlook Address Book? Why can't
you locate the Inbox Repair Tool?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Sorry for the rant but I'm frustrated since I read every post in outlook

about contacts disappearing before I posted. All I did was go to restore
using system restore to a good point. Then reinstalled office. Opened
Outlook and all came in except contacts and address book. Contacts is blank
and Outlook Address Book tab in properties is greyed out. If I open Address
Book under tools there is a little contacts icon in the left window where
the names should be. The only error message I get is that i should run the
inbox repair tool and I cannot locate that because i have XP on a partition
(OEM) and no disks. If I open Address Book, under tools>accounts there is
nothing in the Internet Accounts>Directory Service. I do not have my
internet connected to avoid new emails while I resolve this and to avoid
getting anything else I don't want. I tried to import but there appear to
be no .iaf files even after a search. I am using my laptop to post.

 

[TJ]

Despite having downloaded all patches, running ICF, running Norton AV and Qwikfix, I had a virus. Used system restore to go back to a basic restore point where everything worked. I did undo system restore before doing that so as not to bring the worm (GAOBOT) with me. Restored system restore. However, the restore point was before I had loaded in Office. I did try every .pst file listed (did a search in WE). None worked. I then went to my back up files to restore those. I get everything but the Address book. I did follow all the posts in the XP group to get rid of the virus. Now everything is back but contacts Address Book. It won't even accept new contacts. I've rerun virus scan just to ensure I don't have something else...worm, trojan, virus, spyware. I'm at a loss.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

There is no address book. The address book is just a view of your Contacts.
If you have you Contacts, you have all your data.
Just reconfigure your Outlook Address Book.
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 OS. Use the following steps to reset the connection,
depending on your Outlook version. 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.

Outlook 2000, Corp/Workgroup:
Go to Tools > Services. Make sure the Outlook Address Book service is
listed. If not, add it. Next, R click on the Contact folder or folders you
want the OAB to display, choose "Properties", go to the Outlook Address Book
tab and check the "Show this folder as an E-mail address book" box. You may
also need to go to Tools > Options > Addressing Tab and choose to show your
Contacts folder.

Outlook 2002:
Go to Tools | E-mail accounts, select "View or change existing directories
or address books", and click OK. If you don't see the OAB in the Directories
and Address Books list, click the Back button, then select "Add a new
directory or address book", then "Additional Address Books", and add the
OAB. Then keep clicking Back until you get back to the first dialog box,
and go back to the Directories and Address Books list as you did earlier.
Once the OAB appears in the list, select it and then click Change to make
sure the Contacts folder(s) you want to display are listed. If any of them
aren't listed, you'll need to enable those Contacts folders as Outlook
Address Books by right clicking the folder, selecting Properties, clicking
the Outlook Address Book tab, and checking the "Show this folder as an
E-mail address book" box. Make sure you restart Outlook after making these
changes.




--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Despite having downloaded all patches, running ICF, running Norton AV and

Qwikfix, I had a virus. Used system restore to go back to a basic restore
point where everything worked. I did undo system restore before doing that
so as not to bring the worm (GAOBOT) with me. Restored system restore.
However, the restore point was before I had loaded in Office. I did try
every .pst file listed (did a search in WE). None worked. I then went to
my back up files to restore those. I get everything but the Address book.
I did follow all the posts in the XP group to get rid of the virus. Now
everything is back but contacts Address Book. It won't even accept new
contacts. I've rerun virus scan just to ensure I don't have something
else...worm, trojan, virus, spyware. I'm at a loss.

 

[TJ]

I apologize if you see my post in another place. The cursor was not where I thought it was. I have Outlook under email only, so I do not have a services tab. If I go to Tools>Options> Preferences>Email>email options, even the put contacts in this folder is greyed out. If I right click on Contacts go to Properties>OAB> Show this folder... it's greyed out.
By the way, where's the Inbox Repair Tool. I have an OEM XP system so no disks

Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

IMO mode has the Outlook Address Book enabled by default. You can't disable
it. The box is greyed out, but I bet it's checked, isn't it?
You should have mentioned you were using IMO. It's a completely different
program. You cannot repair the Address Book in IMO.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I apologize if you see my post in another place. The cursor was not where

I thought it was. I have Outlook under email only, so I do not have a
services tab. If I go to Tools>Options> Preferences>Email>email options,
even the put contacts in this folder is greyed out. If I right click on
Contacts go to Properties>OAB> Show this folder... it's greyed out.

 

[TJ]

Thanks for getting back to me. If I can't repair it and I've lost all those contacts is there something I did or didn't do that caused this problem? I'd like to know so I can prevent this from happening again. I ask because I have another PC in my office that I need to upgrade, well, was planning to upgrade to XP which would mean installing Outlook and having it open the PST file. If this person loses all his contacts, he'll kill me.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

There is no way you could lose Contacts through the Outlook Address Book
configuration. No data is ever stored in the Outlook Address Book. All data
resides in the Contacts Folder and always has. The only way you can lose
Contacts data from a PST file is to reformat your hard drive or do something
that would thoroughly corrupt your PST file, like rename it or overwrite it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks for getting back to me. If I can't repair it and I've lost all

those contacts is there something I did or didn't do that caused this
problem? I'd like to know so I can prevent this from happening again. I ask
because I have another PC in my office that I need to upgrade, well, was
planning to upgrade to XP which would mean installing Outlook and having it
open the PST file. If this person loses all his contacts, he'll kill me.