Single categories instead of combined

[mamikast]

Outlook used to show my list of contacts by individual categories, which made
it easy to find contacts. Now the contacts list shows combined categories
only. What used to appear as just "Friends," now appears 3 separate times:
"Friends," "Friends, Holiday Cards," and "Friends, Holiday Cards,
Neighborhood." If I click on "Friends," not all those that are categorized
as friends show up in that single category -- I have to find in which
combined category they are. This is very frustrating! Has Microsoft
recently changed Outlook, or did I accidentally hit the wrong button?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

"Used to" and "Now" tells us there is a lot of information you know that you
haven't told us. What happened between "used to" and Now?" To what Outlook
version and view are you "now" referring?

 

[mamikast]

It's Outlook 2002 (10.6515.6817) SP3. When I open Outlook, and then click on
the contacts button, this is where I see the list of categories for my
contacts.

It used to look like:
+category: Book Club(10 items)
+category: Friends(__ items)
+category: Holiday Cards(__ items)
+category: Neighborhood(__ items)
etc.

It now looks like:
+categories: Book Club, Friends, Holiday Cards(2 items)
+categories: Book Club, Holidays Cards, Neighborhood(7 items)
+categories: Book club, neighborhood(1 item)
etc.

So if I want to find all members of the book club, I have to go to 3
different places instead of 1.

My computer did automatic Windows updates this last Friday the 13th. I
don't remember seeing this change happen until after those updates.
Strangely, though, I did a system restore (a couple of days ago) to a point
about a week before those updates, and Outlook still showed combined
categories rather than single categories. This is why I'm wondering whether
I hit a wrong option somewhere.

Since the system restore didn't fix my problem, I "undid" that restore
already.

Thanks for any help or info you can provide!

mamikast

"Used to" and "Now" tells us there is a lot of information you know that you
haven't told us. What happened between "used to" and Now?" To what Outlook
version and view are you "now" referring?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Outlook used to show my list of contacts by individual categories, which
made
it easy to find contacts. Now the contacts list shows combined categories
only. What used to appear as just "Friends," now appears 3 separate
times:
"Friends," "Friends, Holiday Cards," and "Friends, Holiday Cards,
Neighborhood." If I click on "Friends," not all those that are
categorized
as friends show up in that single category -- I have to find in which
combined category they are. This is very frustrating! Has Microsoft
recently changed Outlook, or did I accidentally hit the wrong button?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

So this is the "By Category" view of your default Contacts Folder, then,
right? And you think an automatic update of Windows XP did this? Hard to
imagine. Any other changes you've made to Office or Outlook? Do you run
synch software against this file?
System Restore is not a good way to repair a data file. It's a good way to
make things worse. Do you back up your data? Have you tried to repair this
file with the Inbox Repair Tool?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It's Outlook 2002 (10.6515.6817) SP3. When I open Outlook, and then click
on
the contacts button, this is where I see the list of categories for my
contacts.

It used to look like:
+category: Book Club(10 items)
+category: Friends(__ items)
+category: Holiday Cards(__ items)
+category: Neighborhood(__ items)
etc.

It now looks like:
+categories: Book Club, Friends, Holiday Cards(2 items)
+categories: Book Club, Holidays Cards, Neighborhood(7 items)
+categories: Book club, neighborhood(1 item)
etc.

So if I want to find all members of the book club, I have to go to 3
different places instead of 1.

My computer did automatic Windows updates this last Friday the 13th. I
don't remember seeing this change happen until after those updates.
Strangely, though, I did a system restore (a couple of days ago) to a
point
about a week before those updates, and Outlook still showed combined
categories rather than single categories. This is why I'm wondering
whether
I hit a wrong option somewhere.

Since the system restore didn't fix my problem, I "undid" that restore
already.

Thanks for any help or info you can provide!

mamikast

"Used to" and "Now" tells us there is a lot of information you know that
you
haven't told us. What happened between "used to" and Now?" To what
Outlook
version and view are you "now" referring?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Outlook used to show my list of contacts by individual categories,
which
made
it easy to find contacts. Now the contacts list shows combined
categories
only. What used to appear as just "Friends," now appears 3 separate
times:
"Friends," "Friends, Holiday Cards," and "Friends, Holiday Cards,
Neighborhood." If I click on "Friends," not all those that are
categorized
as friends show up in that single category -- I have to find in which
combined category they are. This is very frustrating! Has Microsoft
recently changed Outlook, or did I accidentally hit the wrong button?

 

[mamikast]

Yes, it's the "By Category" view. And yes, I did make an update to my synch
software on the 7th for my Blackberry. I don't always look at my contacts
every day, so probably didn't notice the change until coincidentally after
the Windows update.

Interestingly, if the synch software update made this change to Outlook, it
did not make the same change on the Blackberry itself (it still shows
categories singly).

I just ran the Inbox Repair Tool. It said there were 858 items needing
repair. After it was done, I checked Outlook, and the categories are still
combined on the contacts page.

Should I contact RIM to help figure this out? Or is there anything else I
should do first/instead?

Thanks!

mamikast

So this is the "By Category" view of your default Contacts Folder, then,
right? And you think an automatic update of Windows XP did this? Hard to
imagine. Any other changes you've made to Office or Outlook? Do you run
synch software against this file?
System Restore is not a good way to repair a data file. It's a good way to
make things worse. Do you back up your data? Have you tried to repair this
file with the Inbox Repair Tool?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It's Outlook 2002 (10.6515.6817) SP3. When I open Outlook, and then click
on
the contacts button, this is where I see the list of categories for my
contacts.

It used to look like:
+category: Book Club(10 items)
+category: Friends(__ items)
+category: Holiday Cards(__ items)
+category: Neighborhood(__ items)
etc.

It now looks like:
+categories: Book Club, Friends, Holiday Cards(2 items)
+categories: Book Club, Holidays Cards, Neighborhood(7 items)
+categories: Book club, neighborhood(1 item)
etc.

So if I want to find all members of the book club, I have to go to 3
different places instead of 1.

My computer did automatic Windows updates this last Friday the 13th. I
don't remember seeing this change happen until after those updates.
Strangely, though, I did a system restore (a couple of days ago) to a
point
about a week before those updates, and Outlook still showed combined
categories rather than single categories. This is why I'm wondering
whether
I hit a wrong option somewhere.

Since the system restore didn't fix my problem, I "undid" that restore
already.

Thanks for any help or info you can provide!

mamikast

"Used to" and "Now" tells us there is a lot of information you know that
you
haven't told us. What happened between "used to" and Now?" To what
Outlook
version and view are you "now" referring?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Outlook used to show my list of contacts by individual categories,
which
made
it easy to find contacts. Now the contacts list shows combined
categories
only. What used to appear as just "Friends," now appears 3 separate
times:
"Friends," "Friends, Holiday Cards," and "Friends, Holiday Cards,
Neighborhood." If I click on "Friends," not all those that are
categorized
as friends show up in that single category -- I have to find in which
combined category they are. This is very frustrating! Has Microsoft
recently changed Outlook, or did I accidentally hit the wrong button?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I haven't seen this behavior described anywhere. Synchronization software is
always the first suspect when things like this happen "for no reason." It's
the one of the many reasons to make frequent backups of your data.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Yes, it's the "By Category" view. And yes, I did make an update to my
synch
software on the 7th for my Blackberry. I don't always look at my contacts
every day, so probably didn't notice the change until coincidentally after
the Windows update.

Interestingly, if the synch software update made this change to Outlook,
it
did not make the same change on the Blackberry itself (it still shows
categories singly).

I just ran the Inbox Repair Tool. It said there were 858 items needing
repair. After it was done, I checked Outlook, and the categories are
still
combined on the contacts page.

Should I contact RIM to help figure this out? Or is there anything else I
should do first/instead?

Thanks!

mamikast

So this is the "By Category" view of your default Contacts Folder, then,
right? And you think an automatic update of Windows XP did this? Hard to
imagine. Any other changes you've made to Office or Outlook? Do you run
synch software against this file?
System Restore is not a good way to repair a data file. It's a good way
to
make things worse. Do you back up your data? Have you tried to repair
this
file with the Inbox Repair Tool?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

It's Outlook 2002 (10.6515.6817) SP3. When I open Outlook, and then
click
on
the contacts button, this is where I see the list of categories for my
contacts.

It used to look like:
+category: Book Club(10 items)
+category: Friends(__ items)
+category: Holiday Cards(__ items)
+category: Neighborhood(__ items)
etc.

It now looks like:
+categories: Book Club, Friends, Holiday Cards(2 items)
+categories: Book Club, Holidays Cards, Neighborhood(7 items)
+categories: Book club, neighborhood(1 item)
etc.

So if I want to find all members of the book club, I have to go to 3
different places instead of 1.

My computer did automatic Windows updates this last Friday the 13th. I
don't remember seeing this change happen until after those updates.
Strangely, though, I did a system restore (a couple of days ago) to a
point
about a week before those updates, and Outlook still showed combined
categories rather than single categories. This is why I'm wondering
whether
I hit a wrong option somewhere.

Since the system restore didn't fix my problem, I "undid" that restore
already.

Thanks for any help or info you can provide!

mamikast

:

"Used to" and "Now" tells us there is a lot of information you know
that
you
haven't told us. What happened between "used to" and Now?" To what
Outlook
version and view are you "now" referring?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Outlook used to show my list of contacts by individual categories,
which
made
it easy to find contacts. Now the contacts list shows combined
categories
only. What used to appear as just "Friends," now appears 3 separate
times:
"Friends," "Friends, Holiday Cards," and "Friends, Holiday Cards,
Neighborhood." If I click on "Friends," not all those that are
categorized
as friends show up in that single category -- I have to find in
which
combined category they are. This is very frustrating! Has
Microsoft
recently changed Outlook, or did I accidentally hit the wrong
button?