Suggested Contacts List Did Not Import NK2 Contacts in Outlook 201

[Aakash Shah]

I just upgraded to Outlook 2010. I've read that the NK2 file is no longer
being used and that the Suggested Contacts is instead supposed to be used.

After the upgrade, I noticed that my NK2 file has been renamed to
name.nk2.old. When I start typing names in Outlook, I am getting the same
suggestions that I got before and so everything appears to be working well.
However, I don't see any of my contacts from the NK2 file in the Suggested
Contacts folder.

Also, as a test I sent an email to someone that wasn't in my NK2 file before
and it was successfully added to my Suggested Contacts folder.

My questions are:
1. Why didn't my contacts from the NK2 file correctly import into Suggested
Contacts folder?
2. Where are cached email addresses that I am being presented being stored
and referenced from?

Thanks!

 

[Aakash Shah]

I also attempted to remove the old NK2 file that was renamed, and the
nickname cache still works. So, I don't see where Outlook 2010 is
referencing the email cache from since none are listed in my Suggested
Contacts folder.

Also, please let me know what went wrong in my migration?

Thanks.

 

[James Luo]

Please refer the following resource for troubleshooting:
How to import .nk2 files into Outlook 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542
Outlook 2010 NK2 Data
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/office2010/thread/54fdd8fd-a0e
0-4b8d-9a3e-16c076d24923

 

[Aakash Shah]

Per James Luo's suggestion, I tried to run outlook /importnk2 after I renamed
my .nk2.old file back to .nk2 as indicated at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542. However, this didn't work either.
My nk2 file was successfully renamed back to nk2.old, but I don't see any
items in the suggested contacts list.

 

[James Luo]

Please copy the NK2 to another outlook 2007 client, and see if the file
still works
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA100978871033.aspx#4

Per my knowledge, there's no way to determine the integrity of the NK2
officially in the outlook 2007. However, I found some third party tools
that may be able to help you. Please backup an original copy of the NK2
file before perform any action

Ingressor tool (Repair NK2 file)
http://www.ingressor.com/
NK2.info/ NK2View (View, and export the contact information from NK2 file)
http://www.nk2.info/
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/outlook_nk2_autocomplete.html

Note: Microsoft provides third party tool information to help you find
technical support. Microsoft does not control the utilities and hasn't
tested them; therefore, Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding
the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found
there. There are inherent dangers in the use of any software found on the
Internet, and Microsoft cautions you to make sure that you completely
understand the risk before retrieving any software from the Internet

 

[Slipstick]

I just upgraded to Outlook 2010. I've read that the NK2 file is no
longer
being used and that the Suggested Contacts is instead supposed to be
used.

After the upgrade, I noticed that my NK2 file has been renamed to
name.nk2.old. When I start typing names in Outlook, I am getting the
same
suggestions that I got before and so everything appears to be working
well.
However, I don't see any of my contacts from the NK2 file in the
Suggested
Contacts folder.

Also, as a test I sent an email to someone that wasn't in my NK2 file
before
and it was successfully added to my Suggested Contacts folder.

My questions are:
1. Why didn't my contacts from the NK2 file correctly import into
Suggested
Contacts folder?
2. Where are cached email addresses that I am being presented being
stored
and referenced from?

Thanks!

You are miing apples and oranges. The nk2 was imported into the hidden
message that now serves as the nickname cache, so all old addresses that
were in the NK2 are still available when you type in the To field. The
suggested contacts is a separate Contacts folder containing contacts
autocreated when you sent a message to an address NOT in your address
books. Importing the NK2 does not autogrnerate suggested contacts.


--
Slipstick

'Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center' (http://www.slipstick.com)

'Outlook Tips' (http://www.outlook-tips.net/)

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Per James Luo's suggestion, I tried to run outlook /importnk2 after I
renamed
my .nk2.old file back to .nk2 as indicated at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542. However, this didn't work either.
My nk2 file was successfully renamed back to nk2.old, but I don't see any
items in the suggested contacts list.

The file TYPE of that file must be ".nk2" and the file NAME of that file must
match exactly your mail profile name. Thus, renaming it to "nk2.old" will
make it just another file that about which Outlook doesn't care. If your mail
profile is, say, "AakashMail", then name the file AaakashMail.nk2

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

The file TYPE of that file must be ".nk2" and the file NAME of that file
must match exactly your mail profile name. Thus, renaming it to "nk2.old"
will make it just another file that about which Outlook doesn't care. If
your mail profile is, say, "AakashMail", then name the file AaakashMail.nk2

Didn't see "2010" when I posted this. It was cut off in the subject. Sorry.

 

[Aakash Shah]

Hi James! Thanks for the information. I was able to successfully use the
nk2 file on another computer with Outlook 2007. I was also able to open the
nk2 file in nk2view and export it. So, it appears that the nk2 file is
correctly intact. While I can use this exported file to import the contacts
into the suggested contact list, I'd like to find the root cause of this
problem since I'm sure a few few of my users will encounter this problem too
and so I'd like to address this problem before we consider deploying Outlook
2010.

Thanks.

 

[Aakash Shah]

Slipstick: Thanks for the information. What confuses me is that on my work
computer (Exchange profile), the suggested contacts list appears to have
imported my nk2 cache. Do you know why the "Suggested Contacts" list on my
work computer populated my cached contacts, whereas my home computer
populated none?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the suggested contacts folder, so I would
appreciate it if you can help clarify this for me. Also, I'm sure I'll get
lots of questions about this from my clients when we eventually distribute
Outlook 2010 to them, so the information will be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[James Luo]

Does the problem happen on the outlook 2010 Beta version, or RTM version?
The later one has just released recently, please try to use the latest
version, see if the issue still appears
http://blogs.technet.com/office2010/archive/2010/04/15/office-2010-reaches-r
tm.aspx

I will research further on the possible cause, and post at here if there's
any new update

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Slipstick: Thanks for the information. What confuses me is that on m
work
computer (Exchange profile), the suggested contacts list appears t
have
imported my nk2 cache. Do you know why the "Suggested Contacts" lis
on my
work computer populated my cached contacts, whereas my home computer
populated none?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the suggested contacts folder, so I would
appreciate it if you can help clarify this for me. Also, I'm sure I'l
get
lots of questions about this from my clients when we eventuall
distribute
Outlook 2010 to them, so the information will be helpful.

Did you use previous versions of Outlook 2010 with the Exchang
account? Suggested Contacts are stored in the mailbox like any othe
folder.

To see if they were imported when you installed Outlook 2010 at work
create a list view of the folder and add the created and modified field
to the view. Do the dates correspond with the new install of outloo
2010

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP

Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]

Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.co
http://forums.slipstick.co

 

[James Luo]

After further reviewed on the issue, I think I have found the reason why
the NK2 cache doesn't import to "Suggested contacts" folder

"When you start Microsoft Outlook 2010 for the first time, your nickname
cache (stored in the profilename.nk2 file) is imported into a hidden
message in your default message store"
---------Refer to KB 980542

The NK2 file will import all of the entries into the
IPM.Configuration.Autocomplete message (Hidden message) in the Associated
Contents table of the Inbox on the server, but it does not also move them
into the suggested contacts folder
The old entries will pop up when you send an e-mail, any recipient who
isn't already a contact will appear in the suggested contacts folder, but
suggested contacts folder won't be pre-populated with all of the old
entries during the upgrade/NK2 importing

 

[Aakash Shah]

Diane: Good point! I just checked both the created and modified fields and
most of the entries correspond to April 22 in the evening. This is around
the time that I performed the Office 2010 installation.

I did not use any previous versions of Office 2010 prior to April 22.

Slipstick: Thanks for the information. What confuses me is that on my
work
computer (Exchange profile), the suggested contacts list appears to
have
imported my nk2 cache. Do you know why the "Suggested Contacts" list
on my
work computer populated my cached contacts, whereas my home computer
populated none?

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the suggested contacts folder, so I would
appreciate it if you can help clarify this for me. Also, I'm sure I'll
get
lots of questions about this from my clients when we eventually
distribute
Outlook 2010 to them, so the information will be helpful.

Did you use previous versions of Outlook 2010 with the Exchange
account? Suggested Contacts are stored in the mailbox like any other
folder.

To see if they were imported when you installed Outlook 2010 at work,
create a list view of the folder and add the created and modified fields
to the view. Do the dates correspond with the new install of outlook
2010?


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP]

Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]


http://forums.slipstick.com

.

 

[Aakash Shah]

This occurred with the RTM version. I installed it very soon after it was
released to TechNet. I just checked the version number and I am using
v14.0.4760.1000 (64bit). I am using 32bit on one computer and 64bit on
another computer.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Diane: Good point! I just checked both the created and modified fields and
most of the entries correspond to April 22 in the evening. This is around
the time that I performed the Office 2010 installation.

I did not use any previous versions of Office 2010 prior to April 22.

How did you get your data into Outlook 2010? If you imported it, then that's
the reason for the Modified date being what it is. Importing is considered a
modification. Exporting/importing is not recommended for moving data from one
Outlook instance to another.

 

[Aakash Shah]

Brian: I did not import the data. I did the following:

1. Uninstall Office 2007
2. Installed Office 2010
3. Started Outlook

Then, Outlook did its thing and I was in. I did not initiate a manual
"import" though. It was after these steps that I noticed that my suggested
contacts were populated with my nk2 cache.

 

[Aakash Shah]

James: Thanks for the information. What I'm still confused about though is
why my work computer (Exchange profile) appeared to import my nk2 cache,
whereas my home computer did not. From the link, it appears that the nk2
cache should not have been imported into the suggested contacts list, but my
experience appears to be different for some reason. Is there some sort of
log I can reference?

 

[James Luo]

You said that the NK2 file can't be imported on your home machine
Do you access the same mailbox (Outlook Anywhere/VPN) on the home machine
as the working machine?
If so, I don't think the file needs to be imported again since it works
against the message of the mailbox on the server

 

[Aakash Shah]

James: No, I do not access my work email from my home computer using Outlook
Anywhere/VPN. My primary account at home is a POP account. I have several
POP accounts and a few IMAP accounts. One of these IMAP accounts is a
connection to my work email.