Address book no longer visible with all addresses together

[Diana van den Berg]

Hi Diana,
I received your email. Your address book appears to be working correctly, judging by the screenshot, so I frankly don't understand what the problem is...

Hi Hans

Firstly, the strangest thing regarding that email - when I have sent an email, I usually move it straight away into the appropriate folder in which I keep from and to emails from that person. When I went to the Sent box to do that, the email wasn't there. I thought perhaps it hadn't been sent - but it wasn't in the Outbox, or in Drafts. It wasn't in the folder above nor the folder below. It just wasn't anywhere. When I read your reply, I had another look in the Sent Box and there it was!

Regarding the screenshot, I could see and scroll through every single email listing from top to bottom, but, there was no option to capture it - no Save no Add or anything else similar at the point that the email list was showing.

From the 2nd and 3rd links that Rudi found, I see it is a common problem. I followed the links and I will give the good news and the bad news in my reply to Rudi.

Thank you for all your trouble. You are meant to be on holiday!

[Diana van den Berg]

Thanks Diana, that helps.

Can you try the advice on this page.
Start at the top and work your way down the troubleshooting advice.

Lets hope something here can fix it.

Thank you again, Rudi. The good news is that I think that last link has hit on the problem and the solution. The bad news is that it appears that my Outlook Address Book Service is corrupted and that I will have to recreate my profile. I can't remember from what I read 2 links away from that link, whether I will be able to get my Address Book back again. Also I will have to wait until tomorrow for my service provider to be able to supply additional incoming and outgoing server information.

Thank you very much indeed for all your help. You honed in beautifully on what the problem is.

[Diana van den Berg]

It seems as though even after recreating my profile, it can happen again and again and it seems that the cause is that I have too many emails saved.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/ ... -causes-it" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will have to delete a whole bunch of emails. I will start on that tomorrow, once I have recreated my profile.

[Rudi]

Good luck. I hope it gets sorted.

[Diana van den Berg]

Good luck. I hope it gets sorted.

Thank you, Rudi. I have been procrastinating, but I am about to take the plunge now. Just very nervous and hope I don't lose the Address Book in the process!

PS Deleted 4704 emails this morning. Hope that helps not to cause it happening again.

[Diana van den Berg]

Good luck. I hope it gets sorted.

and for after 5pm where you are Yeeee haaa! Done and dusted (but in fear and trembling - it was every bit as simple as it seemed, but so scary)! Please keep that series of links together for anyone else who has this problem. It is excellent! A huge big thank you, Rudi!

[DaveA]

Remember that Contacts and Address Book are two different items in Outlook for Office.
The Address Book is a carry over from the Windows 95/98 Outlook and Contacts is the Office Outlook listing of people and their information that you have collected on them.
It has been a pain in the lower back side when these two get mixed up and I have never been able get things straighten out. I have exported the Address Book to a CVS file and then imported the CVS file into the Contacts, which has worked for me most of times when I run into this issue.
Once the "Contacts" have been update, on then can delete the Address Book, but keep the CVS file for a while as a back up, and make a new CVS of the Contacts after you update the Contacts.

I avoid using the "Address Book" at all times, and use only the "Contacts".

[Rudi]

That is wonderful news Diana. Let me remind you that the final action you did, that eventually solved the issue, was your doing.

That's a great piece of advice Dave.
I never knew that.

[Diana van den Berg]

Remember that Contacts and Address Book are two different items in Outlook for Office.
The Address Book is a carry over from the Windows 95/98 Outlook and Contacts is the Office Outlook listing of people and their information that you have collected on them.
It has been a pain in the lower back side when these two get mixed up and I have never been able get things straighten out. I have exported the Address Book to a CVS file and then imported the CVS file into the Contacts, which has worked for me most of times when I run into this issue.
Once the "Contacts" have been update, on then can delete the Address Book, but keep the CVS file for a while as a back up, and make a new CVS of the Contacts after you update the Contacts.

I avoid using the "Address Book" at all times, and use only the "Contacts".

Thank you very much indeed, Dave. I didn't know any of that and have always been very confused about that. I actually hate Outlook with a passion, but am busy trying to come to terms with it and be kinder to it. I loved Outlook Express but when I was hacked in March 2015 Outlook Express was most affected and I had to change to Outlook. A while later, Outlook Express healed itself (I didn't know it was into homeopathy, lol!) and I went back to Outlook Express with a huge sigh of relief. However, with the acquisition of a "new" secondhand laptop and Windows 7 Professional and Microsoft Office 2010 (I had 2007 before), I had no option but to swallow my hate of Outlook and begin to embrace it. I will bear in mind what you have said, and assimilate it into both my tired brain cells on the morrow and see how that needs to affect my actions.

I got one terrible fright when I opened my laptop tonight after returning from my son's home (but all is fixed now, I believe), but more about that in my reply to Rudi. I love the humour and the literal colourfulness and fun of the font of your signature.

Thank you again for your reply. Eileen's Lounge is the most efficient, friendly, caring. helpful, mega-fast forum (functionwise and replywise) and with the clearest explanations that make the most sense, that I have ever come across and a delight to enter always (I sometimes just sneak in to read and learn something new for fun). And another thing, the experts are not afraid of saying, as Hans and Rudi, in particular, do, that they don't know the answer to something or other - something which I have always found extremely impressive, productive, honest - and safe for the one looking for advice - since the 8th grade at school (had an excellent History teacher called Mrs Wilkins all the way up to 12th grade, who did that) - and like Mrs Wilkins, Eileen's Lounge goes out of their way to find a solution to everything they don't know initially.

[Diana van den Berg]

That is wonderful news Diana. Let me remind you that the final action you did, that eventually solved the issue, was your doing.

That's a great piece of advice Dave.
I never knew that.

Yes, thank you again, Rudi and what a relief! Yep, that final action . . . following to the letter, extremely clear instructions, lol . . . not much of an achievement in that, lol, but you are kind. Thank you.

As I was saying to Dave in my reply to him, I got a terrible fright when I came in after getting home from my son's house tonight. First, I clicked on Address Book and nothing was there. Then I clicked on Contacts and all my email addresses were there - but there was more to come. Emails started flooding my Inbox - dozens and dozens of them and in a matter of seconds it had gone up to over 200 and aside from 4 for tonight, they were all duplicates. Worse still all my email folders in To and From, a folder in the Inbox had gone - along with all my emails. I quickly went into the Email Applet (as per the final link you gave me) to check which profile it was on, and it was indeed on the new one, as it was supposed to be. However, with only 1 option left to me, in fear and trembling, I changed it back to the previous one and went into Inbox and:

1. There were only the 4 new emails in the Inbox
2. All my folders were back
3. All my emails were back
4. When I went into Address Book I didn't have to move to Contacts, it came up automatically with all my email addresses

I am assuming, from the last link you gave me, that instead of deleting the old profile as the link says, in my particular case I should delete the new profile. However, for now, I don't want to risk it until I am sure that I am doing the right thing. Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated. Worst case scenario, I can keep both if that is what I need to do to play safe.

Thanks again.

[kdock]

Diana, there's one other thing you might want to check. You might want to see how big your Outlook *.pst file is. In some versions of Outlook, it cannot be more than 2G. And if you've had Outlook through many versions, you may have an older, ANSI PST file, even if you have the latest Outlook. I did, because I simply copied my PST to each successive version of Outlook.

I've seen email refuse to be delivered (fortunately it waits on the server until you make room in your .pst file) when the file is too big. You can use the tip HERE to see if this even applies to you. If it doesn't, you can ignore the rest of the post.

There are good instructions for upgrading your PST file HERE.

If you happen to Google this, I have a warning: THIS MICROSOFT PAGE didn't work for me, though it's tempting, since it's much simpler.

K

[Rudi]

...Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated. Worst case scenario, I can keep both if that is what I need to do to play safe.

I don't want to give any further advice right now since things are running OK.
More advice could run the risk of harming your current delicate ecosystem!

[Diana van den Berg]

Diana, there's one other thing you might want to check. You might want to see how big your Outlook *.pst file is. In some versions of Outlook, it cannot be more than 2G. And if you've had Outlook through many versions, you may have an older, ANSI PST file, even if you have the latest Outlook. I did, because I simply copied my PST to each successive version of Outlook.

I've seen email refuse to be delivered (fortunately it waits on the server until you make room in your .pst file) when the file is too big. You can use the tip HERE to see if this even applies to you. If it doesn't, you can ignore the rest of the post.

There are good instructions for upgrading your PST file HERE.

If you happen to Google this, I have a warning: THIS MICROSOFT PAGE didn't work for me, though it's tempting, since it's much simpler.

K

The number of times I have said to my lucky stars, TGFEL (Thank goodness for Eileen's Lounge), I am surprised my lucky stars have not refused to twinkle in the sky for irritation at the repetition!

Thank you Kim. I will look at both links tonight.

I did do a Search (I am finding searches on Windows 7 Professional very frustrating and confusing after the simplicity and efficacy of Windows XP, but perhaps it is just a matter or getting used to it and finding better ways to doing it) on my Outlook.pst with *.pst and discovered 3 files - perhaps that is the problem too. Initially, when I first got this "new" secondhand computer and installed and loaded everything (but Windows 7 Professional instead of Windows X)P - and Microsoft Office 2010 instead of Microsoft Office 2007), I had 2 Outlook.pst files which was disconcerting - one in Documents (and not a shortcut which I was hoping) and 1 in Program Files.

I currently have:

Outlook.pst in My Documents (1.40GB) (presumably what is in Program Files, confusingly displayed here and not as a shortcut) - this is the one that I have selected to default to, but it is the old one)
Outlook01.pst in My Documents\Outlook files (70.9MB) - the new one I created to solve the problem)
Outlook.pst in My Documents\KEEP Outlook Express Old Emails\2015-03\14 at 18h18\Outlook backup (5 136 593KB - thus approximately 5.136593GB) (Blush!)

I am pretty sure I know at least 1 of the things you are going to say, Kim, but I will wait for you to say it, to make sure, before I do anything - and thank you, in anticipation - for your reply.

I have no idea why I have both a Program Files folder and a Program Files (x86) folder now. I am told that is correct. Perhaps it is a Windows 7 Professional thing.

Kind regards
Diana

[Diana van den Berg]

...Any advice on that would be greatly appreciated. Worst case scenario, I can keep both if that is what I need to do to play safe.

I don't want to give any further advice right now since things are running OK.
More advice could run the risk of harming your current delicate ecosystem!

Giggles, Rudi! Thanks for the message and the humour! I think that must be a new smiley because I thought I had seen them all, but perhaps I wasn't observant enough!

[Rudi]

    
has been around since inception.

[Diana van den Berg]

    
has been around since inception.

Perhaps it hides away when it sees me, knowing I don't often stop talking

[Rudi]

[kdock]

I currently have:

Outlook.pst in My Documents (1.40GB) (presumably what is in Program Files, confusingly displayed here and not as a shortcut) - this is the one that I have selected to default to, but it is the old one)
Outlook01.pst in My Documents\Outlook files (70.9MB) - the new one I created to solve the problem)
Outlook.pst in My Documents\KEEP Outlook Express Old Emails\2015-03\14 at 18h18\Outlook backup (5 136 593KB - thus approximately 5.136593GB) (Blush!)

I am pretty sure I know at least 1 of the things you are going to say, Kim, but I will wait for you to say it, to make sure, before I do anything - and thank you, in anticipation - for your reply.

I have no idea why I have both a Program Files folder and a Program Files (x86) folder now. I am told that is correct. Perhaps it is a Windows 7 Professional thing.

Diana, I, like Rudi, hesitate to disturb the delicate balance you've achieved. At one point you said you had Outlook 2007, followed by Outlook 2010. If so, the size limit doesn't apply to you. Those versions of Outlook created a PST file capable of getting much larger. And if you're able to read data from your 5G Outlook Express-derived PST, I daresay you already have Unicode files.

There is a PST Scan utility to fix errors that you can read about here. I've used it to great advantage--but if you decide to use it, make sure the option to make a backup of the existing PST is checked before running it. Further, you can compact your PST files to make them smaller (and presumably faster).

All the best, Kim