lost my address book

[stuck]

This thread:
http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=30552" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
describes my recent probelms with Outlook 2016.

I now discover that I've lost my entire address book in the process of rebuilding things.

Is there a way to make Outlook 2016 build an address book from the email addresses in all the messages I've got?

Ken

[HansV]

See Add all email senders or recipients as Contacts and How to quickly add new contacts from email to Outlook address book?

[stuck]

Thank you.

I've found an old .wab file (from my ancient XP+Outlook Express system) and imported that as a starting point:
1) double click on the .wab file and the contents are added to Win 10's contacts folder
2) in Explorer find the contacts folder:
    C:\Users\[username]\Contacts
2) select the ones you want
3) export them to a .csv
4) import the .csv into Outlook

Now all I've got to do is clean that lot up and then add more recent addresses using the method in the second link Hans gave.

sigh: This is turning out to be real fun packed weekend.

Ken

[HansV]

Don't you just love computers?

[stuck]

So now when I click on new mail item and then on the To: button the default list of contacts is empty BUT if I use the drop down under 'Address book' I can select another list and see that names I've imported.

Any clues how to get rid of the empty list?

Ken

EDITED - Don't bother, found it in Account Settings Address Book, it was an empty list assocaited with my wife's account but we just use the one address book between us.

[HansV]

Right-click the folder containing the contacts.
Select Properties from the context menu.
Activate the Address Book tab.
Tick the check box 'Show this folder as an e-mail address book'.
Click OK.
Does that help?

[stuck]

Right-click the folder containing the contacts...
Does that help?

No, that option was greyed out but as indicated in my edit, it's gone now.

I'm shutting this thing down now and going to play some LOUD to release the stress. If it's bust again when it gets restarted tomorrow you'll probably hear the scream in Wageningen.

Ken

[DaveA]

Did the "WAB" file get imported in the "Address Book" of into Contacts?
Remember that these are two different worlds within Outlook.

The Address Book is an external file (wab) and one must select the correct settings to use it.
This was a carry over from Outlook Express when going to the full Outlook program.
The best thing to do is import the wab into the Contacts and you will not have this issue again, they will be within the pst file.

[stuck]

Did the "WAB" file get imported in the "Address Book" of into Contacts?

Do the details in my previous post not answer this?

Ken

[DaveA]

Did the "WAB" file get imported in the "Address Book" of into Contacts?

Do the details in my previous post not answer this?

Ken

NO, the "Contacts" is greyed because you are using Address Book.

[stuck]

I think we're talking at cross purposes here, my issue is solved:
1) I imported the .wab into Win 10 contacts
2) from there I exported it as a .csv
3) I imported the .csv into (what turned out to be) Outlook's address book for my email account

BUT when I tried to use the imported addresses, Outlook defaulted to an empty address book, not the one containing the imported .csv. This empty address book turned out to be associated with my wife's email account. I was able to remove this empty address book via Outlook's Account Settings Address Book and now Outlook default to the addres book containing the imported .csv.

Ken

[DaveA]

YES, we did get crossed wise

Sorry about that, good to things are solved.