Outlook has 2 Contact folders, addresses only in 1

[mjsbrcc]

Outlook is driving me nuts with this. My outlook setup appears perfectly normal - no double folders appearing in the left column in file view or icon view. All my addresses are in the Contacts folder when I check.

BUT when I start a new email message and type in one of my old nicknames or first names in the To: box, or if I click the To: box to search, it comes up saying there are no names in my Contacts folder.

I go even one step further and, using that same error message dialogue box, I perform the search they suggest for names. On the pull down menu to select which folder to search, there are TWO selections for Contacts. If I choose the second "Contacts", all my addresses are there. But, i still can't insert them. I think there is something going on where Outlook is accessing two different .pst or data files or something just for this function - for finding my Contacts.

Plus, it just began out of nowhere. I recently reinstalled outlook after some major duplicate problems, but it had been running smoothly for about two weeks.

Any suggestions and you will totally save me!!!

 

[mjsbrcc]

P.S. (me again) I'm using Outlook on Office 2000 Pro. And its not OE.

 

[flareman]

You seem to have "organized" your contacts using folders so that there are none in the top "Contacts" folder and they are all in the second layer.
I suggest that you click on the second contacts box in the sidebar, then select edit/select all. This should highlight all the contacts in the page. Click and hold on the highlight and drag everything into the top level contacts folder in the sidebar. Check that they are all transferred and then delete the second level folder.

If you do use folders, when you look for the contacts in the "TO:" addresses box, there should be a drop box at the top which says "Contacts" (or whatever you have named the top level). Open the drop using the arrow and you should see the lower level folders listed there.



David

 

[graham2000]

I have a similar problem in that the contacts imported into a public folder, appear twice in the TO: dropdown when selecting them during an e-mail composition. Although there are about 8 users, 5 of them have duplication and 3 are OK.
As in mjsrbcc's case, only one of the duplicated address books appears to point to anything. The other one comes up with an error saying the folder has been removed/deleted, with hints on how to remove the address book.

In my case I had a bad import of the public folders in the first place and so I had to delete/re-import the .pst.
Also when I try to delete the non-working contacts list, the process appears to work, but then both address boks are still there when I try to send an e-mail.

Users can still carry on working, but it is annoying for them when they keep choosing the wrong contact list.
Any ideas?