• Contacts all gone!

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    #490075

    I don’t understand: I backed up my system, reinstalled Office 2010, brought back over my PST file from the backup, and all my contacts are gone!

    Then I set up a new PST, and imported a file that I knew to have contacts…no contacts showing at all.

    What happened and how do I remedy this?

    Chuck Billow

    Chuck Billow

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    • #1400819

      Are you speaking of the autocomplete addresses, or the contacts?

      (The autocomplete addresses are those addresses which pop up when you begin to enter an email address in the To field.)

      In Outlook 2007, the autocomplete addresses were in a file called outlook.nk2, in the following location:

      C:UsersAppDataRoamingMicrosoftOutlook

      I understand that in Outlook 2010 they are no longer in an NK2 file, but rather in your PST file. But you might get lucky and find them if you look for an NK2 file.

      Here’s how to import an NK2 file into Outlook:
      http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/import-auto-complete-list-from-another-computer-HA102545688.aspx

      Group "L" (Linux Mint)
      with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
    • #1400971

      I would hazard a guess that mrjimphelps is on the money with his explanation and solution. I see this time and time again.

      At least in Exchange 2010 / Outlook 2010 and above combinations the autocomplete address list is stored in the exchange mailbox so it follows you.

    • #1401325

      This happened to my wife, with Outlook 2007. After I upgraded her from XP to Windows 7, reinstalled Outlook, and restored her PST files, she kept saying that her contacts were gone. She then explained to me that what was gone was the addresses which would pop up when you started typing an email address.

      At that time I didn’t know about the NK2 file. I researched it and then imported the NK2 file from the backup, and the problem was solved.

      Group "L" (Linux Mint)
      with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
      • #1401351

        Jim, mine were ALL gone! I was able to go back to a prior image, recover the image, and then export the Contacts.

        This taught me TWO invaluable lessons: first, keep a current backup of contacts, and secondly [and surprising that I never knew this after all these years] export your contacts separate from a PDF file as a backup. Easy as heck if you’ve done it.

        Thanks,
        Chuck

        Chuck Billow

    • #1401445

      You can also export your rules. It’s a good idea to keep a backup of the rules, so you don’t have to recreate them.

      On the other hand, you should go through your rules from time to time to make sure that they are all up to date. Not having a backup of the rules kind of forces you to do that.

      One reason that your rules might not be up to date is if you regularly change your PST file. On my wife’s computer, I was retiring her current PST file and creating a new one every three months, thereby freshening the default PST file and creating an archive of her email every three months. This necessitated my updating her filtering rules every time I did that.

      I finally figured out that she had unicode PST files, and that I could greatly increase the maximum size of them (for some reason she was maxing out at 2GB). I got tired of redoing everything every three months, so I set the max at 20GB and quit fooling with it.

      Group "L" (Linux Mint)
      with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
      • #1401499

        That’s all true Jim. In a lot of ways having the rules in a separate file like they used to was easier, but this works as well.

        Thanks,
        Chuck

        Chuck Billow

      • #1401611

        I set the max at 20GB and quit fooling with it.

        All I can do is shudder. A 20GB PST file is asking for trouble in my opinion. If you’ve got that much email then it may be an idea to move to an online webmail service like Gmail, Outlook.com or Office 365.

        • #1401662

          All I can do is shudder. A 20GB PST file is asking for trouble in my opinion. If you’ve got that much email then it may be an idea to move to an online webmail service like Gmail, Outlook.com or Office 365.

          Unicode PST files can be as big as 50 GB. I didn’t want to go to that limit, so I figured that 20 GB was a pretty safe maximum.

          The old style PST files maxed out at 2 GB.

          My wife has that much email. She never deletes anything. She never even sifts through it to see what kind of junk mail is there.

          For example, she has a friend who continually forwards big emails to her. She wouldn’t let me auto-delete them upon arrival, so I set up a separate PST file for email from that person, and a rule to put all of that person’s email into that PST file. Sooner or later that PST file will max out.

          I got tired of fooling with it, so I set the maximum to 20 GB and walked away from it. At the current rate, she’ll max out in about a year.

          Group "L" (Linux Mint)
          with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
        • #1401663

          All I can do is shudder. A 20GB PST file is asking for trouble in my opinion. If you’ve got that much email then it may be an idea to move to an online webmail service like Gmail, Outlook.com or Office 365.

          If you shudder at 20GB, what would you recommend as a maximum size for PST files? And why?

          Group "L" (Linux Mint)
          with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
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