Contacts are not available when I click "To:"

Hi martit01,

Open outlook
Right-click on Contact in the left navigation pane and go to properties
go to outlook address book (TAB)
and check " Show this folder as an email address book"
press OK and check the contacts

SR..

The "Show this folder as an email address book" was already checked.  And the name of the address book is Contacts.  

However, my contacts are still empty.

Hi martit01,
Is it possible that you have 2 Outlook Address Books Registered in your Outlook setup? My initial guess is that when you Click To" in the email it is displaying the wrong folder initially. (is there a list of contact folders that you can choose from in the Contact window that pops up when you hit the "To:" button on your new mail message?)

Sam

I was going to ask the exact same questions as Sam has asked here ..

Also do these

a) Make a backup of all your contacts if you can view the contacts going to contacts folder

b) go to tools > email accounts > view or change existing directories or address book > double click on outlook address book and see if you have 2 contacts and if yes , you need to remove one of them

post back how it goes

SR

When you are in the Select Names option (basically when you click To:... the box that comes up) there is a drop down to the right hand side called "Show Names From the:" you need to make sure you have the "Contacts" item highlighted which is beneath the "Outlook Address Book" view. The default I believe is the GBA or Global Address Book... but if you're not running exchange, you wont see anything there. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

When in Outlook and i click on To: i have the option between two folders from the drop down menu:  Outlook Address Book and Contacts,  Contacts is the default.  Even when i choose Outlook Address Book, nothing shows up.  Keep in mind, when i initially open Outlook, and click on my contact tab - all of my contacts are there.  Also, when I use Outlook Express and click on "To:"  all of my contacts are there.

SR, i followed your steps above and i only have one contacts folder.  It called "Contacts: Personal Folder".

 

Martit01,
I suppose you are trying to pull contacts that are stored within your PST file locally. If you can view the contacts by clicking on teh "Contact" button, but cannot see them when trying to send a message, perhaps the problem lies within either the contacts being stored in a separate PST file than the one you are workign out of. In the folders list to the left hand side, how many hierarchal views do you have? it shoud say like "Mailbox - Your Name" for the default one, and "Archive Folder" for any additional items or perhaps "Personal Folder"... if you have more than one PST (or OST) that you are working out of (perhaps one of more email accounts) you might try, clicking on the separate "inbox" folders that you might have, and then trying to send a new message... Also, how long has this problem been going on, and have you ever been able to see your contacts by clicking the "To:" button?
Thanks
-Paul

if you have backed up all contacts, can you go to the same location and remove that contacts and build a new one and check

what's the best method for backing up my Contacts?  Should I just "export" them?

Yes , you can export them to excel or access or text file going to file > import and export > export to a file and choose the file you need to export to

or
you can copy the whole outlook.pst file so that the contact info would be there

SR

I backed up my contacts, then removed the ones in Outlook.  I then built the folders again in Outlook, but my problem still exists.  Do you think my .pst files are corrupt?  Because when I search for my .pst file through my C: drive, they have that funny blank icon, and when I click on them they don't open.

One of the ways to check if the PST has got any errors or not is by this

go to start --> run --> C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033
in that open scanpst file
Once it is open , browse and give the location of the outlook.pst file

SR

OK, here's what I did.  I had two .pst files I scanned and no errors were found.  So, I decided to delete these files and then went back into Outlook and created them again, and my problem is now fixed.  I can create email and when I click on To: my contacts are there.  However, I created another problem.  It seems when I deleted those .pst files, all of my emails from my inbox are gone.  How can i get them back?

hmm. did you not create a backup before deleting that PST and btw, why did you delete PST ?

make sure to search in ur computer if outlook.pst is present or not

or you would have to use these tools

http:Q_21014635.html#11240391

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20877083/Can-you-recover-deleted-mail-in-Outlook-Express.html

would i be looking at recovering each email individually, or should i hope to recover a file that contains my deleted emails?  what is the extension i should be looking for when I locate my deleted files?  Is it .pst?