A frequent issue/question that comes up from people migrating to a new machine and Outlook installation or importing contacts from either a CSV or PST file is related to “missing contacts”. This issue/question takes a variety of different forms such as (but not limited to)
- Can’t select my contacts from the Outlook AddressBook when composing a new email
- Can’t see my contacts in the Outlook AddressBook
- The AddressBook shows an empty contact list
The Outlook AddressBook is nothing more then a specialized view of all contact folders that have been set to be a member of the AB. The “default” contact folder for the profile, which is contained in the default data file for the profile, is automatically set to be a member of the AB. Beyond that, each contact folder must be individually set to be an AB member by right-clicking on the contact folder –> properties –> Outlook Address Book tab –> check the box for “Show this email folder as an email address book”.
Quite frequently people intend to import to the default contact folder but end up importing to a different folder. Another point to note, is that contacts contained in a contact folder set to be part of the AB, will not be included in the AB if the contact item does not have a valid electronic address which would be either a valid email address or fax number.