# Solved: Address book in Outlook 2007 disappeared



## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

Somehow the address book that populates when I click the "to" button on an email disappeared.

I followed the MS forum directions to add an address book and did the following:

Under the Tools menu, I picked "account settings" then the "address books" tab

There it shows: Outlook Address Book MAPI

The only options available are "new" and "change". The remove option is grayed out.

I picked "new" and then selected "Additional Address Books", then clicked "next"

The choices were: 
Mobile Address Book
Outlook Address Book

so I picked Outlook Address Book then clicked next and got the message: 

"This account or directory type already exists and cannot be specified twice"

I'm not sure what to do since the option to first remove it is not available. I tried the "change" option and removing
the existing address book that way, but that does not work either.

I also had read that I should try deleting my email account and creating a new one. I did that (for my default email account 
since I have three) but that did not help either.

It seems that it will not let me add a new address book as long as the old one (that comes up empty) is still there, but it
won't let me delete the old one either. By the way, my contacts in Outlook are still there, I can view them when I go to the
Contacts section from the main Outlook page.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

Hi Ettie,
When you click "To" and it shows Outlook Address Book under the Address Book heading, is there a dropdown? If so, is your Contacts one of the options? If not, try right-clicking your Contacts folder and selecting Properties and then the Outlook Address Book tab. Is the box to "Show this folder as an email address book" checked?


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

Hi Wendy, There is a drop down and Contacts is one of the options but when I pick it nothing happens...nothing gets populated. When you say to right click the "Contacts Folder" what do you mean exactly...is that supposed to be a folder in my folder list....I don't see one called "Contacts". 

Still needing help....

Thanks!


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

Yes, in your list of folders, you should have Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, etc. You might have renamed yours. What do you click on to access your contact list?


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

It looks like this screen shot. When I right click on the Contacts bar at the bottom the only options are: 

Open in New Window
Navigation Pane Options


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

Ok, I figured out how to view the properties and yes, the box for "show this folder as an email address book is checked, although it is grayed out. What now?


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

Now it should work. Ta-da!

Oh, right, it doesn't work.  Go back to Account Settings/Outlook Address Book and instead of choosing "New" choose "Change". Select your Contacts and say "remove address book". Close Outlook and restart it, then go back to your contacts folder, right-click it, and add it back to the address book. Any luck?


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

Doh! No it still does not work Any other suggestions?


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

When you tried creating a new email account, did you change the data file to your current pst? 

It's really annoying that 2007 won't let you delete the Outlook Address Book, since that generally fixed these kinds of problems in previous versions.


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

I don't think I changed the data file. I just created a new account using the exact same settings as the old one, then I deleted the old one. All my email is working fine and exactly the same as before. Yes, I agree that it is annoying What are my options, do you think I have to call Microsoft?


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

Ugh, I hope not. This may be what you did already, but I want to make sure just in case. First, close Outlook and make a backup copy of your .pst, just because that's always a good idea when making changes. Then, create a new Outlook profile. The new profile should automatically generate its own .pst (not the same as your current .pst). Start Outlook with the new profile and go to Tools/Account Settings. Select the Data Files tab and click the Add button. Select Office Outlook Personal Folder (.pst) and click OK. Navigate to your original outlook .pst file and select it and click OK. On the Account settings screen, select your original outlook pst file and click "Set as Default". Select the other outlook folder and click Remove. Check to make sure the Contacts folder is shown as an Outlook address book.


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

Thanks, I will try this tomorrow (when I am fresher) and let you know. Thanks for sticking with me through this


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## Rajeshd1 (Mar 10, 2010)

go to the contacts and check which folder has all your contacts ...now go the address book and go onto tools and select the folder which contains all your contacts ,,,,....Hope that will work


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## ettie (Jun 30, 2010)

Hi Wendy M and Rajeshd1,

I solved the problem!! Here's what I did: 

In Outlook I went to 'Tools' and selected 'Address Book'. That opened a box that had another set of menu options at the top, incuding another one called 'Tools'. I went to 'Tools' and then chose 'Options'. This gave me a window called "Addressing" From there I changed the pull down selection under the heading "Show this address list first" to be Contacts. This worked! Thanks to you both for your help! Have a great weekend


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## Rajeshd1 (Mar 10, 2010)

cheers ....


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