If you’ve been using computers and Outlook for as long as I’ve have, you
probably have had occasion to need to migrate from one computer to another
and take your entire Outlook with you. You’ve spent a lifetime configuring
and getting Outlook to respect your tastes.

One of the things that happens when you migrate to a new computer and setup
Microsoft Office on it and start up your Outlook for the first time, it goes
and creates an empty “Outlook profile� for you. There is no simple way (at
least from a UI perspective, IMHO) to go and stop this. Outlook will always
go and create an empty profile for you, the first time you start it. This is
basically the reason that you actually get the duplicate contact folders
problem in Outlook.

The typical prosumer / geek way of backing up Outlook for moving it to a new
machine involves finding the profile’ PST file (typically in C:\Documents and
Settings\YourWindowsUserName\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook) and copying it over to the new machine. Suppose you
do manage to attach the old data file to your new Outlook and get your basic
email/tasks/calendar working again, the one thing that typically screws up is
the Contacts. Outlook retains the old data file that was created (at least
the Contacts part) and shows it to you in various parts of the UI. This can
become most irritating especially when Outlook still retains the Contacts
from the data file that it default-created as your default Contacts
repository even though you have no contacts in it. All “To:“ button clicks,
address book lookups, etc. will default to this Contacts repository with a UI
option to switch repositories via a drop down list box which displays a
stupendously amazing list of two items, both showing the single, innocuous
word, “Contacts�, leaving you to figure out which-is-which.

Now for the good news: It’s a pretty simple matter to eliminate this
problem. Just use the “Tools – Email accounts� option and instead of
selecting the normal Add / Change email account option, notice the bottom
portion that you have become trained to turn a blind eye to, “Directory�. Use
the “View or change existing directory or address books� option to receive a
heretofore undiscovered dialog that lets you figure out a way to set
Outlook’s address book selection preference and optionally even delete an
address book. Yup that’s what you want to do. Only, you’ve got to figure out
which particular “Contacts� book you’ve to delete, they are both named the
exact same thing.

So, if you’ve been following me so far, I think it should be a simple matter
for you to figure out the correct address book and delete it. The other
address book quickly becomes the default and Outlook starts looking up
contacts correctly again.

Or you could take the 0.5 probability chance to just delete the repository
that shows by default. Is it the first item, could it be any one of the two,
if you’re willing to take the gamble, you have a good 50% chance of success.
I took it and was rewarded suitably enough to write this. However, I *do*
recommend a full backup of your PST file if you’re actually going to go ahead
and try this. DO NOT come back to me and tell me, “What you asked me to do
ended up with me losing ALL my contacts.� You were warned.

I’ve also put this up on my blog in full hypertext glory at
http://dhiraj.wordpress.com/2006/02/...ntact-folders/

Do tell me if you’ve ever experienced this problem, and your experiences
with above solution. I’ve not taken the time/effort to create screenshots and
upload them yet, but I will, if anyone finds it necessary. Do post a comment
on the blog if you want this.

Regards,

Dhiraj Gupta,

http://dhiraj.wordpress.com

Everything you've posted is posted here on a daily basis.
These solutions are well known and well documented.
There is only one supported method for migrating PST files and it's in the
Help files:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...771141033.aspx
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Dhiraj Gupta" Dhiraj wrote in message
...
If you've been using computers and Outlook for as long as I've have, you
probably have had occasion to need to migrate from one computer to another
and take your entire Outlook with you. You've spent a lifetime configuring
and getting Outlook to respect your tastes.

One of the things that happens when you migrate to a new computer and
setup
Microsoft Office on it and start up your Outlook for the first time, it
goes
and creates an empty "Outlook profile" for you. There is no simple way (at
least from a UI perspective, IMHO) to go and stop this. Outlook will
always
go and create an empty profile for you, the first time you start it. This
is
basically the reason that you actually get the duplicate contact folders
problem in Outlook.

The typical prosumer / geek way of backing up Outlook for moving it to a
new
machine involves finding the profile' PST file (typically in C:\Documents
and
Settings\YourWindowsUserName\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook) and copying it over to the new machine. Suppose
you
do manage to attach the old data file to your new Outlook and get your
basic
email/tasks/calendar working again, the one thing that typically screws up
is
the Contacts. Outlook retains the old data file that was created (at least
the Contacts part) and shows it to you in various parts of the UI. This
can
become most irritating especially when Outlook still retains the Contacts
from the data file that it default-created as your default Contacts
repository even though you have no contacts in it. All "To:" button
clicks,
address book lookups, etc. will default to this Contacts repository with a
UI
option to switch repositories via a drop down list box which displays a
stupendously amazing list of two items, both showing the single, innocuous
word, "Contacts", leaving you to figure out which-is-which.

Now for the good news: It's a pretty simple matter to eliminate this
problem. Just use the "Tools - Email accounts" option and instead of
selecting the normal Add / Change email account option, notice the bottom
portion that you have become trained to turn a blind eye to, "Directory".
Use
the "View or change existing directory or address books" option to receive
a
heretofore undiscovered dialog that lets you figure out a way to set
Outlook's address book selection preference and optionally even delete an
address book. Yup that's what you want to do. Only, you've got to figure
out
which particular "Contacts" book you've to delete, they are both named the
exact same thing.

So, if you've been following me so far, I think it should be a simple
matter
for you to figure out the correct address book and delete it. The other
address book quickly becomes the default and Outlook starts looking up
contacts correctly again.

Or you could take the 0.5 probability chance to just delete the repository
that shows by default. Is it the first item, could it be any one of the
two,
if you're willing to take the gamble, you have a good 50% chance of
success.
I took it and was rewarded suitably enough to write this. However, I *do*
recommend a full backup of your PST file if you're actually going to go
ahead
and try this. DO NOT come back to me and tell me, "What you asked me to do
ended up with me losing ALL my contacts." You were warned.

I've also put this up on my blog in full hypertext glory at
http://dhiraj.wordpress.com/2006/02/...ntact-folders/

Do tell me if you've ever experienced this problem, and your experiences
with above solution. I've not taken the time/effort to create screenshots
and
upload them yet, but I will, if anyone finds it necessary. Do post a
comment
on the blog if you want this.

Regards,

Dhiraj Gupta,

http://dhiraj.wordpress.com

Ahem. That was a cold reply, Russ. And if I may add, totally unnecessary.

And here I was trying to help out the poor souls who've followed the precise
link you provide, to the *one-and-only*, supported method for migrating PST
files. Have you actually gone through this "supported" method in the help
"file", yourself? Or the full contents of my post?

If you did, you would realize that following the method mentioned in your
linked article, causes the *exact* problem that I tried to solve!! The help
article ignores the existence of the problem completely. I was unaware of the
existence of said help article, as I did the migration on my own. Upon
figuring out the solution to the duplicate Contact folders problem, I thought
I'd be helpful and tell people about how I solved my problem.

I thought newsgroups were all about sharing, collaboration, and problem
solving. I *had* faced this problem a long time ago, I *had* searched for it
in the newsgroup, and I had *not* found a solution to my problem.

And if you do go check out my blog, someone who's been stuck with this, and
seems to be a regular reader of this newsgroup has thanked me *profusely* for
posting.

So there. Thanks for discouraging me from posting here again. I just might
follow your advice.

-Dhiraj.
http://dhiraj.wordpress.com

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Everything you've posted is posted here on a daily basis.
These solutions are well known and well documented.
There is only one supported method for migrating PST files and it's in the
Help files:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...771141033.aspx
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Boy do you ever have a thin skin.
Your solutions are spot on and of course we can use all the help we can get
posting them. Trust me, I've posted them a few thousand times myself
already.
I was only pointing out that these are the same solutions we've been posting
for years because of the crazy way Outlook must be connected to its data
source.
I've found over the years, however, that just posting a solution when no one
has posted a question goes unnoticed. Even when posted as replies they
largely go unnoticed because users don't search the group before asking a
question.
So please, by all means, return and post your answers when people post this
question. You'll find it occurs several times a day.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Dhiraj Gupta" wrote in message
...
Ahem. That was a cold reply, Russ. And if I may add, totally unnecessary.

And here I was trying to help out the poor souls who've followed the
precise
link you provide, to the *one-and-only*, supported method for migrating
PST
files. Have you actually gone through this "supported" method in the help
"file", yourself? Or the full contents of my post?

If you did, you would realize that following the method mentioned in your
linked article, causes the *exact* problem that I tried to solve!! The
help
article ignores the existence of the problem completely. I was unaware of
the
existence of said help article, as I did the migration on my own. Upon
figuring out the solution to the duplicate Contact folders problem, I
thought
I'd be helpful and tell people about how I solved my problem.

I thought newsgroups were all about sharing, collaboration, and problem
solving. I *had* faced this problem a long time ago, I *had* searched for
it
in the newsgroup, and I had *not* found a solution to my problem.

And if you do go check out my blog, someone who's been stuck with this,
and
seems to be a regular reader of this newsgroup has thanked me *profusely*
for
posting.

So there. Thanks for discouraging me from posting here again. I just might
follow your advice.

-Dhiraj.
http://dhiraj.wordpress.com

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Everything you've posted is posted here on a daily basis.
These solutions are well known and well documented.
There is only one supported method for migrating PST files and it's in
the
Help files:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...771141033.aspx
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]