AGGGGHHHH!!!! - Address Books and Contact Subfolders

Status
Not open for further replies.
Outlook version
Outlook 2016 32 bit
Email Account
POP3
OK,

I understand the "Show this folder as an email address book" check/tick box functionality....this is not the answer I am after!

From the Contacts/People page of Outlook, selecting any one of the My Contacts folders in the left hand pane, and then clicking on the "Address Book" icon in the Find section of the ribbon above, I am presented with a window which has a drop down list of Address Books on the right. The top of the list has my default email ID name and then indented to the right under it, a list of what I BELIEVE are subfolders. They include SOME of the folders in my left navigation pane, and also some folders that are NOT visible in the left hand pane.

If choose a contact from a folder visible in the left navigation pane and then choose "All Fields" from the Show section of the ribbon, and then "All Contact Fields", the contact will have an entry in the "In Folder" field.

1) I cannot edit that field.
2) I cannot find anywhere in Outlook, or in my Outlook data folder (USERS->*ME*->Documents->Outlook Files) where those subfolders which are NOT listed on the left hand pane are shown.
3) How can I find these subfolders such that I can move the contact to another folder?
 
2) I cannot find anywhere in Outlook, or in my Outlook data folder (USERS->*ME*->Documents->Outlook Files) where those subfolders which are NOT listed on the left hand pane are shown.
What are the folder names?


3) How can I find these subfolders such that I can move the contact to another folder?
Find a Contact in the folder, click Ctrl+Shift+F to open Advanced find. Click the Browse button. This will show you where the folder is.


If choose a contact from a folder visible in the left navigation pane and then choose "All Fields" from the Show section of the ribbon, and then "All Contact Fields", the contact will have an entry in the "In Folder" field.

1) I cannot edit that field.
the in folder field is read only.
 
Diane,

Thank you for you very prompt reply...which raises some new questions!

I won't bore you with the actual (sub)folder names other than to say they match many (but not all) categories I have assigned to each record. For example, a number of my records are categorised as "Work" and in all cases of "Work", the name of a company I worked for in the past. Thus, using categories I can easily distinguish personal from work contacts, and separately, identify contacts from particular previous employers. Now, looking at the (sub)folders revealed by your Advanced Find + Browse technique I can report a number of phenomena:

1) If I select from the left navigation pane a folder called "Contacts from iCloud" and then click Address Book, select on the right an Address Book I now know contains a particular contact, and then double click to open the contact, at the bottom left, it states "In Folder [card icon] XXX" (XXX being another company I worked for in the past). If I now do CTRL+SHIFT+F as you advised, I can see at the top of the find box: "Look 'Contacts'[drop down list]" and "In:'XXX'". If I then click Browse, a "Select Folder(s)" window appears and the XXX folder has a tick/check against it.

2) Not all my categories are represented in the (sub)folder list (e.g. IBM, for whom I once worked, is a category but has no (sub)folder in the list revealed) even though it has dozens of Contact records categorized as "IBM".

3) All of these (sub)folders in the "Select Folder(s)" tree structure are sitting under a folder "Contacts from iCloud" which, in turn, is sitting under the "Deleted Items" folder of my primary (POP3) email profile in the tree.

4) If, instead of going via the Address Book button, I select in the left hand navigation pane, the "Contacts from iCloud" folder, using the categories drill down to company XXX, select and open the APPARENTLY same contact record *, I note that in the bottom left, it states "In Folder [card icon] Contacts from iCloud". Now if I do CTRL+SHIFT+F and Browse, the (sub)folder checked/ticked is "Contacts from iCloud" and it sits in the tree beneath "iCloud Archive" (which is NOT under "Deleted Items")...!

* But it may not be the same record...as a test I put some dummy information into the Job Title field in the record from 1) above. That dummy information does not appear in the Job Title field in the record from 4). This suggests I'm making some progress in getting to the bottom of my issue but I'm terrified to start trying to delete stuff!

5) I note also that in SOME of the Address Books (selected in the drop down) representing particular companies, contact records or particular people don't appear. Whereas if I go in through the Category method (4 above), they are listed.

All this leads me to think that at some point in the past, I must have had some folders (sub or otherwise) in my left navigation pane, for different companies in which SOME of my contacts sat. Subsequently, I merged/copied those contact records into a "full" list, categorised them, and then deleted the redundant folders in the left navigation pane.

The question that then springs to mind is that IF I actually DID delete folders in the left navigation pane in the past (i.e. "IBM"), why on earth do they appear when I click "Address Books"? That is probably main source of my confusion! If I delete a MAIL folder, it is clearly still visible in the Mail Deleted items until I specifically delete it from there. This doesn't appear to be the case with Contacts.

Does that make any sense at all?

To cut a long story/rant short, ultimately, what I think ** I want to achieve is the following:

A) One list of all contacts
B) Each contact categorised appropriately (Friend or Work, IBM (or XXX) etc).
C) One Address book revealed under my main email profile when clicking the Address Book icon
D) Any contact listed in that address book being available from the "To" field of an email I am composing.

** or do you have a more powerful/rational approach to storing/accessing contacts/categories etc. which you can suggest?


Many thanks in anticipation!
 
If I select from the left navigation pane a folder called "Contacts from iCloud"
This (and likely the iCloud Archive folder) contain contacts that are/were in icloud - when you signed out of icloud addin in outlook, it created a backup copy of the contacts. If you don't have copied of these contacts in your default Contacts folder, I would move them to that folder and delete the Contacts from icloud folder.


The question that then springs to mind is that IF I actually DID delete folders in the left navigation pane in the past (i.e. "IBM"), why on earth do they appear when I click "Address Books"? That is probably main source of my confusion! If I delete a MAIL folder, it is clearly still visible in the Mail Deleted items until I specifically delete it from there. This doesn't appear to be the case with Contacts.

Right click on the folders you deleted and choose properties then outlook address book tab. Is it still checked to be used as an address book?


A) One list of all contacts
B) Each contact categorised appropriately (Friend or Work, IBM (or XXX) etc).
C) One Address book revealed under my main email profile when clicking the Address Book icon
D) Any contact listed in that address book being available from the "To" field of an email I am composing.

** or do you have a more powerful/rational approach to storing/accessing contacts/categories etc. which you can suggest?
I would put all of the contacts into the default contacts folder. The assign categories as needed. For C) you can remove the tick from 'show as an outlook address book' But I would work on reducing the number of contact folders.

D) should always happen - if the contact has an electronic address (email or fax) you should see it in the address book.
 
Thanks again Diane; I've pretty much got this all under control now!

Now then... what if I don't want to have to manage both the "My Contacts" and the "iCloud Contacts" folders in order to keep them identical? I assume that this ->Sync Outlook with iCloud - free tool is a straightforward solution.

Have you any advice;
a) is this a sensible approach?
b) is there a better way?
c) or am I just asking for trouble ;-) ?
 
yes, its straightforward to use that... but you might want to consider a utility that will sync outlook's data file folders directly with the icloud server, rather than having two copies of the contacts in outlook (in your contacts folder and in the icloud contacts). The only drawback is the utilities that sync with the server aren't free. These utilities such as companionlink and akrutosync
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
P Email address auto-completes work fine on laptop, but no longer on desktop Using Outlook 2
H Copying email address(es) in body of email and pasting in To field Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 1
P VBA to add email address to Outlook 365 rule Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
Rupert Dragwater How to permanently remove an email address Using Outlook 9
Bardiferous Weird Contacts Behavior - Can't find any in any address book, but they're in there Using Outlook 3
L Specific Incoming Email Address Immediately Deleted Using Outlook 2
L Unable to Use Alias as From Address Using Outlook 2
H Preventing the 'email address fetch from Exchange' crashing email reading code Exchange Server Administration 0
D multiple email accounts - why do I have to choose the "from" account address?? Using Outlook 2
whizzard Change FROM address based on TO or CC address Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 8
C Outlook FROM ADDRESS -Outlook.com and Android Using Outlook 1
O What would be the recommended way to change an email address (family member)? Using Outlook 0
L Checking Sender Email Address for trusted domain from list on intranet Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 4
J How do you disable address search box when typing @ in body of email? Using Outlook 0
Victor.Ayala Automated way to check the option "Show this folder as an email Address Book" Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 2
D Wrong email address in Outlook 2003 "From" tab in new outgoing emails Using Outlook 4
M Gmail address associated with Outlook on new phone Using Outlook 9
e_a_g_l_e_p_i Outlook 2010 How to set default email address for website links Using Outlook 3
O Same email address, same person, names in so many ways Using Outlook 4
R Capture Sender's Display name and Address Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 3
D auto forward base on email address in body email Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
N contact list seen in Contact folder but knot in Address book or when 'TO' button is clicked in new email Using Outlook 0
C WARNING - DO NOT USE AN OUTLOOK.COM ADDRESS FOR GOOGLE ACCOUNT RECOVERY EMAIL Using Outlook 10
D Outlook Address Book Using Outlook 0
Terry Sullivan Sender Field Displays My E-Mail Address, Not My Name Using Outlook 1
L Email with correct To address but displaying name of a related person Using Outlook 0
1 Incorrectly Setup a Rule at Domain level to not allow address from outside domain Exchange Server Administration 2
D Is a sub folder under contacts necessary to be able to name an Address Book? Using Outlook 1
A Outlook replies not using "delivered to" address in From Using Outlook 1
T "Words In Recipient's Address" Rule Causes Outlook To Stop Processing Rules Using Outlook 3
B Extracting email addresses from a folder - how to also get the name of the person the address is for? Using Outlook 5
W Replyin to the reply-to email address Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
M Changing the preferred order for "Put this entry in" list for adding new contacts to the Address Book Using Outlook 1
B Change from Address Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
D Renaming Address Book Using Outlook 3
J Sent Items Folder NOT Showing Correct From Email Address Using Outlook 0
J Outlook Reply > From > Other Email Address... > Address Not Showing in Sent Items... From Email Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
M PST import from Outlook 2007 to 2010 - Address Book contacts all in 1 group Using Outlook 4
C Outlook Autocomplete suggestions showing wrong person's name against an email address Using Outlook 0
O Address list - company and non-company ? Using Outlook 0
Healy Consultants Macro to remove inside organization distribution list email address when reply to all recepients Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
L Email not going to address displayed Using Outlook 4
B When sending an email, I am showing 2 of my address's Using Outlook 1
oliv- determine to which address an email has been sent Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 3
N Exporting IM Address field Using Outlook 2
R outlook address book search broken Using Outlook 2
M Screen Scrape Sender IP Address Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 6
S Outlook 2007 printing wrong email address at top of page Using Outlook 8
N Outlook 2016 Address Book lookup Using Outlook 9
B Looking to get the Recipient email address (or even the "friendly name") from an email I am replying to using VBA Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 4

Similar threads

Back
Top