Unwanted US Holiday Contact folder in Outlook.com syncs to MAPI/Phone Address book

[Jerry Raabe]

Hello. I have used Exchange ActiveSync for several years without issue. I have my calendar and contacts synced and my MAPI desktop file and android phone. I noticed a couple weeks ago that my Phone started showing "Unknown name" for the first half of my contact list (probably a 1300+) .....then it shows my actual contacts (another 1300+). When I go to my Contacts on my desktop, My Contacts shows two folders 1)Contacts and 2)US Holidays. Contacts is the correct file. I do not know where US Holidays came from. When you click on the US Holidays folder, there are no contacts showing.

How do I get rid of the US Holidays folder or at minimum, keep that folder from syncing with my phone.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

This is an outlook.com account? Holidays should be under calendar, not contacts. Do you know if your account was moved to the new server? (It sounds like maybe it was.)

if you select us holidays, does it show a blank folder or error? Switch to the Folder list (ctrl+6) - is there a contacts folder called us holidays anywhere?

In outlook: go to file, add account and use auto account setup to add it to your profile. if it was moved and is now on exchange, it will tell you to restart outlook after the account is added. Restart outlook and remove the activesync account. I'm not sure if this will fix your problems, but you'll have a better experience.

 

[Jerry Raabe]

Diane,

Thank you for responding

Yes, it is an Outlook.com account that I use to sync the contacts and calendar only. I followed you instructions on that a couple years ago. I am not sure about your server question. My outlook pst file is on my harddrive, I don't know about the outook.com.

When using the Folder list, US Holidays shows under Calendar....but it displayed as Contacts (see the icon). See attached.

When I click on the US Holidays in my Outlook desktop, it displays, but there are no entries. That is the document I uploaded in the original post.

Your last instructions I am holding off on until you see the questions I answed in this note. I am not really great at doing this stuff and I don't have a great deal of time at the moment if there are ramifications in adding the account.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

it's under calendar but is a contact folder. Can you delete it?

I'm guessing that it got messed up in the move from the old outlook.com server to the new one.

 

[Jerry Raabe]

Thanks again. The "Delete Folder" option is grayed out...so not through outlook. I am uploading some shots of the US Holidays Properties box. The Home Page tab shows nothing.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

is the holidays calendar selected under Add Calendar > Holiday calendar at Sign in to your Microsoft account Actually, can you delete it from there (or from the People page)?

Anyway... after you select add calendar > holiday calendar, a panel opens on the right - is there a check mark on the us entry? My guess is no, since here is it called United States holidays. I'm pretty sure your folder is an artifact of the migration from outlook.com to the new server. In this case, you need to use mfcmapi to delete it - How to Hide or Delete Outlook's Default Folders

 

[Jerry Raabe]

Diane, you were correct. It was not checked. I deleted the US Calendar from the Outlook.com page.

I will try to use the link you provided to delete default folders and let you know what happens. I appreciate your responsiveness. It may not be until tomorrow.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

was the calendar on the calendar page or on the contact page? (I'm curious)

i would expect deleting it online should remove it from outlook - usually within 15 minutes, but possibly an hour to until you restart outlook.

 

[Jerry Raabe]

it was under the calendar page. As of now, it is still on my Desktop. I will do a reboot and see.

 

[Jerry Raabe]

Diane...I have had a chance to work a bit on this issue. I renamed the outlook OST file on my PC to a different name and allowed the system to generate a new OST file. This took care of the US Holidays Contacts folder that didn't have anything in it. It added a new contacts folder (Outlook.com) that has 1,320 contact in it that are populated correctly. I have my regular PST contacts folder as well with 1300+ contacts. I logged in to Outlook.com and it is showing the 1300 plus contacts. Good so far.

I then removed the Outlook.com account from my phone and that removed all of the "Unknown Names" on my phone, but left all of the regular contacts. Then I added my outlook.com account on my phone again and it wont let me connect. The exchange server was shown as the office365 server ( I believe it was outlook.office365.com, but I didn't write it down). I read somewhere the server could be m.outlook.com and used that....and it logged in. , but it also repopulated the "Unknown Names" (roughly 1300 of them) onto my phones contacts list. It is syncing my calendar correctly.

I do have an office 365 account, but it is not linked to the desktop outlook and has no contacts or calendar events in it.

Not sure what to do next. Any thoughts?