Help fix my Outlook 2013?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jeff Davis

Member
Outlook version
Outlook 2013 64 bit
Email Account
Outlook.com (as MS Exchange)
I'm struggling with my Outlook 2013 that is set up with only my outlook.com address in it using the Exchange ActiveSync setup. It was running great after reinstalling it after doing a Windows 10 clean install. Now Outlook has gone a bit crazy.
I took all of the steps that are on this site to edit my registry to get it to only display full sized Contacts when I search using the little box at the top of Outlook Today. It worked great for a week. That is at Using Outlook's New Contact Cards (which includes my PrintScreens)
I also have a bunch of custom Contact Groups set up so that I can find them on my Nokia Lumia 635 phone more easily. So I had to go thru the Outlook 2013 and find a Contact from each Group and Add its custom Group by clicking NEW since it told me that it was (not in Master Category List).
This took a while but oh well.
Now all of a sudden, both things have broken all on their own or perhaps due to my making some dumb Windows Setting change here on this home computer of mine. I even recreated the Groups again this morning and now their all gone again and all I see are those generic colored Groups aka Categories.
I did foolishly take the steps in this old article (www.laptopmag.com/articles/windows-10-settings-to-change) that I found at about the same time that my contact Search box became 'broken' thinking that I was doing the right things but maybe one of the things in their list caused this?
I've asked for help over at Microsoft Answers (which I use often) at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...the-full/f390bdfa-01b0-4e35-928f-97b77e4c8b3a (which includes my PrintScreens) and nobody has jumped in to help me.
I need to fix this and I really don't want to need to reinstall Outlook and start over. I have already taken a step that I was told to try in that Question thread and create another outlook.com Exchange ActiveSync profile and then delete the original one and let it sync, but that hasn't fixed anything on either issue.
I really need help.
 
This site won't let me edit this in since it says that '3 minutes have passed' but it should have also said:
Thirdly, I was told how to set the Outlook Today Contact Search to only find actual Contacts and not just little boxes listing their email addresses and I was jazzed to stop it from doing those.
Now all of a sudden, all 3 things have broken all on their own ....
 
My outlook.com email address works as it should online & in Outlook 2013 on another Windows 10 computer of mine that also has my outlook.com set up the same way using Exchange ActiveSync.
 
I should have mentioned that this problem of Outlook only giving me those email address boxes when I search for a Contact on the Outlook Today page only happens on my own Contact and a few others that are in my Outlook Family Group. Most of them in that Group work just as they should as do any others that I have tried that I've put into my 10 other Groups.
 
I was helped by Diane Poremsky over on my Question in Microsoft Answers. I am SO thankful.
She said "I have a ready to use reg file here - http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/search-people-finds-contacts-exist/ (for both 2013 and 2016)."
"Note that you need to restart Outlook after setting a policy key - otherwise it will not have any effect until you do."
Search People Finds Contacts That Don't Exist
Thanks Diane. I'll try to make a note of this since I realize this is the second time that you've had to tell me this same thing.
 
Sorry I missed these earlier -

I also have a bunch of custom Contact Groups set up so that I can find them on my Nokia Lumia 635 phone more easily. So I had to go thru the Outlook 2013 and find a Contact from each Group and Add its custom Group by clicking NEW since it told me that it was (not in Master Category List).
On this - if it ever happens again (it won't, unless you import appointments or contacts or delete the categories from the master list) - you can use Upgrade to color categories to add the categories to the master list. They will use random colors.

Also , not on the master list really only affects how you view the categories and assign them to new items. Grouping by category still works - they are all just white color.
 
I was helped by Diane Poremsky over on my Question in Microsoft Answers. I am SO thankful.
She said "I have a ready to use reg file here - http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/search-people-finds-contacts-exist/ (for both 2013 and 2016)."
"Note that you need to restart Outlook after setting a policy key - otherwise it will not have any effect until you do."
Search People Finds Contacts That Don't Exist
Thanks Diane. I'll try to make a note of this since I realize this is the second time that you've had to tell me this same thing.

Save the reg files in a folder so they are easy to find if you need to use them on a new computer. If you upgrade - open each in notepad (right-click, Edit should do it) and change the 15 to 16 and save.
 
I badly need some Categories help. Since my Nokia Lumia 635 Windows 8.1 phone will only allow a max of 25 contacts in any Group, today I needed to split up three of my groups into 4. I'll just tell you that they are restaurants that we visit often and I list my favorite low carb menu item or items on each one. So my Groups were named Food A-E, Food F-Q and Food R-Z using the restaurant's names. I had 73 in there so they were all pretty much to the limit and I wanted to add one to a group that was maxxed out. So I manually renamed the existing 3 and I created a new one while using my Outlook 2013. Then I tediously opened each Contact that needed to be assigned to a new Group and I deleted it from the old Group and added it to the correct one.
But quite oddly, even though my Outlook 2013 is set up with only my outlook.com address in it using Exchange ActiveSync, those new Group settings haven't ever transferred up to my live.com online site (which I rarely use) or to my Windows smartphone. Both places still only have the old Groups even listed as available and any of the Contacts that I reassigned are still listed as belonging to their old Group i.e. Category.
Yet if I go to any of them in my Outlook 2013, it lists their Categories correctly as the new ones that I edited or created today. And if I go to assign anyone new to a Category, all of my new Categories are there in Outlook 2013 but not online or on my cell phone.
This is weird and I thought that maybe turning OFF Outlook and then back ON would fix it, but it hasn't. I also tried restarting my cell phone but still no good. Obviously that wasn't going to do anything since my Category changes have never made it up to the live.com/outlook.com server.
Help?
I should tell you 2 more things. I hate those color Categories so much that when I created all of my custom Categories, I deleted each of the colored ones. Also, as I created each of my own, I picked NONE as the color. So I don't have any color in my Categories at all.
Also, I couldn't figure out what you meant when you'd said "you can use Upgrade to color categories to add the categories to the master list". I don't see anywhere to do that, not that I really want to now or in the foreseen future.
 
But quite oddly, even though my Outlook 2013 is set up with only my outlook.com address in it using Exchange ActiveSync,
is your mailbox on the new server? If it's still on the old server, categories can only be added online.
 
Also, I couldn't figure out what you meant when you'd said "you can use Upgrade to color categories to add the categories to the master list". I don't see anywhere to do that, not that I really want to now or in the foreseen future.
Right click on the top level folder - this is where Outlook Today is - and choose Properties. There is a button to upgrade to color categories. It adds the category name to the master list and assigns a color to it.
 
is your mailbox on the new server? If it's still on the old server, categories can only be added online.
I don't know if my mailbox is on the new server. I forget how you told me to see that. How do I?
 
log into outlook.com - is the url outlook.live.com/owa? The banner over the inbox will say outlook mail if its on the new server.

the old server url is something like blu185.mail.live.com/default.aspx and the banner says outlook.com.
 
Mine says https:// bay182.mail.live.com/xxxso I guess I'm still on the old one. I'd thought that you'd said somewhere earlier to me that everyone was being migrated over to the new server and that would be completed by some time in August. Did they get behind?
 
Right click on the top level folder - this is where Outlook Today is - and choose Properties. There is a button to upgrade to color categories. It adds the category name to the master list and assigns a color to it.
Thanks. I right-clicked on my email address at the top of the left column in Outlook Today above all of the email folders and I chose Data File Properties (not Account Properties) and I clicked on Upgrade to Color Properties. It then said that it might take a while to do but it didn't.
But I'm confused as to what to do next and what that actually did. I just went to People online at https:// people.live.com and found one of those Contacts and then hilited it & clicked Groups v and it only shows my old groups and one of them is checked for that Contact.
So do I need to go through the process again and just go online and click (+) New > New Group and add in the 4 new Group names and if so, how do I get rid of the 3 old ones? I don't see any place to do that at.
 
Yes, they are behind. I think they are about 80- 90% finished but moved the 'we'll definitely be done by' date to mid-2017.
 
So do I need to go through the process again and just go online and click (+) New > New Group and add in the 4 new Group names and if so, how do I get rid of the 3 old ones? I don't see any place to do that at.

Yes, you need ot add the 4 new groups names at people,live.com and add the contacts to the groups.
 
Yes, you need ot add the 4 new groups names at people,live.com and add the contacts to the groups.
Thanks but that makes me wonder, what will happen to how my Outlook 2013 interacts with my outlook.com info on their server? Will it then just alter whatever is in my Outlook 2013 to whatever it finds online?
 
Outlook 2013 will use the categories that you assign online - the ones you set in outlook will be erased/replaced. other data in the contact won't be touched - just the category.

We recommend always editing contacts online as it can cause duplicates in outlook if you end them in outlook. Once your account is migrated, these issues will go away - categories are categories both places, contact groups are contract groups (also called distribution lists)
 
This Categories thing is WAY OUT OF CONTROL. I've tried everything that you said and I went online and manually created each of the 4 new Groups and I named them FOOD A-C, FOOD D-J, FOOD K-R and FOOD S-Z and as I made each of those, I used the box just below it to add members 1 by 1 into it by typing enough letters of the name for it to find them. Then it supposedly made the Group. So I go into my phone and I see both the new Groups and the old ones.
That seems easy as all I should need to do is open each Contact using Outlook 2013 that I find in each of the Groups on my phone and since it now displays both the old Category and the new one across the top of the Contact, I figured out that I can just right click that bar with the Category name in it and pick, for instance, Clear FOOD A-C since that's one of the old Categories that I want to get everyone out of.
But then I discover that when I go onto my phone, on the People-Groups page, I see both the new Group names AND the old ones. So I just go to FOOD A-C, for instance, and then tap the ... and select Delete which will delete the Group but not the Contacts.
So I did that to all 3 of the old Groups that I want to get rid of. Remember now that I've already made the new Groups and put all of those same Contacts into them.
But when I go to each of the Contacts using Outlook 2013 after doing all of this, it doesn't list those Groups anywhere (or maybe it listed them in All Categories as Not On The Master List.
I'm so confused by now that all I can tell you is that on my phone, I see my 4 new Groups and the right Contacts are in each one, but in Outlook 2013, if I open any Contact and click on Categorize, they weren't there. But then maybe they got added but I got so frustrated and mixed up that I actually Deleted ALL of my FOOD Categories that I found in there, both old & new.
So please help me fix my Outlook 2013. My phone is thankfully showing the new Groups aka Categories and since that's what I carry when I'm about to visit some place to eat, that's what matters. But I'd sure like to have everything the same and synced. That's why I mess with this stupid Nokia Lumia 635 junk that so very few people are willing to do and for good reason.
 
Outlook 2013 will use the categories that you assign online - the ones you set in outlook will be erased/replaced. other data in the contact won't be touched - just the category.

We recommend always editing contacts online as it can cause duplicates in outlook if you end them in outlook. Once your account is migrated, these issues will go away - categories are categories both places, contact groups are contract groups (also called distribution lists)
Is editing a Contact while using my Nokia phone the same as doing it online?
That's interesting what you said about editing Contacts in Outlook can create duplicates. I'd noticed some of those in the past and I'd always wondered what was causing that.
I'd thought that maybe I was doing it by hitting the Save link manually after editing something and then leaving it open and maybe editing it more before I hit Close/Save.
So now I guess I should always Edit online or on my phone depending on how you answer what I asked here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
S Custom Contact card - need help creating one Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 1
D Lifelong Windows user - new to Mac - Help!!! Using Outlook 3
L Help: set flag for sent mail to check if received an answer Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 2
Nufc1980 Outlook "Please treat this as private label" auto added to some emails - Help. Using Outlook 3
I Help with Smart Folder + Query Builder on IMAP Using Outlook 0
S Outlook 2002- "Send" button has disappeared. Help please. Using Outlook 1
A Outlook 2019 Help with forwarding email without mentioning the previous email sender. Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
Witzker Outlook 2019 HELP to get Template Path in a Function Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 2
CWM550 Outlook 365 HELP! Calendar Craziness! Using Outlook 5
S Outlook 365 Help me create a Macro to make some received emails into tasks? Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 1
e_a_g_l_e_p_i Has nobody used Office 2021 enough to help me or have you given up on me.......lol Using Outlook 1
X Open Hyperlinks in an Outlook Email Message (Help with Diane's solution) Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 3
L Help connecting to hosted exchange server 2016 Using Outlook 0
B Seeking help with Outlook rule Using Outlook 2
D Need help with MS Authenticator Using Outlook 4
I Outlook for Mac 2019 using on desktop and laptop IMAP on both need help with folders Using Outlook 1
FryW Need help modifying a VBA script for in coming emails to auto set custom reminder time Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
S.Champ Please help? I've imported a random workcalendar I dont even know who's. Can I undo it? and then I need to re-sync the google one again. Its a mess:( Using Outlook 2
S HTML to Plain Text Macro - Help Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 1
e_a_g_l_e_p_i Outlook 2010 Help setting up Gmail account in Outlook 2010 Using Outlook 3
N Help creating a VBA macro with conditional formatting to change the font color of all external emails to red Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 5
Y Filter unread emails in a search folder vba help Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
L Need help modifying a VBA script for emails stuck in Outbox Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 6
F Microsoft Outlook Connector 14.0.6123.5001 - Help! Using Outlook 6
Witzker Pls help to change the code for inserting date in Ol contact body Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 5
R Disable conversation thread from replying of recipients in the same subject. Please help Using Outlook 0
R seperate read layout to design in outlook 2016..Help!! Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 3
O Help .. got lost ... installing Office like 2016 Using Outlook 5
A Arthur needs help with 2007 Outlook e-mail Using Outlook.com accounts in Outlook 3
R Help Revising VBA macro to delete email over different time span Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 0
Marc2019 Need help please! Cannot Setup my outlook email account on my Mac Outlook 2011 Using Outlook.com accounts in Outlook 2
L Attachment saving and tracking - PLEASE help! Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 5
I Help with dates in task list. Using Outlook 5
C need help setting up outlook first time Using Outlook 1
K To do bar help Using Outlook 8
M Help sending email but removing signature via VBA Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 5
S help with outlook scripting Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 4
J Help Please!!! Outlook 2016 - VBA Macro for replying with attachment in meeting invite Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 9
EmelineGueguen Help to understand the problem of work Using Outlook 1
N Outlook Forms Help Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 2
N Need help syncing contacts to iPhone X Using Outlook 8
S VBA Macro - Run-time error '424': object required - Help Please Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 3
broadbander Needing help with reply/reply all while keeping attachments and adding a new CC recipient. Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 5
J Help! My contacts have disappeared. Using Outlook 5
J HELP- Rule to auto strip prepend from external emails Using Outlook 0
J Help Needed With Multi-Step Login Email Address Using Outlook.com accounts in Outlook 1
G Bcc help - Preventing multiple forwards from a bcc'd distribution group Using Outlook 1
G [Help] Converting array to destination folder path Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 1
K Help.... Office Outlook 2016 Using Outlook 1
S Error using AddressEntry.GetContact - need help Outlook VBA and Custom Forms 2

Similar threads

Back
Top