Troubleshoot the Address Book

The Address Book can contain several address books. The name you want may be in a different address book. Try selecting a different address book.

Show How?

In the Address Book dialog box, click another address book in the Show Names from the list.
To see contacts from your Microsoft Outlook contacts list, in the Show Names from the list, click the name of the contacts folder you want under Outlook Address Book.
A contact must have an entry in the E-mail field or in a Fax field to appear in the Outlook Address Book/Contacts folder.

Your contacts public folder might not be set to appear in the Address Book. Set it to appear.

Show How?

Right-click the Contacts folder, click Properties on the shortcut menu, and then click the Outlook Address Book tab.
Select the Show this folder as an e-mail address book check box.

Any name you add in the Address Book dialog box is added to your Contacts folder. But entries in the Contacts folder are not added to your Personal Address Book automatically. You must add the contact to your Personal Address Book directly by opening the Personal Address Book and then clicking New.

The contacts folder might have been deleted. Or, if the contacts folder is shared, you may no longer have permission to use it.

If this is the case, ask the owner of the folder for permission, and then set up the folder in the Address Book again.

If you determine that the contacts folder does not exist or that you cannot get permission to use it, you can remove the folder from the Address Book.

Show How?

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Under Directory, select View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next.
Click the address book you want to delete.
Click Remove.
Click Finish.

It may take quite a long time for the name you typed in the message to be checked against the address book, depending on the size and speed of the directories you are searching. Try any of the following:

Show Exclude an LDAP directory from the list of address books being used to check names

On the Tools menu, click Address Book.
In the Address Book dialog box, click Tools, and then click Options.
In the When sending mail, check names using these address lists in the following order list, click the address book that you want to exclude.
Click Remove.

Show Reduce the amount of time Microsoft Outlook spends searching LDAP directories

On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
Under Directory, select View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next.
Click the address book that you want to change, and then click Change.
Click the Search tab, and then, under Server settings, change the value for Search time-out in seconds to a lower number.
Click OK, and then click Finish.

Show Change the order in which address books are checked for names

If you use a particular address book more often than others, you can have it always checked first.

On the Tools menu, click Address Book.
In the Address Book dialog box, click Tools, and then click Options.
In the When sending mail list, click the address book that you want to move.
Click the up arrow next to the When sending mail, check names using these address lists in the following order list. Address books in this list are checked from top to bottom.

On the Tools menu, click Address Book.
In the Address Book dialog box, click Tools, and then click Options.
In the Show this address list first list, click the address book you want to appear first in the Show Names from the list.
If you want a Contacts folder to appear first, you must select the Contacts folder name, not Outlook Address Book.

To display the Find dialog box, click Advanced, and then click Find.

To display more information about names in your address books, resize the dialog box, by clicking the left or right border of the box and then dragging it until the information you want to see is visible.