If you have Contacts in Microsoft Outlook's Contacts folder but they are not accessible when you click on the To button, check these settings:
Make sure the Contact folder is enabled as an email address book. Right click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Is the box to enable as email address book is checked?
If this is grayed out...
Go to Tools | Email Accounts, choose View or change existing directories or address book. Is the Outlook Address Book present? If it isn't listed, add it and close and restart Outlook. If it is listed, then remove it and close then restart Outlook and repeat these steps to add it.
If you are using Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 and the the checkbox is grayed, you'll need to remove the email account and re-add it or make a new profile as you can't remove the Outlook Address Book service in these versions.
Enable Contacts as Address book
Right click the Contacts folder, choose Properties then Outlook Address Book. Verify the box to enable the folder as an address book is checked.
Remove Address book (Outlook 2003 and older)
Go to Tools, Email Accounts, choose View or change existing directories or address book.
Is the Outlook Address Book listed?
If it isn't listed, click the Add button (
in second screenshot) to add it. Close and restart Outlook.
If it is listed, then remove the Address book by selecting it then pressing Remove (
in second screenshot). Close Outlook and restart. Go back to this dialog and Add the Outlook Address book service ( in screenshot).
Remove Account (Outlook 2007/2010)
In Outlook 2007 and 2010, the address book service isn't removable. You need to either remove your account and re-create it or make a new profile.
In many cases its better to make a new profile because a missing address book service means the profile is corrupt. This is especially true if you used Windows Easy Transfer to move the profile from one computer to another. Taking the time to make a new profile now may save you a lot of time in the future.
Go to Account settings, Email tab and select the account. Click Remove. Click Add and recreate the account.
Video Tutorial: How to create a new profile in Outlook
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Last reviewed on Nov 11, 2011
Hello,
The answer about having to delete and recreate your profile to fix the lost addresses is EXACTLY what I was trying to AVOID!!! Good ol microsoft…
Again FAIL!!
My addresses are in my contacts directory but you just can’t access it from the “To” button when writing an email
Thanks to you for stating the obvious but its still very sad and BS…
Sincerely,
garrick
Unfortunately, this is one of the few areas where a new profile is required in Outlook 2007/2010 to fix a problem. :(