Microsoft KB Archive/250398

= You cannot open an Outlook 98 or an Outlook 2000 e-mail address in a contact entry that you created in Outlook 97 =

Article ID: 250398

Article Last Modified on 1/27/2007

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Outlook 98 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q250398



SYMPTOMS
When you try to view the details of an e-mail address that is in an Outlook contact, you may receive the following error message:

The name or distribution list has been deleted and is no longer a valid Address Book entry.



CAUSE
This behavior can occur because the e-mail address in the contact was added or modified with Outlook 97 in a public folder. If a different user that is located on another mailbox server in the site tries to access the e-mail address in this contact, the error message that is referenced in the "Symptoms" section occurs.



WORKAROUND
Use one of the following two methods to work around this behavior:  Use Microsoft Outlook 98 or Microsoft Outlook 2000 to add e-mail addresses from the Global Address List (GAL) to your Outlook contacts.

-or-

 If you are using Outlook 97, create contacts that can be used by users on other servers that are in the Exchange site. To do this:  Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Click the Mail icon, click the Show Profiles box, double click the profile that you use to start Outlook, and then click Add. In the Add Service to Profile dialog box, double-click Personal Address Book in the Available information services box. Type the name and location of the file, click OK, and then click OK again.</li> Start Outlook 97 with the profile that you just created or modified.</li> Open your address book, and then click Global Address List in the Show names from the box</li> Type the names that you want to add from your GAL to your PAB.</li> On the File menu, click the Import and Export... Wizard, and then click Import from another program or file.</li> Click Personal Address Book, and then import the Personal Address Book (PAB) that you created to a temporary Contact folder.</li> Copy the temporary Contact folder contents to the public contact folder. As result, all information is stored as a one-off and you do not need to reference the GAL.</li></ol>

If you only have Outlook 97 and want to keep what is already in the public folder, you may use the following steps:</li></ul>


 * 1) Open your address book, and then click Contacts.
 * 2) Add the contacts one by one to your PAB.
 * 3) After you add all of the contacts to your PAB, continue with step 5 of the second work around.

<div class="status_section">

STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Outlook 97.

<div class="moreinformation_section">

MORE INFORMATION
Outlook 97 uses an Entry ID (EID) to link entries in the GAL to contact entries. The Exchange Server private store can provide a short-term or a long-term EID. In Outlook 97, a short-term EID is requested, which is only valid on the users local Exchange Server. This EID is added to the contact entry that is created. When a new user on another Exchange Server tries to open the contacts e-mail address, Outlook is not able to find the associated GAL entry based on the short-term EID in the contact.

As result, the error described in the "Symptoms" section of this article is displayed. Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 use a long-term EID in contact entries instead of a short-term EID to reference the GAL, which are valid over the whole organization. So when users on other Exchange Servers open a contacts e-mail address, Outlook can find the associated GAL entry.

Keywords: kbprb KB250398

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.