Outlook contact history / active directory situation

[Mister Natural]

A minor problem as far as I'm concerned, but I thought I'd ask in case someone knows off the top of their head what the deal is.

I had a user inquire as to why his auto-complete history of email accounts in outlook is lost when he returns to the office with his laptop, plugs into the network and re-syncs in an active directory network.

An example, the guy is in outlook, he goes to post a new email. In the "To" field, when he starts typing (not clicking on the "TO" button to bring up his contact list), previous email addresses and contacts automatically appear and he can select one of them instead of typing the whole email address. When he comes back to the office that auto-complete list is reset or cleared for some reason. His actual contacts list is fine it's just the list that shows previous history is being cleared.

Outlook 2003 is in standalone mode and not using a MS exchange server.

I have too much going on to worry about an issue like that, but if someone knows what the deal is I'd appreaciate some input.

 

[fibroptikl]

I too have sales guys that it happens to. They however don't move between locations, just one desktop.

 

[oakfan52]

I don't have real solution for you but I think the answer lays in the nickname file/acache.

 

[FireExit]

It sounds like his nk2 file is being recreated everytime. It could be that is AD profile isn't sync up to the server, but only syncing down to the laptop. If he has a profile where the nk2 file is blank that wold xplain why it is getting wiped all the time. The nk2 file is stored in teh following location:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

You might want to check on the profile store on your server and his laptop before he logs in to AD and compare differences

 

[sully127]

Like the above said, it is the nk2.

One thing that could potentially be the problem is that when you go to C:\Documents and Settings\ do you see a folder for his username and a folder for his username.domain?

If so, then there's your problem. It is reading from a different folder.

 

[Mister Natural]

Like the above said, it is the nk2.

One thing that could potentially be the problem is that when you go to C:\Documents and Settings\ do you see a folder for his username and a folder for his username.domain?

If so, then there's your problem. It is reading from a different folder.

Yes that is correct. There is an old workgroup mode login for that user which still resides on the laptop.

Thanks to both for the clue on nk2, I'll check it out.

 

[TechLarry]

Is he using a different Outlook profile?

Those autocomplete addresses are not stored in the PST or on the server. They are stored in an .NK2 file that corresponds to each profile. These files are located at:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

-Larry

A minor problem as far as I'm concerned, but I thought I'd ask in case someone knows off the top of their head what the deal is.

I had a user inquire as to why his auto-complete history of email accounts in outlook is lost when he returns to the office with his laptop, plugs into the network and re-syncs in an active directory network.

An example, the guy is in outlook, he goes to post a new email. In the "To" field, when he starts typing (not clicking on the "TO" button to bring up his contact list), previous email addresses and contacts automatically appear and he can select one of them instead of typing the whole email address. When he comes back to the office that auto-complete list is reset or cleared for some reason. His actual contacts list is fine it's just the list that shows previous history is being cleared.

Outlook 2003 is in standalone mode and not using a MS exchange server.

I have too much going on to worry about an issue like that, but if someone knows what the deal is I'd appreaciate some input.