Address Book Problems

Something has happened and I've lost some addresses in several of my address books. However, when I click on their properties all my addresses are still there.
How to I get the main screen of my address book to show all of its addresses again?

Thanks in advance
SKEETF


Window XP Pro
Netscape 7.2

 

If I understand your set up, you have, beside the "Personal Address Book" which if set up like mine, will have all the addresses of address to which i sent mail.
in addition, I have four or five other address books, which are more specialized, like Family, friends, coworkers, computer stuff,etc.
You may have set up the addresses to be located in a specific address book, independently of having sent mail. In such case, you will see the address only in the that address book. If you wish to drag and drop addresses from the Personal address book, you will copy that address, and it will be in both AB, unless you decide to delete the address from the original address book.
Having said all this, I want to make sure that I understand what you are not seeing. Are some addresses not listed in any AB? And, if so, how do you get to the properties. I must be missing something.

 

Just like you I have all my address in my Personal AB. I created several ABs under the it and Dragged and Dropped to fill them up with the addresses I wanted for each. When I first go into my AB the Personal AB is displayed with all my addresses. When I click on one of my added ABs, like FAMILY, it used to display all the addresses I previously added. Now, it only displayes some of those addresses. When I click on properties of FAMILY, all of addresses are indicated. I need to have all the addresses shown on the main FAMILY screen.

SKEETF

 

Skeet,

It could be that the localstore.rdf file is corrupt. If so, that could be causing the problem.

Try this:
Back up your Profiles folder before this edit

Close Netscape and Quick Launch (if used)
Open Windows Explorer, and go to your salted folder (*.slt) located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\profilename\*.slt

Rename this file: localstore.rdf
TO: Xlocalstore.rdf

Now open Netscape and see if your Family AB lists all entries.

If no joy, then go back to your salted folder, and do this:
Delete this file: localstore.rdf
Rename: Xlocalstore.rdf
TO: localstore.rdf

 

Ramona,
I have, usually, kept up to the rule of renaming files which are rebuilt, but at times, I just removed the file in question, and placed it outside the .slt folder. I have never had to rename such files, as the problem was fixed by the replacement of the the bad file, but should I have a situation like you describe, would the original file which I kicked out overwrite the newly created one?

 

Westside,

Yes, Windows should prompt that the file already exists, and should it be overwritten...

 

Thanks Romona. I tried your suggestions above but they didn't work. I restored my original "localstore.rdf" and I'm back where I started. All my FAMILY AB addresses are indicated in Properties but not on the main menu of FAMILY when I click on it.

I have several other AB folders that do the same thing.

Any other ideas?

SKEET

 

Skeet,

Can I assume that you have no backup of your Profile?

User created Address Books are listed in the salted folder in the order they were created: abook-1.mab, abook-2.mab, etc.

Close Netscape, open Windows Explorer, and open the salted folder. Open your "Family" Address Book, and look for any obvious signs of corruption, such as long lines, blank spaces or binary garbage like this: õ0OZ¬¬ÃŠÃ¡®ÃŽÅ½ÃPsTG¼{êAð†`÷oOáÑZHoqâmâ€Ã¦â„¢¿
This is most likely to appear at the end of the Address Book file. If found, delete the lines. Reopen Netscape and see if all addresses can be viewed.

If there is no obvious corruption, then about all you can do is recreate the "Family" Address Book. Just ensure that you do drag and drop addresses from the default Personal Address Book.

Once your have the Profile corrected, then make a backup of the Netscape Profiles folder, and do this on a frequent basis. See this Solutions page:
Preventive Browser Maintenance.

You might also think about moving on to Firefox and Thunderbird...

 

I tried my backup of Profiles and have the same problem with my the FAMILY AB. The Properties of the backup FAMILY AB still show all entries but not the main screen. I tried drop/drag (D&D) from the Main Personal AB and that doesn't work. The properties display doesn't change + or - either way.

However, trying to D&D from the Personal AB to other ABs doesn't work either.
I can get an added entry to display in the properties screen but not the main display.

"Open your "Family" Address Book, and look for any obvious signs of corruption, such as long lines, blank spaces or binary garbage like this: õ0OZ¬¬ÃŠÃ¡®ÃŽÅ½ÃPsTG¼{êAð†`÷oOáÑZHoqâmâ€Ã¦â„¢¿ "

I found the "abook.mab" folder. I opened it with Netscape but I don't think that's what you wanted me to do. Please clarify.

SKEET

 

Skeet,

Are you sure it is an Address Book or a is it a List. There is a big difference. I can't duplicate anything you describe with an Address Book, but I can see "Properties" in a List.

Drag and Drop should work in either an Address Book or a List. Something is definitely wrong if this doesn't work.

When you look for corruption as I described, you must close Netscape, open Windows Explorer, and open your "Family" AB with either WordPad or Notepad.

The abook.mab file is your Personal Address Book, and within that file you will see your List, if in fact you created a List, and not AB. This is a LIST that I created in my Personal Address Book, and named it "Netscape ", with 12 addresses:

<(24D=6c)(24B=Netscape )(24C=netscape )>
{1:^80 {(k^BE:c)(s=9)}
[-4:^81(^BF^24B)(^C3^24C)(^C0=)(^C1=)(^C2=0)(^BB=6c)]}
[1:^82(^BD=6c)]


I also created an ADDRESS BOOK (abook-1.mab) which included a LIST named "Friends ". I did a search/find within the AB (using WordPad) for Friends, and this is what the LIST looks like:

=Friends)
(96=friends)(97=5)(9C=6)(A1=7)(A6=8)(AB=9)(98=John & Marsha)(99=Doe)
(9A=John & Marsha Doe)(9B=xxxxxx@xxxx.net) etc., etc., etc.

 

You are right. Family "all " (actual name) is a list under my Personal AB.

I opened abook.mab with Notepad and ran a FIND for Family "all ". This is all I found:

=FAMILY "all ")(1F3=family "all ")(184=3a)(3E9=124)(1F4=53)(1F5

The properties of my Family "all " list stlll contains 4 names. I don't see any corruption as you described in the Notepad listing.

I cannot get D & D to work on this particular List. It does work on all my others.

The easiest fix for me is to create a new List and add the 4 names to it.

SKEET

 

Skeet,

Since you have only four names, then I would create a new "Family all" list. The four listings are there, but it looks to me as if the last entry is incomplete:

=FAMILY "all ")(1F3=family "all ")(184=3a)(3E9=124)(1F4=53)(1F5

 

Thanks For All Your Help!!

 

Always a pleasure, Skeet!