How to Recover a Lost Contacts Folder

If you have noticed that the contacts in your Outlook address book have disappeared, you can recover them by restoring your Outlook data file. Outlook data files are stored in the .pst format and can be manually restored using a built-in feature of the email client. Before attempting to recover your Outlook data file, you should check the "Deleted Items" folder on your Outlook profile to see if the lost contacts folder is located there.

Things You'll Need

• PC running Windows XP or later
• Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later

Instructions

1. Launch the Microsoft Outlook application and log in to your email account.

2. Open the "File" menu at the top of the window and choose "Import and Export."

3. Select the "Import from another program or file" option and click "Next."

4. Choose "Personal Folder File (.pst)" from the list of file types and click "Next" again.

5. Hit the "Browse" button and navigate to the C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook directory. Then look for a file called "Outlook.pst" and double-click on it.

6. Click on the "Finish" button to restore the contents of your Outlook data file. Once the recovering process finishes, your contacts folder will appear again.

References

• Managing Data Files in Outlook