Missing Outlook Contacts

[Velvis]

Have a client with 2 exchange accounts synced between 2 Mac's and 1 PC and various phones. I went in to help organize the contacts so it was clear what belonged to what account. Some how they are missing a group of contacts that was recently updated (she was adding photos and cleaning up fields etc)

I made a backup of the pst from the PC but I must not have done it soon enough when I got there as the backup doesn't have some of the missing contacts.

So I'm not sure what I did wrong but somehow contacts are missing and I can find them. The Mac is running Outlook 2016 against exchange.

Any ideas?

Thanks!


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[Pixelated Tech]

Are these local contacts created by the user (PST), manually created mail contacts from Active Directory (AD) or contacts from the Global Address List (GAL)? All three are possible here under certain circumstances but some would require special privs to remove.

 

[Velvis]

There is no active directory. Not sure on GAL. User was creating them on her Mac in Outlook 2016.

 

[Pixelated Tech]

Make sure she is looking in the right address book. I would eliminate that first. The default address book can be changed in Outlook. GAL, Offline Address Book (OAB), etc. She may otherwise have deleted her self created contacts from her personal address book that would in fact be stored in a local PST. Have you checked recently deleted items in Outlook? You can recover from there. If not, check, otherwise she needs to stop using her Mac immediately and a data recovery needs to take place.

 

[Velvis]

Does Mac Outlook use psts?

I couldn't find the recently deleted items in the Mac version, but I will take another look.

Also I confirmed that at least some of her changes did show up on another Mac through Exchange, but they are no longer on any computer or phone.

 

[Pixelated Tech]

No, they store each item individually. "/Documents/Microsoft User Data" A little more messy IMO. I am primarily a Windows guy so I am always in the mindset of M$.

I would check for deleted items and then do further troubleshooting. Find the source of her contacts and continue from there.

 

[Velvis]

I didnt see any deleted contacts in any of the delete folders in Outlook. Is there other places to look?

 

[Pixelated Tech]

Just make sure you select the deleted items folder and "recover deleted items". It will be different between Outlook versions. Here is an appriver link so I dont have to reinvent the wheel:

https://blog.appriver.com/2011/01/r...ac-users-on-microsoft-exchange-server-part-1/

In some cases with deleted Exchange objects, you will need to use Exchange Management Shell. This uses powershell cmds. You will need proper privs. This can be done using the Search-Mailbox cmdlets.