CRM Outlook Client Address Book Not Populating Data as Expected

Donna Edwards

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I recently came across a post in the Dynamics Forums. The post indicated the the CRM Outlook Client Address Book was not populating with data as expected. The post was originally created in early 2010 and resurfaced because another user was experiencing the same issue. Interestingly enough, the person who originally posted the issue over a year ago joined in the discussion again and indicated that she was still experiencing the problem. After a little back and forth and some additional research, I was able to find what I believe is the solution.

The CRM Outlook Client has an Address Book feature that contains a list of e-mail address that you can use when sending e-mail from Outlook. This is a great feature in that you can quickly find a list of Addresses for CRM records like Contacts, Accounts, Queues, Leads, etc. and then add the record to the e-mail.

The issue this person was experiencing was that the Address Book for CRM Contacts and some of the other CRM entities was not populating as expected. The user options were set correctly to update the Address Book but they were not seeing all the records. After a bit of research, I came across this great article on The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog and although dated was still relevant.

The CRM Outlook Client Address Book is populated from cached data that is stored in the User’s Profile folder: <userprofile>\Application Data\Microsoft\MSCRM\ABP\ The fix for this particular issue was to delete the files found in that data store and allow the CRM Outlook Client to re-sync the data.

In reading through the article, there can be several reasons why the list of addresses for a particular entity might not include all the records you expect. For example, if a Contact or other record does not have an e-mail address in the primary e-mail address field, it will not show in the CRM Outlook Client Contact Address Book. The good news is that whatever the issue might be that is impacting your ability to use this great feature, it is easily addressed.

Cheers!