Outlook: Delete Autocomplete Email Addresses

Contributor Icon Contributed by davak Date Icon January 17, 2004  
Tag Icon Tagged: Microsoft Outlook

Even after you have corrected a wrong email address in your contacts, the old email will continue to bug you when outlook tries to autocomplete addresses for you.


Microsoft outlook stores any email address you type into the “To” field–wrong or right. For example, if I type in “mom@blag.com” instead of “mom@blah.com”, outlook will try to autocomplete the error address into the email field. No matter where you try to correct this, the error email address will always be remembered.

Likewise, the bigger the cache of email addresses gets, the slower and more useless it becomes.

If you are lucky enough to trigger the autocompletion box, you can press the down error until the error email address is selected and then hit DELETE. Often, however, the autocompletion box will not be displayed. Microsoft has a work-around.

The easiest thing to do is to blitz the whole file. The file lives here where your-profile is unique to your installation: “C:\Documents and Settings\your-profile\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook”

Delete or rename all *.nk2 files at this location.

If you need a detailed, walk-through you can find it here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=287623

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Viewing 16 Comments

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    does anyone know how I can print the cache of outlook autocomplete addresses? I have to print them all off my machine (don't ask) and I can't seem to do it. There are none in my address book.

    Thanks...... :oops:
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    I don't think there is an easy way to print them out.

    The file that contains this information can be found here:

    C:Documents and Settingsyour_profileApplication DataMicrosoftOutlookOutlook.NK2

    If you tried to view the file in notepad, you can see that this file is not plain text. However, it obviously contains the autocomplete information because if you erase it, it restarts your autocomplete feature (as noted in the parent recipe).

    Anyhoo, one option might be to copy this file to your new computer... if you are worried about losing this information. Logically I think it might work... although I haven't tried it.

    Anyway, keep us informed how it goes.
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    Or you could just press delete on your keyboard as the *incorrect* address is displayed/highlighted on that autocomplete list.
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    Reading this post I was compelled to title it: Throw the baby out with the bath water.

    Don't delete your NK2 file, mine it! There 's a utility called Owtlook that let's you open, add, edit, export, and print the NK2 file. You can find it at www.dcs-imaging.com/products.htm.

    People have been known to rely on this cache as their contact database in lieu of entering contact info. in a contact folder.

    Therefore, I find it wholly irresponsible for anyone to recommend deleting this file or losing it's contents!

    Randy
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    While I kind of agree with the aforementioned post about using it as a tool to keep track of email addresses you've emailed...the problem is, the cache file is limited to 1000 emails, and when it gets full, is likely to jamb up autocomplete in general, and may even email the wrong recipient even though you typed the correct address.... If anyone finds owtlook, that's great, frankly, I'm not spending money on it...but if you don't feel comfortable with deleting the .nk2 file, just rename it...that way if u need it back, you could always restore it... I usually just add .old1 to the extension, example: outlook.nk2-->oulook.nk2.old1

    Makes sense?
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    I tried to rename the file.. it renames easily... and when I start and shut down outlook it makes a new file.. however it is 0bytes and does nto ever work.. even when adding and or trying autocomplete and such. I have tried turning it on and off in options.. restarting outlook... turning it off then restarting and turning it back on nothing works. My outlook was working fine 3 days ago then boom it will not write to the .NK2 file.. So even if I delete the old.. it will not write to the new. Thats the issue I am having. My pc just stopped writing to the .NK2 file for no apparent reason. I am kind of ticked off. I did find a place to download the Owtlook however have not tried to instal or use it yet... but here is the link.

    http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=4391&file=11&evp=87e3707d0fa04dabb6130ecdc1ca09b0
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    hmmm. In my humble opinion, Microsoft should release a .nk2 editor. It seems crazy to pay for Owtlook (to me). Many users could "live" without their auto-fill lists. In that case, exit Outlook and rename (not delete) Outlook.NK2 and restart Outlook. For those users who cannot live without their autocomplete addresses (who have bad entries), use the "scroll down and press the delete button" workaround.
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    As the provider of Owtlook, reading some of your posts grabbed my attention.

    Recommenders of deleting the file: Know that thousands of users have hundreds of entries in the file, sometimes (most times) it is the ONLY place where vital contact information is stored.

    JeffK - Obviously you have never spent several hundred hours developing software. Once you have actually produced something useful, something that you have sacrificed to create, I doubt you'd apprciated reading "In my humble opinion, Microsoft should release a .nk2 editor. It seems crazy to pay for Owtlook (to me). Many users could "live" without their auto-fill lists" - Many people (thousands) can NOT live without that data as it is all that many rely on!! While some may appreicate your socialist views and think that software developers should produce their programs for free, we do not subscribe to that view. You see, if we gave everything away, we would not be in a position to write solutions to common problems in the computing world! Once you have created a solution to a common computing problem, worked hundreds of hours on it, and then given it away, feel free to respond to this post.

    Regarding the suggestion that one "Delete the NK2 file and start over" - I only have the following to allow:

    Anyone who recommends "just delete the NK2 file" and start again, should have their head examined. The autocomplete (NK2) is separate and apart from the Contact folders. It is, in some cases, the ONLY history of e-mail addresses that many people rely on. Suggesting the deletion of this file in a cavalier fashion is completely irresponsible. I've heard stories about IT/LAN managers who were fired after following such advice from people who whould know better.

    When a problem arises with the autocomplete file, it can almost always be resolved without deleting the NK2 file. We created a utility that will let you open and export the data in this file. Once exported, you can delete it if you determine that it is the NK2 file that is corrupted. However, oftentimes it is the Profile file that becomes corrupted and a disconnect occurs in your registry. We also have a recommended way of re-creating your NK2 file once you've obtained a text or db file of its contents.

    You can find our utility at www.dcs-imaging.com/products.htm. It's called Owtlook. You can contact me through that web site and I can explain in more detail how to re-create your NK2 file IF it is necessary.
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    - Nobody said software developers should do it for free. They should just support their own software. Microsoft should deal with the problems with autocompletion or else not include the feature in their product. My company has paid dearly for Microsoft Office software and I am not about to recommend they pay $15-30 per user to buy all the utilities like Owtlook to make up for all the quirks and faults of MS Office.
    - Anybody who relies on the name completion cache in place of a contact entry should, in your words, "have their head examined." Microsoft admits that problems exist with name completion files becoming corrupt. (and yet they do not provide a fix to it.) In fact, Microsoft's recommended "solution" is to delete the NK2 file. So I say it's not prudent to rely on a feature that the is flawed to "store" addresses.
    - I've reviewed the demo of your product and I find it is useful to be able to edit the NK2 file, but I still contend that Microsoft should provide this feature or utility since it is a workaround to a flaw in their product. Also, I believe it would be very valuable if your product could perform a batch export and batch import from a commandline (not gui.) I would like to be able to export NK2 files for every user at startup. Then, when a problem develops the file could be cleared and the backup imported.
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    You might want to check out the NK2csv project. Basically it will allow you to work with your autocompletion cache. It's much better than any other editor because it's free! Website is http://www.epute.com/nk2csv
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    Bless you Vinas for pointing this out! And NK2csv! Microsoft should take the time to develope useful tools like this for their software, but hey...this works :)
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    Epute's NK2csv works a treat! Thanks for that :D
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    so, we have removed, replaced, renamed... the NK2 files and O2k3 clients still pop up an autocomplete with a bad entry. Where else can it pull it. I see the bad entry, use the nk2csv.exe tool, and the contact isn't even in it. Its empty.

    Is there something in Exchange 2000 that does this as well?

    Please help... I'm going crazy here!
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    I have a quick question some what similar to this. Why would Outlook automatically delete the nk2 file? I turned on my comp today and all my AutoComplete fillins that I had are gone. Now I will have to look back at old emails to find my contacts email address. Any ideas?
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    To expand upon FYIGal's reply (which I think is the simplest solution for the problem presented):

    I was able to remove a wrong email address from the autocomplete list by putting my cursor in the "TO" box; type the first letter(s) of the wrong nickname/email; use the arrow keys to scroll till the wrong item is selected (arrow keys will keep the drop down window open), then just press the delete button. This will remove that particular nickname/email address from the autocomplete list.
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    There is an easier way. When you start typing in the TO: box and the drop down list pops up with the possible email addresses, scroll down with your arrow keys, and once you are on the email address that is incorrect, hit your delete key. And voila! It deletes that email address.
 
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