Error in Outlook: "The action cannot be completed. The Bookmark is not valid"

You receive the following error when you open the Address Book in Microsoft Outlook:You may also receive this error message when you try to add a Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox to an Outlook profile.

The issue occurs if either of the following scenarios is true.

Scenario 1

• The Closest GC entry is present in the registry on the client computer that is running Outlook.
• The server that hosts the mailbox in the Outlook profile is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Scenario 2

• The mailbox in the Outlook profile is a linked mailbox that is hosted on a server in a remote forest.
• The server in the remote forest is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
On the client that is running Outlook, remove the Closest GC registry entry. To do this, follow these steps.

Note The Closest GC registry entry and its value may be deployed as part of a custom Group Policy template. Contact your system administrator if this problem occurs again.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit and then press Enter.
2. Locate the following registry subkey:
   
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Exchange\ExchangeProvider
3. Right-click Closest GC, and then click Delete.
4. Exit Registry Editor.
5. Restart the client computer that is running Outlook.

For more information about the Closest GC registry entry, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Note Do not use the Closest GC registry entry if a mailbox is hosted on a server that is running Exchange Server 2010.