You cannot locate contacts when you try to use the "Search" or the "Look For" feature in Outlook to locate contacts in Exchange Server 2003

You try to use the Search or the Look for feature in Microsoft Outlook to locate contacts in Public Folders in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. When you do this, you cannot locate contacts. Alternatively, you locate only a partial list of contacts.

If you use the Advanced Find feature in Outlook, you can locate contacts in Public Folders.

This issue occurs if one or more of the contacts are malformed or corrupted. When the Search or the Look for feature locates one of the corrupted contacts, the search process stops without warning.

Export and then import the contacts

The "export to text" format can correct bad data or incorrect attribute settings under certain circumstances. To use the "export to text" format, follow these steps:

1. In Outlook, create a new folder named CON2 in the mailbox. Then, copy the contacts from Public Folders to the CON2 folder. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Right-click the mailbox name, and then click New Folder.
   2. In the Name box, type CON2.
   3. In the Folder Contains list, click Contact Items, and then click OK.
   4. Right-click the contacts in Public Folders, and then click Copy "Contacts".
   5. In the Copy the selected folder to the folder list, click CON2, and then click OK.
2. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
3. In the Import and Export wizard, click Export to a file, and then click Next.
4. Click Comma Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next.
5. In the Select folder to export from list, click CON2, and then click Next.
6. In the Save exported file as box, type the path in which you want to save the file and the file name that you want to use.
7. Click Finish.
   
   Note Make sure that you export all the contacts from the CON2 folder. There may be filters or custom views that are assigned to the contact folder. These filters or custom views may prevent you from seeing all the items that the folder contains.
8. After the contacts are exported to the .csv text format file (Windows .CSV), delete the contacts in the CON2 folder.
9. Import the contacts from the .csv file to the CON2 folder.
10. Delete the original contacts from the contacts folder in Public Folders.
11. Copy the contacts from the CON2 folder to the original contacts folder in Public Folders.
12. Delete the CON2 folder.
13. Complete the Search or the Look for query to see whether Outlook returns all contacts that match the search criteria.