Deleted all Outlook Contacts - Urgent Help Needed!

You will need to restore the entire Identity then export the contacts to import into his main Identity. All Time Machine Identities do not save the database file so you will have to rebuild first.

RESTORE YOUR IDENTITY FROM A TIME MACHINE BACKUP:

1) Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock or open it from the Applications folder.

2) Use the arrows and the timeline along the right edge of your screen to browse through the Time Machine backups. When you find the Main Identity file, select it, and then click Restore. Select to save on the Desktop.

3) Rename Main Identity on Desktop to "Restored Main Identity".

4) Drag "Restored Main Identity" to the Office 2011 Identities folder.

~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/

5) Using Database Utility select "Restored Main Identity". Set as default then select to rebuild.

6) You can export data from the rebuilt Identity as .olm file to merge with another Identity .

File > Export (select the default action to export as .olm file. Select items you want to recover.)

7) "Switch Identity" Select Main Identity as default in Database Utility.

8) File > Import select the .olm file into your main Identity. You'll need to drag from imported folder to the local folders/calendars, contacts etc.

See this link for help moving the imported data.

How to move your data to a new Identity

Hi, do yourself a favour and quit using Time Machine for your Data Backups. I use an external drive and SuperDuper to create a daily scheduled disk copy/mirror. SuperDuper mirrors the drive so that ALL your files are copied for back up. Not to mention gives you the option of an additional boot drive if your internal drive fails.... Cheers!

Michael73 said:

@Diane - Perfect - thanks!!!!!!

Can I assume that once I've switched back to using the Main Identity, done the import and verified that all the data's there that it's OK to delete the "Restored Main Identity" as it's no longer being used?

Click to expand...

Yes, you can delete the restored Identity after you are satisfied you have recovered your data.

Michael73's suggestion to use SuperDuper is an excellent one, but think it's best when used with Time Machine.

Cons:
SuperDuper has run and overwritten the older data you need to restore.

Pros: SuperDuper backs up the database file so you don't have to rebuild. Identities restored from Time Machine often will fail to rebuild. If that happens it's very difficult to recover any data from Outlook.

I suggest that you occasionally export as .olm file just Contacts and Calendar events in case you need to restore a single item.