"xyz" is not in your contact list. Click here to add him or her now. --but nothing happens

I'm using the latest Live Messanger 8.
This strange thing just happened. I was chatting with a friend A and he
gave me contact name B and said that B is online. I immediately added B
in my contact list but he's not online. So my friend A added B in the
window so the three of us are in conference thus B is indeed online.

Me and B tried to solve this problem but we cannot. He sees me online
but I can't see him online. Also everytime I started a conversation
with B there is a small note in the window:

B is not in your contact list. Click here to add him or her now. (the
last sentence is clickable)

When I try to click it it does nothing.
Block is disabled.
There must be something wrong in my system since I tried with another
account in my laptop and it's fine (I can see him online).
Help please! Thanks!

I solved my problem!!

I solved my problem!!

In addition to the above problem, I found that I can add new contacts
but I cannot see them online. So I installed Windows Live Messenger in
another PC which was never installed before and I found that WLM
created new folders in C:\Documents and Settings, specifically in:

- C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Contacts
- C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts

These folders and subfolders might be Hidden so you will need to enable
them in Folder Options (Show hidden files and folders).

When I log in to my account in the other PC, it creates new subfolders
based on my login name. And when I looked into WLM screen, all my
contacts are there and I can now see the problematic users online!

So then on my main PC, I deleted everything inside those 2 folders
(backup first to be safe) and copy from the other PC to this one. Sign
in again on my main PC and voila!

Cheers!

Greetings,Your particular problem must've been a problem in the contact cache,

Greetings,

Your particular problem must've been a problem in the contact cache, which doesn't surprise
me as al the caches in WLM have been quite problematic since it was released.

Appreciate the feedback.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--

So is there a fix for this, if I don't have a second PC?

So is there a fix for this, if I don't have a second PC? I had exactly
the same problem. Moreover, if I delete existing contacts that are
online and the re-add them, they'll show up as Offline. No
notifications are sent to them.
Any solution for this? (other than going back to an older messenger
version)

Hi Peter,Well, for fun, make sure Messenger is shut down and then try removing

Hi Peter,

Well, for fun, make sure Messenger is shut down and then try removing these folders on your
PC.  Just so you know, it's simply a contact cache, you won't lose anything by doing so.

However, yeah, you can't just delete contacts and magically this will be solved.  This is
because the relationship between you and your contact is not severed when you delete someone.
If you were to delete them, then they delete you, then you remove them from the Privacy
category in the Tools menu (or Alt-T if its hidden), Options and then you can readd them,
re-establishing the relationships and usually fixing issues like this.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--

Hi,Seems like I have the same problem.

Hi,

Seems like I have the same problem.
I tried the workaround, deleted these folders, but when trying to
sign-in again it takes ages and ages (I've given it over 10 minutes)
and nothing happens. Doesn't fail, doesn't succeed, just the two little
people doing their dance.

Anything else I can try?

Thanks...

Greetings,How long has this problem been happening for you?

Greetings,

How long has this problem been happening for you?  Just to be clear about what you've
tried -- have you shut down Messenger and then run the:
http://messenger.jonathankay.com/downloads/remove_wlmpolicies.reg file?

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--

"xyz" is not in your contact list. Click here to add him or her now. --but nothing happens

John,

Your fix worked for me.  Thanks for the help.

James

Hi James,Great.

Hi James,

Great.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--

hi Jonathan, the registry patch did it for me too - without removingany cache

hi Jonathan, the registry patch did it for me too - without removing
any cache (or other sort of) files.

thanks!!!

Hi,Yes I've been discovering that over the past few days too.

Hi,

Yes I've been discovering that over the past few days too.  Thanks for the feedback.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--

I'm having the same problem with a friend.

I am having the same problem with a friend. However, how do i know if
the problem is on my machine or his? We both cannot see each other
online.

Unfortunately the fix did not work for me.

Unfortunately the fix did not work for me.

I still am having the same problem, no matter what I do.

Any advice on how I can add contacts which work?
Thanks.

John

Hi John,You may need to delete and readd the contacts and/or use another

Hi John,

You may need to delete and readd the contacts and/or use another client like Windows
Messenger (not Live) which more than likely will prompt you to add the contacts to your list
(in most people's experience) and then you can switch back to Live and they should work.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--

Hi Jonathan,This issue is an important issue because I know there are too many

Hi Jonathan,

This issue is an important issue because I know there are too many users
around that doesnt know which tag to use in a search engine to get this page.
Many suffer this.

You Reg file works after deleting the folders and files under those folders.
It takes ~1 minutes to login once.

Messenger versions before this one was successful about this solution. So,
when will you provide a solution to this problem with a new Live Messenger
release ?
Thanks.

Orcun Baslak

Problem Solved

I'd been having this same problem ever since I installed Windows Live Messenger (probably 2-3 months ago?).  I just found this thread.



I shut down IM (making sure to right-click > Exit on the task bar icon), then I ran the Registry edit at the link that John posted.  It worked for me!   In fact, when I restarted IM afterward, I received 2 invitations that had probably been sent to me a while back but I never had received.  And many people that I'd sent invitations to a while back have finally received them (I assume) because they're finally showing up as "Online" on my contact list.

link did not work

Hi Jonathan--

I followed this thread hoping it would help fix my own problem with adding new contacts.

I knew I had been having problems with it, but tonight I signed on to Windows Messenger on an old computer and found 7 requests to add dating back as far as a month ago, that I know of.



I added all of them, signed out... came home and checked to see if they'd been added to my regular (Live) contact list-- they weren't.



I tried running the link you posted (I've also done that... run: regedit, delete "shared" folder) but still nothing. Now it's not even a matter of deleting and re-adding, but finding those people who added me but were never added to my own contact. Can I find those addresses again?



Ah, sorry. I don't feel very computer literate right now.



Thank you.

the link

hey man when i try you link that has the so called fix all i see is this : "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies]"

deleted contacts return on sign in

Hi Jonathan,



I've got a slightly diff problem.



whenever i delete a contact (right click on the  contact in WLM and click delete, then block and remove from contacts and then click ok) they remove themselves.



however when i close WLM and then sign in again (same pc/profile) after any period of time, i get bombarded  with invite requests from all the blocked/deleted contacts i just got rid of.



unless i accept them all back (clicking dont add or cancel just closes the request)i just get asked each and every time i log in. :(



its also the same from the non messenger contacts, but i dont get invite requests for them, they're just back.



help please!!!! :(

registry

the minus symbol tells regedit to delete the key (not that it will have any effect on the size of the dat file it was stored in)



msn probably creates it again with default values next time you open it



rant: maybe one day microsoft will be nice enough to destroy the registry in favour of ascii format settings files (like the "ini" files of old), but i'm not holding my breath