Deleting duplicate contacts

I have migrated for OE6 to WLM in preparation for transferring to a Windows 7
machine.  I have not signed into Live, I am operating locally.

Somehow some of my contacts were imported with messages.  I imported my WAB
thinking that exact duplicates would not be created.  When they were I was
able to delete most.  Some I could not.  And in those cases, I cannot edit.
When I do, save, close Contacts, exit WLM and reopen WLM and Contacts, they
have returned unchanged.  I tried deleting and replacing with a new Contact
without closing/exiting thinking that WLM would recognize a replacement but
when I close/exit and reopen I then have a new contact I cannot delete.

I have maintained my WAB through all of this.  I thought to delete all
contacts in WLM and import the WAB or a CSV file made from the WAB but I find
on reopening WLM all my contacts are back.

I thought I would try to delete my contacts file outside of WLM but there is
no Contacts file in the Contacts Default folder.  There is no edb file on my
computer.  There is no DBStore folder.  And hidden folders were included in
my search.  I said I did not sign on to Live but I have not one but 2 Live
IDs and thought that because WLM interacts with those accounts that perhaps
my Contacts were actually there.  They were and are not.

The idea of exporting these Contacts to a new computer is out of the
question. In some ways it might not matter because I cannot create a CSV or
VCF export file.  However, it would seem some may export with my messages
which was the problem that started all this.

I truly think that at this point the "cleanest" approach would be to fully
delete the current WLM Contacts and do a clean import of a OE6 CSV file.  But
I cannot delete in WLM and I cannot find the contacts file on my computer or
online.

And while I see discussions here on using Contact.Live.com to manage the
Contact file, I fear that since I cannot delete in WLM locally that I will
clean up online and then reduplicate locally and the number of entries I
could not delete would grow.

I have invested a lot of time in this and at this rate, it is not getting
better.  Any ideas for putting me out of my misery?

Brooding over my inability to delete contacts, I went back into thediscussions

Brooding over my inability to delete contacts, I went back into the
discussions and found someone commenting on the Contacts folder being

I re-searched and found that the seemingly empty folders in Live Mail
Contacts in my Documents and Settings folder actually have contents of some
proportions.  There are actually a total of 5 such folders.  Of the 5, 1 has
unique number of files and folders.  In the other 4 there are 2 pairs.  I say
and folders.  This creates 3 "sets", the single folder and each set of pairs.
Each set, has the same created and modified dates.  All have been accessed
this evening with the oldest, the single folder, accessed the last.

I looked again at my contacts in WLM and find that my effort to delete all
had actually deleted that that appear to be the ones imported from OE6 and
what remains is all the ones I have created/edited since the import.

So, while these folders all have a "Online" status, can I safely delete them
so that I can import a OE CSV file?

The single contacts folder contains the default (not logged in) contacts.

The single contacts folder contains the default (not logged in) contacts.
A pair contains the contacts for one login (folder and a shadow folder).
They can be deleted.  The pair will be replaced the next time that you
login.
--
Ron Sommer
MS MVP-Mail

Thanks, Ron.

Thanks, Ron.  I have 2 Live IDs and signed on with both of them trying to
resolve this, so that probably explains the 2 pairs.

Does that then say that to do a clean CSV file re-import of my WAB that I
can delete the single file?

YesDo not sign in when you do the import.

Yes
Do not sign in when you do the import.
Alt + T, Options, Connection, Stop signing in.
--
Ron Sommer
MS MVP-Mail

Excellent. Thank you very much."Ron Sommer" wrote:

Excellent.  Thank you very much.