Can't edit the notes in Contacts in Outlook 365

Anonymous
2019-01-22T11:12:35+00:00

Hello,

I have the strange behaviour that I can't edit some of mine existing notes in my Contacts.

I have several existing contacts (View = Card but I dont think it matters, because in other view it also won't work) with some notes, sometimes I can edit the notes in a contact and there are other Contacts where I can't edit the notes. All the other fields I can edit.

Any idea what to do?

Kind regards,

Bianca

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For home

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Anonymous
2019-02-01T22:33:12+00:00

We posted a known issue article to track status, https://support.office.com/en-us/article/can-t-edit-the-notes-field-for-a-contact-fb8394ce-04ce-48b5-bae4-be46f77f10fe?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US.  

The Outlook Team found the root cause of the issue.  It has to do with the way Outlook handles that field if the contact has the PR_TRANSPORT_MESSAGE_HEADERS property.  The only workaround for existing contacts today is to use MFCMAPIto remove the PR_TRANSPORT_MESSAGE_HEADERS property.

As part of the investigation the product team is trying to understand what could be setting that property.  Maybe it is an add-in or other solution.  If anyone sees the message header being added and knows what it setting it please let me know.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-02-04T14:09:12+00:00

    I too am having this issue on one of my clients machines who shares his contacts with other users in his office. While restoring a backup of older .pst file before the issue happened will work, not everyone may have a backup. For those that do not have a backup there is still something you can do to work around this issue until Microsoft comes up with a permanent resolution.

    Workaround:

    1. Export only your Contacts folder to a CSV file. All the fields including the notes will be exported.
    2. Import the newly created CSV file back into Outlook,  into the same Contacts folder and choose to replace duplicates with imported items.

    NOTE: You may want to do a test before replacing your current Contacts. To do this simply create a new Test Contacts folder and import the CSV file into that folder first. Make sure the contact look correctly and you can edit them. If so, then you can proceed to overwrite your original existing Contact folder.

    Once the above is done, you will be able to edit your notes again without any issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-02-05T21:00:32+00:00

    The Outlook Team is still looking into it.  The change that caused this issue to occur was due to a security change.  I can get more specifics about it but it was to help prevent vulnerabilities relating to the message header.  The other consideration is whether there are any programs today using the message header field and why they would be.  If you have any active use cases where that field is actively being set please let me know.  

    If you need to urgently workaround it I would suggest taking a backup of your contacts and following the steps Jeremy posted above to export to CSV and then import the contacts back in and choosing to remove duplicates.  The topic on export/import is here.

    Another advanced option would be to use MFCMAPI or Outlook Spy to delete the PR_TRANSPORT_MESSAGE_HEADERS property on the contact.  I was testing with Outlook Spy today and it makes it fairly easy to delete that property.  After you install Outlook Spy it will show up in the ribbon of Outlook.  If you go this route please just be careful to only delete this property.  

    Below I open a contact that has the property, click the OutlookSpy tab and then click IMessage to show the properties window.

    On the properties window I locate the PR_TRANSPORT_MESSAGE_HEADERS property and delete it.  After that property is deleted the Notes field will be editable.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-02-06T00:55:06+00:00

    Thanks a bunch. I used the OutlookSpy method and it worked.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-01-22T13:04:26+00:00

    Hi Bianca,

    I would like to know which Outlook 365 client version you are using, please provide us with the detailed version (e.g. 2016 MSO (16.0.10228.20080). See What version of Outlook do I have?

    What type of email account are you using Office 365 Exchange online or Exchange On-premise or else?

    Make sure that Outlook 365 client are latest update. If you are not using current latest build version, please update the Office client to check this issue. See check for Office updates

    Do you received any error message when you can’t edit existing notes in your Contacts?

    Moreover, please provide us with the detailed steps screenshot/video which you have tried and about the issue via the Private Message for further analysis.

    Best regards,

    Shyamal

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