Restore data to a Business Contact Manager database

If you are the database owner, you may need to restore a backup file of your Business Contact Manager database to replace damaged data, to go back to an earlier version of a database, or to replace the data with data from another database.

For example, if you uninstall Business Contact Manager for Outlook and later want to reinstall it, you can use your backup file to restore your data. You can restore a backup file from any version of Business Contact Manager for Outlook, including a backup file that was created during migration from an earlier version.

Note:  If you want to restore a database that was created by someone else and your computer is running Windows Vista, you must be an administrator on the computer where you want to restore the database, and you must be running Outlook as an administrator.

To use data that was originally backed up from another Business Contact Manager database, first restore that data to an existing database. If you have not already created a database, create one first, then restore the backup file to the newly created database. For more information, see Create or select a new Business Contact Manager database.

Warning:  If you restore a backup file to a database that contains data, the data from the backup file will replace the existing data. To save the data before you replace it, create a backup file. For more information, see Why you should back up your Business Contact Manager data.

Restore data from a backup file to a database

Caution:  If your database is shared, before restoring the database you should ask all of its users to exit Outlook to prevent errors during restoration.

1. Click the File tab.

2. Click the Business Contact Manager tab, and then click the Back Up and Restore button.

3. Click Restore.

4. In the Database Restore dialog box, click Browse to find the backup file you want to restore.

5. If your files are password-protected, type the password in the Password box, and then click OK.

   Note:  If you are restoring a backup file that was created in an earlier version of Business Contact Manager for Outlook, a dialog box appears. Click OK to continue restoring the backup file. In the confirmation dialog box, click OK.

6. In the Your database has been restored successfully confirmation dialog box, click OK.

You can now use your restored database.

Notes: 

• If your computer is part of a workgroup, rather than on a domain, and you restore a database to a computer that is not the same computer on which the database was originally located, the automatic association of sent and received e-mail messages to Accounts and Business Contacts will be turned off for this database. For more information about linking and tracking e-mail messages, see Link and track e-mail messages in Business Contact Manager.

• If your computer is part of a workgroup, and you restore a shared database to a different computer, the new computer does not recognize the old user names and passwords. You must stop sharing the database, restore it, then share it again to grant access to the users. For more information, see Share your Business Contact Manager data with other users.