Connect to a local or remote database

You can connect to either a local database, or a remote database.

In either case, if you are not the database owner, you must be granted access to use the database.

Databases may appear dimmed (unavailable) for several other reasons.

Why are some databases unavailable?

If the database that you want to use appears dimmed in the list of databases, it is for any of the following reasons:

You do not have permission to use the shared database

On the local computer    Ask the database owner to share the database and grant you access to it.

On a remote computer    

• Contact the database owner to confirm that there is a shared Business Contact Manager database on the remote computer.

• Ask the database owner to share the database, and to give you both the computer name and the database name.

  You can determine the database name as follows:

  1. On the remote computer, open Outlook.

  2. Click the File tab.

  3. Click the Business Contact Manager tab.

  4. In the Manage Databases section, check the database name.

• Check that the remote computer is turned on and that both your computer and the remote computer are connected to the network.

  To check the network connection on a computer, do the following:

  1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel to open it.

  2. In Control Panel, under Network and Internet, click View network status and tasks.

     The Network and Sharing Center displays the status of your network and whether your computer is connected to it.

• Check with the administrator of the remote computer to see if a firewall may be blocking network traffic.

The database was created with a different version of Business Contact Manager

In most cases, Business Contact Manager for Outlook can convert or migrate a database from an earlier version to match this version. The dimmed database cannot be migrated.

If the database that you want to use is hosted on a file server, you can use the instructions in Manage your Business Contact Manager database on a server to connect to the database.

Select a different database from the list, or click Back to specify a different remote computer (click Back twice to choose a local database instead).

If no other databases are available, create a new local database.

How?

1. Click Back in the Startup Wizard.

2. Click Create a New Local Database.

3. Type a name for the new local database, and then click Create.

4. The database is created, and you are prompted to enter registration information (optional).

5. Click Finish.

Users of both Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 attempt to share the same database

Business Contact Manager databases support side-by-side installations of Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 on the same computer, and will work with both versions. But each version requires a dedicated database.

Any database, shared or not, can only be accessed form the version of the application that was used to create it. If you create a Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 database, Outlook 2010 is the only version of Outlook you can use to access that database. The same limitation applies to databases created with Outlook 2013.

The shared database was created for a different locale from your version of Business Contact Manager for Outlook

The Locale setting of a database is displayed on the Connect to a Database page. If the locale information is not the same for both the database and your installation of Business Contact Manager for Outlook, you cannot use the database. For example, you can't connect to a database that was created for Great Britain, using UK English, with Business Contact Manager for North America, with US English.

Select a different database from the list, or click Back to specify a different computer (click Back twice to choose a local database instead).

If no other databases are available, create a new local database.

How?

1. Click Back in the Startup Wizard.

2. Click Create a New Local Database.

3. Type a name for the new local database, and then click Create.

4. The database is created, and you are prompted to enter registration information (optional).

5. Click Finish.

The shared database is corrupt

If the version and locale of the database that has been shared with you match the version number and locale of your version of Business Contact Manager for Outlook, the database may have been corrupted. Create a new database, and finish the Startup Wizard. You'll need to use Business Contact Manager for Outlook to delete the corrupt database and, if a backup exists, restore the data to your new database.

• Create a new local database

  1. Click Back in the Startup Wizard.

  2. Click Create a New Local Database.

  3. Type a name for the new local database, and then click Create.

  4. The database is created, and you are prompted to enter registration information (optional).

  5. Click Finish.

• Delete the corrupt database

  1. Click the File tab.

  2. Click the Business Contact Manager tab.

  3. Click Manage Databases, and then click Delete Databases.

  4. Click the database that you want to delete, and then click Delete Database.

• Restore a backup database

  1. Click the File tab.

  2. Click the Business Contact Manager tab.

  3. Click Backup and Restore, and then click Restore.

  4. In the Database Restore dialog box, click Browse to select the backup file that you want to restore, locate the backup copy, and then click the backup file name.

The remote database is busy

If the remote database is being restored, or is importing new data, the remote computer might not have the capacity to also connect a new user at the same time.

Wait two to five minutes and then try to connect again. Click Cancel to close the Startup Wizard. You'll be prompted to complete the wizard the next time you start Outlook.

Warning:  If you install a trial version of Microsoft Office 2013 and decide to go back to an earlier version of Microsoft Office, back up your data first. You will need to save a copy of your Business Contact Manager database in order to see any changes you made while using the trial version. For complete instructions, see Go back to an earlier version of Business Contact Manager and Microsoft Office.