Shoutbox

i was asked by a girl last night if i could help her sort out her account as it is saying her contact list can not be retreived.
i followed the help link and was told on the MSN MESSENGER website that leave it a few minutes and it will be ok.
the problem was last night, early, and i just tryed to sign into her account but can't, still the same problem.
her contact list is fine if you go to hot,ail because i tried
any help oin how to resolve the problem is much appreciated as se can not get onto that account and she is getting all stressed out as some of her work coleagues {don't know how to spell that!} are on there and she may need to contact them through the day.
thanks!

EDIT:
here is a print screen of the error message:

try changing server that the account connects too, using the program i've linked too

edit:

http://shoutbox.menthix.net/attachment.php?pid=273157

quote:

---

Originally posted by toddy
using the program i'm linked too

---

how do you mean, what link?

quote:

---

Originally posted by DJKAL
i was asked by a girl last night if i could help her sort out her account as it is saying her contact list can not be retreived.
i followed the help link and was told on the MSN MESSENGER website that leave it a few minutes and it will be ok.
the problem was last night, early, and i just tryed to sign into her account but can't, still the same problem.
her contact list is fine if you go to hot,ail because i tried
any help oin how to resolve the problem is much appreciated as se can not get onto that account and she is getting all stressed out as some of her work coleagues {don't know how to spell that!} are on there and she may need to contact them through the day.
thanks!

EDIT:
here is a print screen of the error message:

---

First of all, if you have any sort of error, always state the complete msn messenger version you are using! Also state the complete version number of Messenger Plus! (if installed) and what version of Windows you're using.

Version numbers are extremely important.



------

Window Live Messenger stores and retrieves contact lists locally in a cache, so that if it can't be retrieved from the servers for some reasons (server down, bad connection,... ), you still could have access to your list. Only when Messenger can contact the servers, the list will be updated/syncronized.

But this also means that if you deleted this cache or it got deleted, messenger wont have access anymore to a (local) list and will give you that error if it also can't access the list on the servers.

For MSN Messenger the story is almost the same, except that it doesn't store you contact list locally, and will give you the can't-find-contact-list error immediatly.

But don't worry, either way, the list is not deleted or whatever. It is simply not possible at the moment to retrieve the list from the servers.

And lately, it seems that the messenger services are indeed having problems concearning contact lists (at least, many more people have reported such errors and stuff lately)...

The only thing you could try is to switch servers using that program listed by toddy. But note that this will not always work. It is simply something you can try out. And if it works, it is very well possible that the problem was solved on its own (servers got back up) and not nessecairly because you changed servers though.

----------------

PS: please do not save screenshots as BMP files! Save them as GIF, JPG or PNG, but not BMP.

thanks both of you, il give her that link later

quote:

---

Originally posted by CookieRevised
PS: please do not save screenshots as BMP files! Save them as GIF, JPG or PNG, but not BMP.

---

ok. no problem il remember, but just wondering why, not meaning to be cheeky and i will do it.

[OFF TOPIC]

quote:

---

Originally posted by DJKAL
thanks both of you, il give her that link later

quote:

---

Originally posted by CookieRevised
PS: please do not save screenshots as BMP files! Save them as GIF, JPG or PNG, but not BMP.

---

ok. no problem il remember, but just wondering why, not meaning to be cheeky and i will do it.

---

nah, you're not cheeky (though the reasons can be found in various threads on this forum too )...

anyways, the reason is because BMP files store the image data uncompressed. This means that an 100x100 image will be at least 100 x 100 bytes big, and if you consider 24bit images that's even 3 x 100 x 100 bytes. This is very huge compared to GIF, PNG or JPG which compress images considerably.

eg: the image you posted in this thread is 437KB big, that's very huge for an image which would have been only 12KB when saved as a PNG (without any quality loss) and only 7KB when saved as a GIF (with colors reduced to 256 colors). And that is even without cropping the image and removing the useless white space beneath it.

Somebody using a modem would need to wait almost 2 minutes before that 437KB big image is fully loaded! Whereas if you saved it as a GIF he would only had to wait less than 2 seconds. (Not to mention the difference in bandwidth usage and the bigger chance of possible errors in bigger images/data).

Also, another fact is that BMP is not a widely supported image type for images on the net. Again only GIF, JPG and PNG are supported. (though MSIE doesn't fully support the alpha-channel in PNG's with alpha-transparancy).

BMP should never be used for anything. If you need a lossless (=without reducing quality) graphics format which can use 24bit colors, use PNG.

[/OFF TOPIC]

quote:

---

Originally posted by CookieRevised
Window Live Messenger stores and retrieves contact lists locally in a cache, so that if it can't be retrieved from the servers for some reasons (server down, bad connection,... ), you still could have access to your list. Only when Messenger can contact the servers, the list will be updated/syncronized.

But this also means that if you deleted this cache or it got deleted, messenger wont have access anymore to a (local) list and will give you that error if it also can't access the list on the servers

---

Sorry to be off topic.. but is that why it always takes about a minute till all my contacts appear?

thanks CookieRevised
you wont find another BMP omage off me ...in the future!

quote:

---

Originally posted by groessl35
Sorry to be off topic.. but is that why it always takes about a minute till all my contacts appear?

---

i dont think it is off topic ..maybe but i get thie problem too, it seems like that is why amd i suppose the facts its in BETA doesnt help it's case, though it's annoying its not a real prolem considering its in BETA but if it was a released version i would say its a problem