Shoutbox

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Originally posted by ahmetgns
Edit: By the way, the quotation below is the evidence of my statements. He deleted the cache and contact's name turned to an older one, is this correct rem17?

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Originally posted by rem17

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Originally posted by RebelSean
Try deleting your contact cache:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows Live Contacts

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I have done this and asked a few friends to sign out, then I sign in again to check, but it's still not working.

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No, I created this thread to get help on this. I have never deleted the cache up until RebelSean told me.

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Originally posted by ahmetgns

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Originally posted by RebelSean
When you login, if your contact has updates to his/her display name and/or personal message, it is downloaded from the servers. Same goes with your contacts display picture.

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Yes, this happens only for your online contacts. For your offline contacts, you won't see any change until they come online. (I think rem17's problem is this, she saw the old names only for her offline contacts in her list, I don't think she has any problem with her online contacts)

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I have been using WLM for months now, maybe nearly a year and I've never had problems with the contacts names, but about a week ago I signed in and noticed some names were off months ago or just had their e-mail address. When a contact is online their name is updated, but when I sign out and in again and they're offline it's back to their old name/e-mail address. Before that though, WLM did store the current contact names even when they were offline!

Anyway I've lost my DPs so I'm just going to reinstall WLM, hopefully it will work again!

Oh and I'm a she.

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Originally posted by rem17
No, I created this thread to get help on this. I have never deleted the cache up until RebelSean told me

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Your cache may have been deleted if you played with the option "This is shared computer, don't store...". because ticking that option may immediately delete your cache, I am not sure though.

Your problem may be messenger can't access your cache on the computer, so it retrieve contacts' display name information from the server all the time (you may have noticed this because if you have a crowded list your sign-in delay will be longer in that case). But I will say again, deleting contact cache will not solve the problem because it is the reason of this. Before deleting cache, if you backed up it and copied to another computer and signed in on that computer, you would be able to see the proper names of your contacts again, this is my guess.

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Originally posted by rem17
Oh and I'm a she.

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Who said in the other way (edit: sorry, it is me )

Hey, well just thought I'd reply back and say that my contacts names are fine now. I reinstalled WLM and also "This is a shared computer do don't store...." option is unticked. I don't think I've ever messed on with it before though.

Thanks for the help anyhoo.

I noticed something. Let me explain how I noticed it:

I backed up all of my contacts with Messenger's menu "Export Contacts". Then I deleted all contacts. Then I imported that contacts file again. When I imported it, all of my contacts appeared with their email addresses in my contact list. Then as people come online from one day to another day, display names of those contacts' who came online were saved in my local computer (not in the server). So I always saw their last used display names properly in my lcoal computer even if they are offline sometimes. However, yesterday I went to school and signin Messenger on a computer in a computer laboratory there. When I signed in, I believed I will see all of my OFFline contacts' email addresses only, not their display names because I believed display names weren't stored at the server. I confirmed this statement for all of my offline contacts except only ONE contact (not to mention I already get online contacts' display names) I wondered what is different with this ONE contact, why I saw his display name even he is offline. I must have seen his e-mail address like all other offline contacts. I came home and investigated the issue and realized that I am receiving contact updates from only that ONE contact. Then I subscribed all of my contacts' updates and after 5 minutes I unsubsribed again but now whereever I signin, I see their display names which I saw while subsribing. So now I can safely say that "Subscription to contacts' updates" has something to do with this display name issue but I couldn't understand yet how it works exactly.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised here
When there is a (ref:contacts) cache it will use it (ref:Messenger) in order to let you sign in faster and reduce the net traffic upon signing in. When people update their screen name, the new name will be stored in the cache.

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That is the only reason for the contacts cache being there, which was introduced in WLM8.

Which also explains the reason why signing in in WLM8 for the very first time will take longer, since WLM then creates the cache; And in order to do that it needs to retrieve all the contact names from the servers.

I have a question and I think it suits here...

When I delete my cache folder with contacts and sign in back to Messenger, my contacts have their old nicknames & PSMs, which they had about 2 months ago. I've deleted cache folders several times and after signing back to Messenger my contact list was always in the same "phase". With nicknames and personal messages 2 months old.
I mean, shouldn't it update?

Hope you understood me.

No, it shouldn't update. I tried to explain all of these in this thread. However, you are wrong on something. Even if you delete the contacts cache, the PSMs and display pictures will still remain for your contacts. Because PSMs and DPs aren't stored in the cache files, I think they are stored at another place. However they are never stored on the server side.

Storing display names at the server is useless because normally every Messenger user is supposed to keep contacts cache on his/her computer. So no need to store it on the server for a few percent of users who doesn't keep cache. The contacts whose old nicknames you see when you delete cache are already offline contacts

This is simply pointless...

Why the hell does such a thing exist in the first place? Whenever my contacts update their nicknames on MSN 7.5, IT REMAINS UPDATED EVERYWHERE, no cache or sh*t.

This is really funny...isn't newer supposed to be better?

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Originally posted by kryp2nyt
Why the hell does such a thing exist in the first place?

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

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Originally posted by CookieRevised here
When there is a (ref:contacts) cache it will use it (ref:Messenger) in order to let you sign in faster and reduce the net traffic upon signing in. When people update their screen name, the new name will be stored in the cache.

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That is the only reason for the contacts cache being there, which was introduced in WLM8.

Which also explains the reason why signing in in WLM8 for the very first time will take longer, since WLM then creates the cache; And in order to do that it needs to retrieve all the contact names from the servers.

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This explains it.

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Originally posted by ahmetgns
The contacts whose old nicknames you see when you delete cache are already offline contacts

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Also why are people interested in their offline contacts' names that much

I don't know why this seems 'untrue'.

I find 7.5 singing in faster than WLM, in fact, WLM sometimes NEVER signs in from first attempt.

And....who needs speed? A few extra seconds won't kill you