I'm not suggesting that these folders are separate address books - I understand that 'Personal Contacts' is the address book being used.

Let's address what I'm observing in a 'conventional' way. An address book (real) is composed of tabbed sections - A, B, C, D, etc. - so you can segregate your 'contacts'. When you open an address book, you see these alphabetic tabs, but you don't see the contacts until you open any of the tabs.

This is the behavior used to in an address book, and am expecting, but not observing.

I picked up this 'tip' on kubuntuforums.net.

By having the KOrganizer Reminder Daemon starting at login (with it running, right-click the system tray icon and check Start Reminder Daemon at Login), I can launch Kontact, which starts Akonadi, and the Akonadi Server Self Test no longer reports errors other than Tests 4 (MySQL server log contains errors.) and 16 (Previous Akonadi server error log found.), which result because I haven't removed those logs since applying this tip. I'll remove them (after stopping Akonadi). I fully expect that afterwards, on a reboot, those two tests will not contain the error messages.

So for, this seems to have completely solved my problems with Akonadi. Kontact launches and my Contacts are available - no more having to shut Kontact down and restart it because of the Akonadi Server Self Test error on Test 14 (which would happen sporadically).

Well, I rebooted this evening, launched Kontact, and Akonadi Server Self Test reported a failed Test 14 (Resource Agents). So, I decided to try another 'tip' posted on kubuntuforums.net, that being adding the following line to /etc/profile:

export XDG_DATA_DIRS=$XDG_DATA_DIRS:/usr/share/akonadi/agents

I rebooted and launched Kontact immediately after the desktop loaded. Kontact launched and Akonadi did not report an error. I'll monitor this on subsequent reboots to see if this finally resolves the Akonadi issues.

Sunday, April 25th, 2010. Booted my laptop this morning. Once the desktop was loaded I launched Kontact. Akonadi Server Self Test 14 failed. Shut down Kontact and relaunch it and all is okay. So this 'tip' isn't the cure-all after all. Oh well.

So what I've done now, for the last several boots and after the Desktop loads, is to start Akonadi first. Right-click on the Akonaditray icon in the System Tray and Start Akonadi. I then launch Kontact, and so far (again), no problems. No Akonadi Server Self Test 14 error.

From a suggestion offered by Claydoh over on Kubutuforums.net:

Says Mark Greenwood on the kubuntu-users list:

This bug has been around for ages. It's raised upstream...

A workaround is to add an Autostart item (using System Settings) of /usr/bin/akonadictl start.

I added to Auto Start > Add Program... and in the search bar typed: /usr/bin/akonadictl start and then in the pop-up General tab, replaced akonadictl with /usr/bin/akonadictl start and in the Application tab Name typed Akonadictl and in Command ensured it had /usr/bin/akonadictl start and clicked on OK. Then ensure that the Status is checked.

I've rebooted many times since, and have started Kontact right after the Desktop loaded, and no more Akonadi Server Self Test #14 errors. So for me, problem solved.