How to Move/Copy Import/Export the Outlook Address Book
This article is an extension of the related “Understanding the Outlook Address Book” and “How to Change Outlook Address Book Settings“. The primary purpose of this article is to focus on the most common questions/issues people ask/encounter related to the Outlook Address Book.
Two of the most common questions related to the Outlook Address Book (OAB) are:
Q1) How do I move/copy my OAB from a previous version of Outlook? Q2) How do I import/export my OAB?
Short answer: “You can’t and you don’t”.
The OAB is not an Outlook entity that is something which can be individually managed via move/copy, import/export methods. The explanation is provided in “Understanding the Outlook Address Book“.
Other common related Address Book questions include:
Q3) I just upgraded my Outlook version and can’t find my contacts when creating a new email? Q4) I imported my contacts and none appear in the OAB? Q5) I imported my contacts and not all are appear in the OAB? Q6) I imported (or exported) my PST file and all the contacts are missing?
The first thing when searching for an answer to a problem when the word “upgrade” is being used is to be clear what is meant by the term “upgrade”. Unfortunately, it’s a word used generically and can mean a lot of different things. In terms of Outlook specifically, there are two basic scenarios
A) Upgrading Outlook on same machine as current version
- If “upgrading” the currently installed version of Outlook to Outlook ‘2010 (or earlier) on the same machine – the existing version of Outlook will be replaced since in this situation, you can not have two versions installed on the same machine at the same time. The version of Outlook being installed will use the identical Outlook profiles that the previous version of Outlook was using so nothing should change in terms of configured email accounts or associated data files.
- You are upgrading to Outlook ‘2013 (Office 365) on the existing machine where a previous version of Outlook already exists. Unless you uninstall the existing version of Office/Outlook, then the end result will be that there will be two versions of Office/Outlook installed on this machine if using the Click2Run installer applicable to 99% of users. Those with an MSDN account have access to the stand-alone Office 2013 .msi installer in which case it would be equivalent item (1a) above. In either case, the profiles from the previous version of Outlook would be copied to a new registry location for use by Outlook ‘2013 but would not delete this information from the original location. More specifically, when anychange(s) is/are made in an Outlook ‘2013 profile that was ‘copied” from an earlir version of Outlook, it DOES NOT automatically make the same changes to the original profile(s) which means you can be using a profile in O’2013 with the same name as that originally created in O’2010 but which has a completely configuration.
B) Moving to a new machine and installing a new version on a new machine
As long as the version of Office that you are installing is compatible with the underlying operating system being used, then the version of the OS is irrelevant. Installing O’2013 is no different on Windows 7 as it is on Windows 8/8.1.
While the above may sound like an “upgrade” – reality is that you are installing Outlook for the “first time” and it must be configured accordingly. There is no “upgrade” component to this exercise. While it may be an “upgrade” for you after it’s all said and done, what this is, in fact, is “moving” your Outlook configuration data from one machine to another and it doesn’t matter if you’re moving from Outlook ‘2007 on the old machine to Outlook ‘2007 on the new machine or any later version of Outlook on the new machine – whether that’s going to be Outlook ‘2010 or Outlook ‘2013.
The distinction between the two options may be minor to those undergoing the exercise, it can have a significant impact on the answer you are provided for a given scenario for two very important reasons
- when “upgrading” on the same – nothing materially changes in terms of email accounts and data files (the exception in this case would be the primary data file associated with an IMAP account)
- what happens when configuring Outlook for the first time in terms of data files has everything to do with the types of email accounts involved and the sequence in which they are added (see “Understanding Outlook Migration – Part 2 – Data Files” and “Understanding Outlook Migration – Part 3 – Email Account Creation“)
*** one thing to avoid when migrating from one machine to another is using tools like Easy Transfer which can result in a corrupt profile (i.e. containing a corrupt AddressBook) on the target machine. If this approach was used, the starting fresh by creating a new Outlook profile would be the first thing to do.
Which brings us to some of the other commonly asked questions regarding “missing contacts”.
A very important item to remember is that a contact will <NEVER> appear in the Outlook Address Book if it does not have a valid email address or fax number so if the contact data was “imported”, the first thing to check is to whether or not an email address (or fax number) was included in the import (see “How to import Contact Info from CSV, Excel, Access“)
Unfortunately, too many people export their data to a PST file (or copy a specific PST file) without ever checking to see that what is included in the newly exported/copied PST file actually contains the expected data. This can happen because the wrong settings were used when exporting (see “How to Export to an Outlook PST File“) or the wrong PST file was used as the source for either the export or copy. This can easily occur when involving data files related to IMAP accounts or where a separate PST file has been configured to be the default file for Outlook contacts and calendar items.
It’s also essential to define what is meant by “Contacts don’t appear”. Specifically, don’t appear where? In the Address Book? In a contact folder? In a particular “view” of a contact folder? etc. The resolution to each of these scenarios is completely different.
First, if contacts are not appearing in the Outlook Address Book, then the first step would be to determine if the “missing contacts” are located in any contact folder. If the answer is no, then these need to be retrieved by whatever approach is applicable in the given situation). If the contacts are found in a given folder, then the next step is to ensure that the particular contact folder is checked to be “Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book”
If you find the contacts in a contact folder AND the folder is checked to be included in the Address Book AND these are not displayed when the Address Book is initially opened AND the above noted issue related to using a migration tool like Easy Transfer doesn’t apply, then likely the cause of the issue is that there is more than contact folder in your Outlook profile checked to be included in the OAB and the one you’re expecting isn’t the one set as the default, see “How to Change Outlook Address Book Settings“)
Category: Import/Export, Migrating Outlook, Outlook - How To
