How to Import / Export Contacts Between Outlook and Gmail
You can use Microsoft Outlook with just about any e-mail account. If you use something like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, you’ve probably amassed quite a few contacts, which will need to be imported into Outlook to make it immediately useful.
Similarly, if you use Outlook already for e-mail and you have been managing your contacts with it, then you will be missing out on your changes if you use your e-mail’s native interface, typically in a browser window.
You can enter each contact one by one, but we recommend importing your contacts in one go, whether that is to or from another e-mail client like Thunderbird, or a web-based e-mail account like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to first export your contacts from Gmail into Outlook, and then export from Outlook into Gmail.
Importing Contacts from Gmail into Outlook
To begin, first click on “Mail -> Contacts” in your Gmail inbox.
Next, click the “More” button and choose “Export…” from the dropdown selections.
Notice, you can export a group, selected contacts, or all your contacts into one of three formats. The export format should be an Outlook .CSV (CSV = Comma Separated Values, which means each field [Name, Address, Phone, etc.] is separated by a comma) file.
Note, you can open this exported .CSV file in Excel and manipulate it you like, such as adding addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other information that will help round out your address book.
While this is an optional step, it’s nice to be able to go through and make your contacts neat and consistent.
When you’re ready, it’s time to import your shiny new contacts file into Outlook. Click on “File” and then “Import/Export.”
On the Open screen, click “Import/Export” and you’ll be shown a wizard dialog. You want to choose “Import from another program or file” and click “Next.”
Now, choose “Comma Separated Values” and click “Next.”
You’ll then be asked to browse for the file you want to import. Under options, you can decide whether or not you want duplicates to be imported.
We select “do not import duplicate items,” and click “Next.”
The following screen will ask you to select a destination folder, which should be your Outlook contacts.
Go ahead and click “Finish” on the last screen and your contacts will be imported into Outlook. You can see your results by opening the People mode.
Now, you can go through and edit to your heart’s content such as adding images, mailing addresses, secondary phone numbers, and any other bits of information you think are important and relevant.
Exporting Contacts from Outlook into Gmail
If you want to copy your Outlook contacts over to your Gmail account, it is similar to the preceding process.
In Outlook, click on “File -> Import/Export.”
When the import/export wizard opens, select “export to a file” and then click “Next.”
On the proceeding screen, we want to select “Comma Separated Values” and click “Next.” This is going to give us a .CSV file just like when we exported our contacts in the last section.
Choose your contacts on the next screen. You might have to scroll through to find them, but they should be under your main e-mail account.
This last screen shows you what’s about to happen (“Export ‘Contacts’ from folder: Contacts”) and offers you the opportunity to map any custom fields you might have created in Outlook.
What does this mean? Simply, some of the fields in your Outlook address book might not match the destination you’re importing to, which means you’ll need to “map” them. As the dialog explains, you need to drag the Outlook value right, to the field that most closely resembles it.
Chances are you probably won’t need to mess with this, but it’s good to know in case you import your Outlook contacts and end up with mismatched fields. Regardless, when you’re ready to make the conversion, click “Finish” on the previous screen.
Now that you’ve got your .CSV file with all your contacts in it, it’s time to import into Gmail. Again, if you want open this up in Excel and do some quick editing, this is your chance.
When you’re ready, in Gmail, click on the “Mail” dropdown menu and select “Contacts.”
On the contacts screen, click the “More” button and select “Import…” from the selections.
Click “Choose File” on the import contact screen.
The open dialog appears; you know the drill, choose your .CSV file in its save location and click “Open.” When you’re back at the import contacts screen, click “Import.”
Your newly imported contacts won’t be merged into your main contacts – at least not in Gmail – instead they’ll get their own group.
If you click on your imported contacts, you’ll be able to merge them and delete duplicates. It might take a little time to clean them all up but if things are a total mess, then you can always remove your imported contacts, return to Outlook, and perform the process again, this time either using the map fields function or Excel to fix the problems.
Regardless, you now have an address book full of contacts that you can immediately start e-mailing. That said, this is a one-time deal, meaning that when you start making changes to one e-mail client or service, the other won’t reflect them. If this is an ongoing issue, and you use Gmail, you might consider something like GO Contact Sync Mod, which we’ll explain in an upcoming article.
