Migrating a Thunderbird Address Book to Outlook

Background

ST#74959

Overview of the process of importing contacts into Outlook Web App

1. Export the contacts from your other e-mail account to a .csv file. Note where you save the .csv file. See Learn More About Importing Contacts for examples of how to export contacts.
2. Sign in to Outlook Web App.
3. Go to Contacts, and then click Import in the toolbar. Or, go to Options > My Account > Shortcuts to other things you can do, and then click Import your contacts from an existing email account.
4. Enter the path to the .csv file with your contacts, or click Browse to locate your file.
5. Click Next.
6. Wait while your contacts are imported.
7. When the import is complete, click Finish.

Detailed Procedure

Export your contacts from the Thunderbird Address Book

• In Thunderbird: Tools -> Address Book
• In Address Book: Click on the Address book you want to export (eg: "Personal Address Book" or "Collected Addresses"
  • Tools -> Export
  • Change the "Save as Type" from LDIF to "Comma separated"
  • give a file name like "PersonalAddressBook" and note the folder (directory) it will be saved in (usually "Documents")
• repeat for any other Address Books you may have

Import the Exported Address Book into Outlook

• Note: this process will do a basic mapping, losing the contents of a number of fields where the name doesn't match the one in Outlook
  • for a more complete conversion see "Using Excel to map more Contact fields", below

1. If you are importing into an existing Contacts folder, skip to step 4.
2. Create a new folder in Outlook 2010
3. Right-click the Contacts folder, click New Folder, type a name for the new folder, and then click OK.
4. Click the File tab in the Ribbon, and then click Open on the menu.
5. Click on Import tab. The Import and Export Wizard opens.
6. If the file that is displayed is not the correct file, click Browse , browse to the folder that is mentioned in step 3, and then double-click the file to select it.
7. If you are importing into a new folder, the Options settings are irrelevant because there are no duplicates. If you are not importing to a new folder, choose the most logical selection. Click Allow duplicates if you are not sure, and then click Next .
8. Click the Contacts folder or another contacts-type folder that you have created, and then click Next.
9. If you are not sure that the column names in the first row of the spreadsheet will map correctly to the Outlook fields, click Map custom fields to verify them.