Today’s article consists of various ways to export Outlook contacts to CSV. Contacts are very important for a user as they contain essential information of a person we know. Be it a family member, a friend, someone from work, etc.
As we know, Outlook generally stores all its data in a single file format i.e. PST. It is a great thing that all the data can be found there; however, it is very common for a PST file to get corrupted. Since there is a lot of information stored and the sizes of these files are huge, they can end up getting corrupted easily.
Users want to convert Outlook contacts to CSV so that they can safeguard their data and import them anywhere else. There may be users who want to keep their contacts safe from any damage or want to upload these to a different platform.
In such cases, users can transfer them to the Comma Separated Values file format which is compatible with various email platforms. In this article, you will be given a few methods to convert your data.
Before moving to the methods, let’s take a look at the reasons for this conversion.
Why Do Users Want to Export Outlook Contacts to CSV?
Few reasons why users should convert their data are as follows:
- If you export your data, you are creating a backup of it. This means that if anything goes wrong in your account, you will still have access to your important contacts and restore them. Importing these contacts in a new account will give you access to them.
- In case you want to share anything with anyone, contacts make it easier. If you are working with someone on a project and they need your contacts, you can easily convert Outlook contacts to CSV, and share them without any issues.
- Sometimes users switch from one email platform to another and they want to transfer their contacts as well. If you want to switch from Outlook, you will have to convert your data to a compatible file format and then import them. This saves your time of manually adding these contacts.
Jumping to the methods now!
What Are Some Methods to Convert the Data in Bulk?
We will be exporting the contacts with the manual method available using the Outlook application itself. To export Outlook contacts to CSV, we will apply the ImportExportTool method which can convert and save the data to desired location.
Other than that, there is a very useful solution available for converting these files i.e. the PST Converter which can transfer the selected data from the file to desired file format.
Both the methods work well, however, there are some limitations in the manual method that we will understand in the section later. Stick till the end of the blog to know about the benefits of the software and how to use it.
Convert Outlook Contacts to CSV Using the Manual Method Via Outlook
- Firstly, launch your Outlook application. Then go to File → Open and Export → Import/Export.
- In the wizard that opens up, click on Export to a file and hit Next.
- Go to the Comma Separated Values option and press Next.
- Choose Contacts from the list that appears in the next window. Click on the Next button.
- Now, press the Browse button to look for a location and hit Next.
- If you want to can Map Custom Fields as per requirement and hit Finish to complete the process.
Users face certain downsides of this method.
Manual Solution to Export Outlook Contacts to CSV File Has Some Disadvantages
Following are the points that users should keep in mind while performing the manual method:
- The process may not completely transfer your data if there are thousands of contacts. Some files may be left behind during conversion.
- It is possible that certain fields come in blank after converting the files as this method cannot take the load of these files.
- There is a possibility that the file does not open or shows an error. This can be due to the large sized data we are trying to convert.
- If you export Outlook global address book to CSV manually, it will try to transfer all the contacts from your address book. It takes a lot of time for the process to complete if there are bulk contacts for conversion.
- Due to the time taken, it results in a very lengthy procedure and becomes a bit complicated for certain users.
How About a Robust Conversion Solution With No Limitations?
As we mentioned above, there is a great solution available for converting multiple contacts in a single go. This is the conversion tool that is available for various Windows OS machines to export Outlook contacts to CSV file.
Few advantages of using this tool are:
- Allows you to convert contacts in bulk to the desired file format
- Option to export all the mailbox items; Emails, Calendars, Contacts, etc.
- Use the Advanced Filters to select only Contacts for conversion
- Directly choose contacts by uploading PST file or logging into Outlook
- Convert data to various other file formats like MBOX, EML, HTML, PDF, etc.
- There are no limitations applied by the software on the data to be added
- Any amount of data and any size of data can be converted using the tool
Work With the Tool to Export Outlook 2010 Contacts to CSV And More
The software is compatible with Outlook 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and the latest version. Follow this guide:
- In the tool, there is an Open menu. Expand it and choose the Email Data Files option.
- Select the Outlook Data File (PST) from there and click on Choose Files.
- Then, you have to select the Advanced FIlters option to select only Contacts.
- Now, expand the Export menu and choose CSV from the Document Files section.
- Change the location as per desire by clicking on the Browse button and Save.
After a few minutes, you will see that the data has been downloaded to your chosen location.
Finishing Lines
Methods to export Outlook contacts to CSV are useful as mentioned in the article above. A lot of users find the manual method useful only if there are less files to work with. Most of the users prefer an expert tool that can convert the data in a quick motion.
Thus, the software has been explained with the steps and benefits or features provided. Learn everything about the process to export the data and make the conversion pain-free.