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Importing contacts from Thunderbird to Outlook

Marcos Y Posted messages 123 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -  
Marcos Y Posted messages 123 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -

Hello,

My usual email software is Thunderbird, version 128.3.3esr. I want to export these contacts to Outlook NEW 2021, version 1.2024.1009.100.

I have therefore created an export file of my contacts in .csv format encoded in UTF-8, with elements separated by commas.

The problem is that the import system of Outlook New only accepts this file format, but the column names are not recognized by Outlook. As a result, it imports the files but does not assign the values to the fields it recognizes.

The information appears at the bottom of the contact card with the note:

Result of the Outlook import

The most troubling thing is that the email address, which is the most important element since it is essential for using Outlook, is not understood. But the last name is not understood either.

Thank you for letting me know what names I should give to these elements for them to be recognized by the system.

(I specify that I cannot revert to the classic version of Outlook because my Office installation is recent, and the classic version is no longer supported in 2024).

Best regards,

4 answers

  1.
    jee pee Posted messages 9444 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   9 981
     

    Hello,

    Does Outlook have a contact export function? If so, it could give you a file with the names and the order of the columns; that way you could rework your Thunderbird CSV file with Excel to put it in the correct format.

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  2. Marcos Y Posted messages 123 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   6
     

    Hello jee pee,

    Yes, I also tried it the other way around using Outlook's export function. The result is puzzling: the field names are in English:

    First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Title, Suffix, Nickname, Given Yomi, Surname Yomi, E-mail Address, E-mail 2 Address, E-mail 3 Address, Home Phone... and there are many more.

    Should we translate then? I doubt it, because it was able to understand "Nom" and "Prénom". Anyway, I will give it a try.

    Thank you for your help,

    See you soon

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  3. Marcos Y Posted messages 123 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   6
     

    Hello again,

    Well, it seems to be working. I will need to translate each element of the first line. It's going to take time, but it's worth it.

    Thank you! ;)

    Best regards,

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    1. jee pee Posted messages 9444 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   9 981
       

      It is possible that Outlook ignores the column headings; it is rather the order that matters.

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  4. Marcos Y Posted messages 123 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   6
     

    I will study the question, but it seems that no. Moreover, when I translate the headers, I feel that it slows down the process a bit. Maybe it's looking for the corresponding titles. I will test and investigate the issue.

    If it didn't care about the column titles, it would have used the columns "Primary Email Address" and "Home Phone" before I translated them.

    As soon as I translated them, it picked them up, which proves that it is the wording that matters.

    Best regards,

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