In a nutshell, Microsoft makes it difficult. Fortunately it -can- be done.
Don’t bother with any of Outlook’s “export as text/cvs” functions, importing these files is nearly impossible. Exporting as vCard is conveniently not an option. “Save As” vCard is possible, but you can only do it for one contact at a time. Lame!
Here’s the easy way to get Outlook to save a whole bunch of vCards for you:
- Open Outlook Contacts list.
- Select all your contacts. This may be easiest in “Address Cards” view.
- In the “Action” menu, select “Forward as vCard”.
- Wait a moment while Outlook creates a new email with all of your contacts attached to it as vCards.
- Send this email to yourself (be careful not to send it to anyone else, obviously).
- Upon receipt of this email, save all the attachments to a location your mac can access, then import them into your Mac OS X Address Book. Yay!
Like I said, don’t bother with Outlook’s “export cvs/text” or “save as” functions. They’re extremely clunky and the amount of manual clean up you need to do is insane.
Next challenge… Calendar.
Update: Calendar instructions posted here.
You can also save those attachments that are generated and attached out to a network volume or another location. This prevents the bandwidth bulge as well. ;)
In the past, I’ve synced Outlook calendar events/items with iCal using Outlook2iCal (NB: VBscript-based macro warning). I’m not sure of the current development state though. You’re probably best off using your mobile as the conduit between Outlook and iCal/Address Book.
I really hoped this would work, as the transfer from foxfire didn’t and the Little Machines program didn’t. Don’t know why I got my hopes up, if I thought Windows was worth a #### at anything I wouldn’t have bought a MAC. At least it is consistently ####poor.
I’m laughing!
I moved back-to-Mac with a MacBook Pro a couple of months ago and have been trying to get my Outlook info over.
I tried most every tool out there with no luck.
Following your simple instructions I moved several hundred contacts in 5 minutes. Cool.
Thanks for such a clear, conscise and direct approach.
-a-
This is the single best piece of advice I have seen regarding Windows to Mac info xfer! Works perfectly!
BTW, I totally agree…do NOT use Import->Text File command in OSX…a big mess and it locked up my 2.66 Ghz Mac Pro!!
Thanks for the tip!
GTE
I am so surprised!!!!!!!.
It has worked perfect and I was about to quit trying.
Many, many thanks from Spain.
One last thing…. I you are able to do the same with Outlook Calendar, please let me know and, if you know haw to do it with my mail, BEST.
regards
Great help, especially with 100’s plus contacts. Oddly as I was trying this a snag occurred. I could not forward the entire contact list (all highlighted, Action\Forward as Vcard) no response at all – outlook not frozen just no email created. I assumed it was do to the number of attachements, treid various smaller chuncks and found one that worked. As I worked through the batches of 20 vCards each, I ran into the propblem again.
It turns out that I had a contact with no data in the name field. I could forward this single contact as a vCard, but if it was incuded in a batch (as small as 2) outlook would not take an action. Once I placed data into the name field, I could select all contacts and forward as one email.
mpm
Freaking FANTASTIC!!!!
This should somehow be forwarded to Apple so they can put it into their helpsection.
I am now a happy switcher!
I have being trying for awhile to get my Windows Outlook contacts into OS X Address Book. These instructions are AWESOME! Thank you for the information.
I tried to import my contacts from Outlook to Address book. Outlook now saves all the vcards with an extension of “.msg” and one has to rename everyone of these files to vcf for this to work.
I have tried to do this to move my contacts from Outlook to Mail in Mac, withour result.
The file that is attached in the m ail has the name winmail.dat when I open the mail in my iMac, and it is not recognised.
Any help?
Thanks in advance.
FANTASTIC
i have searched and searched and found no cure. THIS WORKS and soo smooth. thansk a lot for making me move comtacts from outlook to mail om mac
Just wanted to thank you for the genius workaround. Just switched to a mac after a year of lamenting. Thanks!
I was pleased to find your suggestion about moving addresses from Outlook (2003) to Mac. When I attempt to forward as vcard I get “operation failed”. The error message doesn’t change regardless of the number of contacts selected. I tried o2m and it “can’t connect to Outlook” Feeling stuck! Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Ron
Best, simplest advice I’ve gotten so far. Worked well.
Wow… thanks for the useful information. I was surprised… it also detects duplicate and updates….
Thanks once again.
Pankaj
This work-around is worth it’s weight in gold (I figure about 10 pounds minimum.)
Worked like a charm. You have saved me hours of work. Your advice is very much appreciated.
Grateful in CA
This works indeed, but with one small glitch: in the Mac Address book for each added contact there is an attached note / comments containing all sorts of XML markup data from the original outlook Vcard. Is there a way to get rid of that? (apart from deleting it manually)
Worked like magic, thank you very much
You made my day! I literally spent days trying to find an “official” way of doing this and couldn’t find anything that really works. Especially the “hint” from some people with the .csv approach doesn’t work satisfactory.
If I now find a proper way to make my HP Officejet K80 work again, I will finally love my Mac…
Thanks mate,
Butsch
genius!!!!
thanks very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have the same issue as – the post below: any suggestions please?
Mikel Says:
April 25th, 2007 at 4:58 am
I have tried to do this to move my contacts from Outlook to Mail in Mac, withour result.
The file that is attached in the m ail has the name winmail.dat when I open the mail in my iMac, and it is not recognised.
Any help?
Thanks in advance.
[...] Moving outlook contacts to mac os-x address book [...]
I have outlook express and wonder how I can transfer my address book. Anything you can say would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. pamela
I don’t have forward as vCard in my actions menu?? I have Outlook 2003 where is this magical menu command??
-thanks
I am having the same problem with Scott. I don’t have the ‘Forward as vCard’ in my actions menu. And similarly, I have Outlook 2003. Please help it would be so helpful. Thank you!
You ripper
Your instructions worked a treat – you’re bloody marvelous.
I’m using Outlook 2003 and it has “Forward as vCard” under the Actions menu.
Many thanks, David
Thanks a million. Your solution works incredibly quickly and accurately. I was truly amazed and grateful. I’ve been looking for a solution to download my Outlook contacts into my new MAC for a week. Apple should contact you for this solution.
hi, thanks so much for this! it worked but i have a glitch if anyone is facing the same prob? if i have a contact with >1 email address, only 1 email address is copying over and the others are getting lost…any ideas pls? thanks!
In a word – awesome. I too tried the other approaches to no avail. Thanks. BTW, I sent each of my Outlook categories separately so that I could move each “Latest Import” into the proper groups that I created in iCal.
[...] this : Lucas Chan :: Weblog » Blog Archive » Moving Outlook Contacts to Mac OS X Address Book There is also a program that does it for you but it costs 10 bucks. Little [...]
for i in *.vcf; do grep -v X-MS-OL “$i” > “final$i”; done;
The above command will help you strip out all the Microsoft cruft before you import the vcards just run it in the folder containing all of the dirty vcards and then only import cards with final prefix.
Regards.
I had a mother board failure and moved the hard drive to another PC. I was running outlook 2000 and Outlook Express. I can not locate to migrate/export files. Where do these reside and how do I get them active and then export?
Thanx, Jack
hi i’m moving from a pda (windows mobile) phone to the iphone, now i tried syncing my iphone to my outlook which is good however i have lots of contacts that has more than one mobile number…windows mobile is dumb here because they only allow you to input one number as mobile number, so i inputted the second number under “car phone” category, now after i synced my iphone, all the numbers under “car phone” did not register and did not show up. now i have almost 1000 contacts on my list and i dont think going through them one by one is the answer, can someone help me? would transferring my data to a macbook address book software fix this problem?
Thanks
[...] if this works for you: Lucas Chan :: Weblog » Blog Archive » Moving Outlook Contacts to Mac OS X Address Book __________________ Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into [...]
I also have this winmail.dat problem but I have not found the solution for this problem. Please help me
Pauly, I really don’t understand your instructions regarding removing all the Microsoft crap that comes up in Notes when importing the vcard.
Kindly explain in detail as i’m a noob.
Cheers! :-)
“Pauly Says:
October 4th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
for i in *.vcf; do grep -v X-MS-OL “$i†> “final$iâ€; done;
The above command will help you strip out all the Microsoft cruft before you import the vcards just run it in the folder containing all of the dirty vcards and then only import cards with final prefix.
Regards.”
hi!
i’m a complete newbie to os x and the macbook. just got a new mbp and am trying to import my contacts from outlook to mail. tried mailing as vcfs but they all got converted to msg. i then saved the mail to draft in outlook and copied the attached vcf cards to a folder on a usb drive. managed to import those into mail on my mbp. now my problem is the junk data in the notes attached to each contact.
i did run the command given by pauly: (for i in *.vcf; do grep -v X-MS-OL “$i†> “final$iâ€; done;) in the terminal window but the result i get is:
grep: “??: No such file or directory
grep: “??: No such file or directory etc
for each of my contacts.
as i said i’m new to os x and using terminal commands etc but i did run the ls command and i know i’m in the right directory cos i see all my vcf files.
what am i doing wrong? how else can i remove all that junk data?
help appreciated! thank you
Man the best kick you can ever have just superb …
I love it … Hay Urvashi … just simpe .. take time just ope your Add book and just Del the note…
i have a silly grin on my face. BIG job done simply.
Thank you
Now, about my FCP workflow…..
Even I, as a total nitwit, succeeded in exporting the Outlook Express Address book to my new Macbook. It was much simpler than I thought.
1. Open the Outlook Express address book and select all.
2. Copy by burning to an external device (cd or usb-stick).
3. Put device in Macbook and open it.
4. Select all and drag them to the Macbook address book.
That’s it!
Following my last post: don’t know how it happened, but after selecting all in Outlook Express, they turned out to be vCard automatically when I burned them to a cd through Nero.
great tip. I started from outlook express, moved all the contacts to outlook and from there to mail on my (new and first) mac.
This won’t be added to any helpsection at Apple simply because Apple won’t support Microsoft products, and why would they?
Regarding problems with Outlook 2003. Initially I tried and the Forward vCard option wasn’t there. Then I went and set up a mail account and after that the Forward vCard option became available. (I’m guessing that some of you did what I had done, and that is abandon using Outlook for email and just use it for contacts).
Additionally, you don’t actually have to send the mail. After selecting Forward as vCard, close and *save* the message, without sending it. The message will then appear in the drafts folder. From there you’re able to select all of the attachments and save them to disk.
thank you!!!! THIS TOOK LESS THAN A MINUTE USING A ZIP DRIVE!!!
Hey this worked for me. Easy too. When i open up the address book however I see that all of the contacts are listed as cards and any contacts I already made are listed with a contact picture. Looking for that fix.
As to those that don’t have the prompt in action to send as a vcard, I made a new male message and clicked on business card within that new message. Outlook 2007
I saved the vCards from the opened email message to a Mac drive. Worked good for over 400 contacts.
To get my calendar items moved from Outlook 2007 to iCal, I synced Outlook with Google’s calendar, then synced iCal with Google’s calender.
When i open address book in outlook 2007 it does not allow you to forward the contacts selected ..
weird..
I would love to try this but want to know if it saves the COMPLETE Contact info (e.g., including notes section from each contact).