Import Outlook Contacts Into Windows Live Mail

Many people are switching over to cloud-based services. If you’re moving from Microsoft Outlook over to your Windows Live Mail account, you may want to take your Outlook Contacts with you. We’ll show you how to import your Contacts from Outlook into your Windows Live Mail account.

Outlook Export Steps

1. In Outlook, select “File” > “Open & Export” > “Import/Export“.
2. One the first screen of the wizard, select “Export to a file“, then select “Next“.
   
3. Select “Comma Separated Values (DOS)“, then select “Next“.
   
4. Choose “Contacts” in the list, then select “Next“.
   
5. Save the file to a location. Click the “Browse…” button if you want to avoid typing the full path. Select “Next“.
   
6. Select “Finish“.
   The file is exported with a .CSV extension.
   Now that we have our export file, we can import the contents of it into Windows Live Mail.

Windows Live Mail Import Steps

1. Login to your Windows Live Mail account using Internet Explorer.
2. Select the apps button at the upper-left corner of the screen and choose “People“.
   
3. Select “Manage” > “Add People“. Note: You may not need to do this if you’re already on the “Add People” screen.
4. Select “Start import“.
5. Choose “Other“.
6. Select “Choose File” and select the CSV file you exported.
7. Select “Upload“.

After a few seconds the contacts should import to Windows Live Mail successfully.

FAQ

Why don’t I have the option to Export in Outlook?

If you’re using Outlook on a work or school computer, the option to export from Outlook may be restricted by the Systems Administrator. You will need to contact your IT department to see if there is a way to enable it. Otherwise, you can use a workaround to export contacts as VCF files so that you may import them one by one.