How to Use Your Outlook.com Contacts on Another Computer

Save your address book as a file that you can transfer to other devices

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Updated on February 9, 2021

What to Know

Export contacts: At Outlook.com, select People > All contacts > Manage > Export Contacts > Export to generate the contacts.csv file.
Import contacts: Transfer .csv file to computer. In Outlook.com, select People > Manage > Import contacts > Browse. Choose contacts.csv.

This article explains how to how to use your Outlook.com contacts on another computer or share the information with someone by exporting your contact list to a shareable file and then importing it to another computer or sending it through email or a file-sharing site. Instructions in this article apply to Outlook.com and Outlook Online.

Export the Address Book to a CSV File

To use your contacts list on another computer or share it with another person, export the address book entries to a CSV file, a format that most email clients support. Then, import the file to another computer, and use your Outlook.com contacts there.

The screenshots in this article use the classic Outlook.com interface. The new Outlook.com interface looks slightly different but the process works the same way.

Go to Outlook.com and select People.
Select the All contacts check box.
Select Manage.
Select Export Contacts.
Select Export.
A contacts.csv file will being downloading to your computer.
On your desktop, navigate to the Downloads folder. Save the contacts.csv file to a folder you can later retrieve or to a flash drive if you plan to move the file physically.

Use the Address Book File on a Different Computer

Here's how to import your Outlook.com address book to a different email client or to a different Outlook.com email account:

Insert the flash drive that contains the address book file into the computer or retrieve it from an email or file-sharing site.
Open Outlook.com.
Select People > Manage > Import contacts.
Select Browse.
Choose the contacts.csv file and select Open.
Select either Upload or Import.
A confirmation message will appear saying the address book was imported correctly.

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