While the CSV import process in Outlook is very simple and extremely reliable, there are a lot of common mistakes that people make causing a lot of unnecessary aggravation along with not realizing what can and can’t be done.
Most Common Mistakes
- Not manually mapping fields in the CSV file to the specific Outlook fields using the <MAP CUSTOM FIELDS> option assuming that Outlook will “auto-map” everything
- Mapping fields in the CSV file to the wrong Outlook field. A prime example is the email address which one of three fields under the aggregate Email / Email -2 and Email -3 root fields. While Outlook does an excellent job in the majority of cases deciphering incoming data, it isn’t always right
- Not understanding the world of “parsing” especially involving the <FullName> and <Street Address> fields. It’s always better to map individual fields to the corresponding Outlook fields whenever possible (i.e. First Name, Last Name, all the address fields etc). Otherwise, Outlook has to parse the incoming data and try and figure out what pieces belong to what fields which can lead to some very interesting results. For additional info on FullNames see “Understanding FullName parsing” and for Address fields see “Understanding Outlook Address fields“
Summary of limitations
- Cannot import data to any user-defined fields with or without a custom form
- Newly imported contacts will not be created using a custom form message class regardless of what the folder setting is