Understanding When Outlook Import/Export Is Not An Option

Using the Outlook import/export wizard is not an option when you want to import/export:

1. any user-defined fields (standard message class)
2. custom fields contained in a custom form
3. an Exchange public folder
4. a delegate Exchange folder
5. any standard field that does not appear in the Outlook import/export field map

The Outlook import/export wizard only creates new contacts using the standard contact form (MessageClass = <IPM.Contact>) regardless of what the default is for the form. Similarly, when exporting, no custom form assignment is recognized. Only information from the Outlook standard fields will be exported.

Also, the only fields that are available within the Outlook import/export wizard are those that appear in the <Outlook Field Map>. You cannot add any additional fields whether standard or user-defined.

If any of the cases above apply to you, then your options are to either write your own custom code or use a 3rd party program. There is one potential alternative to extract information from specific Outlook fields as an alternative to exporting which would be

1. Create a custom view including the specific fields desired
2. Select this view for the contact folder
3. Highlight all the data via CTRL + A, copy it and then paste it into an Excel worksheet

The viability of the above approach depends on exactly how much data is involved in terms of both the number of contacts and the number of fields involved especially in terms of how memory is available, something which was much more of an issue with older configurations. In those cases, it was not unusual to encounter an error during the cut ‘n paste process.

ContactGenie products offer several different options for both import and export and addresses all the items above (ContactGenie Import products – (QuickPort, DataPort) also  include export functionality)

For more information about ContactGenie products see the overview that is of interest:

ContactGenie Import Overview  or
ContactGenie Export Overview

There is also a free export utility available from the folks at CodeTwo  – CodeTwo Outlook Export  which allows exporting of user-defined fields which can be easily selected if the UDFs are defined for the folder. Since things change on a regular basis, you should review the current release of the program if it’s of interest to see if it is applicable for your situation.

Tags: ContactGenie, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook contact exporting, Outlook contact importing, Outlook custom forms, Outlook user-defined fields

Category: Understanding Outlook