Moving Outlook contacts to Google Contact with pictures
Sometimes you may need to move your contacts from Outlook to your Google account. Most sites recomend doing an Outlook export to csv and then import it to Google Contacts, but that doesn't transfer your pictures, and if you are not using English language, you have to play arround with the field names.
Here is an easy way to transfer your contacts with all details.
Step 1: Exporting Outlook contacts to vCard
To preserve all the information you need to use the vCard (vcf) format. Unfortunately Outlook doesn't offer out of the box this functionality, but the free Export Contact to vCard Outlook addon has this functionality.
To install it first you need to downlowd the Utility Manager which is some kind of Framework and then install the export contact addon. When installing the Utility Manager, uncheck the install Outlook add-in, unless you plan to use this (or other) utilities from the same website frequently.
After installing start the program "OutlookFreeware.com Utilities" and in the Configure menü select the desired Outlook folders. Next select the folder for contacts in .VCF format. Use a new empty folder, because the program will export each contact into a separate file, which will need to merge in the next step. After completing this step you will have a folder with all your contacts saved as vCard files.
Step 2: Merge vCard files to one
Next step is to merge the contacts into one file, we will use Powershell to do this.
In Windows Explorer, go the parent folder of the folder where you have the stored the contacts, press shift and right click on the folder name. From the context menu select "Open Powershell windows here". In the new window, type "cat *.vcf | sc merged.vcf", this will concatenate all vcf files into the merged.vcf.
Step 3: Import it to Google Contacts
The last step is to import it to Google Contacts. After opening Google Contacts on the left click More > Import. Here is the official help for the import so you can find the help for your language.
After the successful import the imported contacts will be labeled with the date of the import and it will be offered to find duplicates. Finding duplicates makes sense, and it works well with Google Contacts, and as a last step you can select all the imported contacts give them a new label and finaly delete the import date label.
I hope this helps.
Here is an easy way to transfer your contacts with all details.
Step 1: Exporting Outlook contacts to vCard
To preserve all the information you need to use the vCard (vcf) format. Unfortunately Outlook doesn't offer out of the box this functionality, but the free Export Contact to vCard Outlook addon has this functionality.
To install it first you need to downlowd the Utility Manager which is some kind of Framework and then install the export contact addon. When installing the Utility Manager, uncheck the install Outlook add-in, unless you plan to use this (or other) utilities from the same website frequently.
After installing start the program "OutlookFreeware.com Utilities" and in the Configure menü select the desired Outlook folders. Next select the folder for contacts in .VCF format. Use a new empty folder, because the program will export each contact into a separate file, which will need to merge in the next step. After completing this step you will have a folder with all your contacts saved as vCard files.
Step 2: Merge vCard files to one
Next step is to merge the contacts into one file, we will use Powershell to do this.
In Windows Explorer, go the parent folder of the folder where you have the stored the contacts, press shift and right click on the folder name. From the context menu select "Open Powershell windows here". In the new window, type "cat *.vcf | sc merged.vcf", this will concatenate all vcf files into the merged.vcf.
Step 3: Import it to Google Contacts
The last step is to import it to Google Contacts. After opening Google Contacts on the left click More > Import. Here is the official help for the import so you can find the help for your language.
After the successful import the imported contacts will be labeled with the date of the import and it will be offered to find duplicates. Finding duplicates makes sense, and it works well with Google Contacts, and as a last step you can select all the imported contacts give them a new label and finaly delete the import date label.
I hope this helps.
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