Email Contact Migration

From Provider Notes

For more information about ISC's Exchange Service, visit the Provider Web at [1].

This document aims to provide more detailed instructions on migrating Contacts from various email clients with the goal of providing full step-by-step instructions. Currently, this document does not yet include detailed instructions for each email client.

If you are looking for information on contact migration strategies that are not part of specific technical details and tactics involved in a migration, please see the Contact Migration Strategies page.

This document assumes you have already configured Outlook with the Exchange server.

Migrating Contacts from Thunderbird

• Export contacts in Thunderbird to a .csv file using the procedure below
  • Launch the Thunderbird Address Book
  • Select the Address Book you wish to export in the left-hand column
  • Go to Tools -> Export
  • Type in a name for the address book you are going to export (this can be any name; the exported file just needs a name)
  • Select a location on the hard drive, such as the Desktop, that will make it easy to find the exported file
  • Make sure you change the "Save As Type" from .ldif to .csv (otherwise Outlook will not be able to import the file) and click Save
• Make sure the file has field headers in the first row
  • Open the exported .csv file in Excel
  • Check the first row; if it begins with an address book record and not field headings, insert a row above the first row of data and manually type in the appropriate field headings
  • This step is necessary because if the exported file doesn't include field headings, you will most likely get an error when trying to import it into Outlook stating there was a "Translation Error"
  • Once you have added all the field headings, save the file (still as a .csv) and close it.
• Import contacts (from the export file you just made) into Outlook using the following procedure
  • Go to File -> Import and Export...
  • Select "Import from another program or file" and click Next
  • Select "Comma Separated Value (Windows)" and click Next
  • Browse to the .csv file you just exported and select it
  • Choose whichever method you prefer for dealing with duplicates and then click Next
  • Select the Destination Folder for the import (this should be either the Contacts folder found on the server or under Personal Folders) and click Next; if you want the contacts to be stored on the Exchange server, you should select the Contacts folder on the server
  • On the next window that appears, you can manually map the fields (or just check the field mappings) if you are concerned they may not have been mapped correctly by the Import tool. You can do this by selecting "Map Custom Fields ..."
  • Once you are finished with the field mappings, click Finish to complete the process.

Migrating Contacts from Eudora

• Export contacts in Eudora to a .csv file using the procedure below
  • Launch the Eudora Address Book
  • Select the Address Book you wish to export in the left-hand column of the Address Book. Make sure you click on the name of the address book and not on one of the contacts in the Address Book.
  • Go to File -> Save As...
  • Type in a name for the address book you are going to export (this can be any name; the exported file just needs a name)
  • Select a location on the hard drive, such as the Desktop, that will make it easy to find the exported file
  • Make sure you change the "Save As Type" from HTML to .csv (otherwise Outlook will not be able to import the file) and click Save
• Make sure the file has field headers in the first row
  • Open the exported .csv file in Excel
  • Check the first row; if it begins with an address book record and not field headings, insert a row above the first row of data and manually type in the appropriate field headings
  • This step is necessary because if the exported file doesn't include field headings, you will most likely get an error when trying to import it into Outlook stating there was a "Translation Error"
  • Once you have added all the field headings, save the file (still as a .csv) and close it.
• Import contacts (from the export file you just made) into Outlook using the following procedure
  • Go to File -> Import and Export...
  • Select "Import from another program or file" and click Next
  • Select "Comma Separated Value (Windows)" and click Next
  • Browse to the .csv file you just exported and select it
  • Choose whichever method you prefer for dealing with duplicates and then click Next
  • Select the Destination Folder for the import (this should be either the Contacts folder found on the server or under Personal Folders) and click Next; if you want the contacts to be stored on the Exchange server, you should select the Contacts folder on the server
  • On the next window that appears, you can manually map the fields (or just check the field mappings) if you are concerned they may not have been mapped correctly by the Import tool. You can do this by selecting "Map Custom Fields ..."
  • Once you are finished with the field mappings, click Finish to complete the process.