Migrating Microsoft Contacts to Thunderbird





Last Updated on 08/25/2009 by dboth

Microsoft Contacts are individual files located in the user’s home/Contacts directory. These can probably not be used to import into Thunderbird directly. So use the following directions.

  1. Use the MS Mail export function to export the address book (Contacts) to a CSV file.
  2. Copy the CSV file to /tmp or other accessible location on the Linux computer.
  3. Use the Thunderbird import wizard (Tools=>Import) and click on Address Book.
  4. At the bottom of the file manager screen, click on the file type selector and choose CSV.
  5. Navigate to /tmp and select the address CSV file you created in step 1.
  6. Adjust the fields so the names match as closely as possible between the two columns.
  7. Click on OK.

You now have a new address book whith the name of the CSV file you created. You can move all of the address entries from that address book to the “Personal Addresses” address book, which is the default one, and then delete the one you created during the import.





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