Working on a locked down machine with no desktop Outlook, only Outlook Web App through the browser. I have a contacts CSV from our old system to bring in.
Does OWA even do CSV imports and what format does it demand?
Import contacts from a CSV file in Outlook Web App
Solved Email & Outlook
RK
Rachel Kim May 4, 2018
2 replies
5,720 views
Reviewed by moderators
OWA imports CSV, the option just lives in the People section rather than anywhere near mail settings.
1
In OWA click the app launcher grid at the top left and open People.
2
On the People toolbar choose Manage, Import contacts. Older OWA versions label it Manage contacts with Import inside.
3
Browse to the CSV and upload. OWA previews the first rows so you can see whether columns landed under the right headings before committing.
4
Confirm and the contacts appear in your default folder, syncing to phones and any desktop Outlook attached to the mailbox.
The format OWA wants is a header row with names like First Name, Last Name, E-mail Address, the same headers a desktop Outlook CSV export produces, so a file from any Outlook is accepted as is. Files from other systems usually need their headers renamed to match, which the preview in step three will make obvious. One encoding note: save the CSV as UTF-8 if any names carry accents or non Latin characters, OWA reads plain ANSI files fine for English but mangles special characters without the UTF-8 encoding.
Renamed four headers to the Outlook names, saved as UTF-8 for our French contacts and the preview lined up perfectly. 520 imported through the browser alone.