Replacing Outlook contacts with new contacts

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I have two computers, one at work and one at home. Both have the same pst. When I make edits to a contact at work, I copy the new, updated contact to usb and when I get home, copy the updated contact into Outlook. My intent is to replace the old existing contact with the new one, which contains updated information.

However, I can never get this to happen. When I copy the updated contact to Outlook, a dialogue pops up stating, “the name or email address of this contact already exists in this folder.” I then get the choice of “Add this as a new contact anyway,” which simply gives me two contacts with the same name without deleting the old one and is thus confusing, or “Update new information from this contact to the existing one,” which, when I choose it, gives me the message “The text or attachments in the current message will not be be copied to the existing contact. If you wish to keep the new message body information, select cancel and make a copy of it. If you don’t need the new information, select Okay.” If I select okay, I get two different contacts, one with the new information in the text, and another without it, both with the same name, and thus confusing.

Is there a way to get Outlook to replace the old contact with the new one and leave me with only one copy?

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Consider exporting (instead of copying) the work contacts to the USB, using the “file” “import/export” function Wizard in Outlook at work. Export the file as a “comma separated values [DOS]” file and then import that file from your USB to your home Outlook again using the “file” “import/export” function Wizard, making sure to set “replace duplicates with items imported”.

I suggest you make a back-up copy of your Outlook.pst file before you experiment.

There are, of course, ways to sync outlook over the Web that other Loungers may have personally tried/used which should make the whole task even easier.

(I personally use Plaxo (a social networking web site: Plaxo.com) that includes a function that alllows you to sync Outlook data between computers over the web. I find it very useful to keep my Outlook data sync-ed between my mobile (outlook mobile), my home and my office PC).

(By the way, the same export/importprocess can be used to sync Outlook Calendar data and any other Outlook folders)

Whilst I do not know if this is applicable for your issue, MAYBE Outlook Social Connector could solve your problem. But I stress I do not know exactly how it works since I have not worked with it at all. See the following site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c87e257c-d76f-4785-a09b-af36babd6e32&displaylang=en#instructions

Microsft SyncToy may also be a solution (Once again, I must stress that I have not used it) Version 2.1 can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C26EFA36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

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I have two computers, one at work and one at home. Both have the same pst. When I make edits to a contact at work, I copy the new, updated contact to usb and when I get home, copy the updated contact into Outlook. My intent is to replace the old existing contact with the new one, which contains updated information.

However, I can never get this to happen. When I copy the updated contact to Outlook, a dialogue pops up stating, “the name or email address of this contact already exists in this folder.” I then get the choice of “Add this as a new contact anyway,” which simply gives me two contacts with the same name without deleting the old one and is thus confusing, or “Update new information from this contact to the existing one,” which, when I choose it, gives me the message “The text or attachments in the current message will not be be copied to the existing contact. If you wish to keep the new message body information, select cancel and make a copy of it. If you don’t need the new information, select Okay.” If I select okay, I get two different contacts, one with the new information in the text, and another without it, both with the same name, and thus confusing.

Is there a way to get Outlook to replace the old contact with the new one and leave me with only one copy?

Taking what Peter said. I would and have used .pst instead of a .csv. other than that Peter is spot on!.

As for Outlook social connector, what it basically does is connects your hotmail or msn accounts to Outlook.

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@t8ntlikly: Thanks for refining my solution and particularly for clarifying the function of “Social Connector”.

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t8ntlikly: I want to only copy a few contacts (the ones that I edit each day at work) to my USB. Can I do that using the function you are suggesting or am I required to copy the entire work computer’s PST.

If I can select only certain contacts, then if I then save them as a .PST and then copy them to my home computer Outlook and select “replace duplicates with items imported,” will all of my thousands of other contacts in my home computer remain intact when I import the foreign PST or will my home computer PST be replaced by the PST I am importing, which will only contain a few contacts?

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t8ntlikly: I want to only copy a few contacts (the ones that I edit each day at work) to my USB. Can I do that using the function you are suggesting or am I required to copy the entire work computer’s PST.

If I can select only certain contacts, then if I then save them as a .PST and then copy them to my home computer Outlook and select “replace duplicates with items imported,” will all of my thousands of other contacts in my home computer remain intact when I import the foreign PST or will my home computer PST be replaced by the PST I am importing, which will only contain a few contacts?

Why not just right click the contact when you are finished editing it and forward it to your home account?

Joe

--Joe

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t8ntlikly: I want to only copy a few contacts (the ones that I edit each day at work) to my USB. Can I do that using the function you are suggesting or am I required to copy the entire work computer’s PST.

If I can select only certain contacts, then if I then save them as a .PST and then copy them to my home computer Outlook and select “replace duplicates with items imported,” will all of my thousands of other contacts in my home computer remain intact when I import the foreign PST or will my home computer PST be replaced by the PST I am importing, which will only contain a few contacts?

I am going to assume here that you are not updating the same contacts everyday?
Regardless, you can use either the .pst method or the .csv for method 1.
Here are two ways to do it.

Method 1:
1: Highlight the Contacts catagory,
2: Click on File,Import and Export,
3: Export to a file,
4: Choose either .pst or .csv
5: In this window ONLY the contacts folder should be highlighted. If it isn’t click on it. Make sure that the “Include Subfolders” is unchecked.
By highlighting the contacts folder and not the “Personal Folders: only the contacts will be exported.
6: “Replace Duplicates with items exported” Should be checked. If not check it.
7: Finish

Method 2:
1: Highlight only the contacts you have updated Hold down the shift key to select more than one.
2: Click on “Actions” on the main toolbar and select “Send Full Contact”
3: Either format there will / should be fine
This will put the selected contacts into an e-mail that you can send to yourself.

One caveat with Method 2. From my experience, the File As” might/will change from “Company” as I have mine set up, to the contact name. So if you use the company name as your files as you will need to change it back to that after you import those contacts.

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This might be a case where my first suggestion to only export your contacts folder as a .csv file and then import it with “replace duplicates with items imported” set may be the way to go. That way, you don’t bother with the contents of any other folders in your work .pst file (such as calendar, tasks and notes).

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I tried emailing them to myself and when I paste the copied edited contact, the only thing that happens is a new blank contact entitled “Untitled” opens up. Also, when I open up the emailed contacts from my email, it doesn’t look like a contact that was sent; rather, it looks like an email with some notes in the body wtih the info I put in the notes section of the contact.

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I tried emailing them to myself and when I paste the copied edited contact, the only thing that happens is a new blank contact entitled “Untitled” opens up. Also, when I open up the emailed contacts from my email, it doesn’t look like a contact that was sent; rather, it looks like an email with some notes in the body wtih the info I put in the notes section of the contact.

If you forward it the contact information will be sent as an attachment. The format of the attachment depends on the version of Outlook. With Outlook 2007 & 2010 you get to choose the format of the attachment. Since there is Outlook on both ends I’d choose to forward it as an Outlook contact. You should be able to open the attchment and save it as a Contact.

Joe

--Joe

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If you forward it the contact information will be sent as an attachment. The format of the attachment depends on the version of Outlook. With Outlook 2007 & 2010 you get to choose the format of the attachment. Since there is Outlook on both ends I’d choose to forward it as an Outlook contact. You should be able to open the attchment and save it as a Contact.

Joe

Good catch Joe and at that point it will ask you whether or not you want to update the existing contact. What I don’t understand jmt is you mention copy/paste? There should be no need to c/p?

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Here are some notes on what I have been doing and trying:

MY METHOD
What I have been doing is copying the contacts in the “New Edits” category, pasting them to my USB, and then when I get home, I go to Outlook contacts, and then copy the edited contacts from my USB and drop them into Outlook. The only problem with this though is that I have been getting duplicates. If I have a contact called, for example, “Office Manager,” I will get two with the same name, one with the new edits and the other without them.

T8NTLIKLY’S METHOD 1
I tried Method 1 and exported the edited contacts as CSV. It appears to me that Outlook tried to export not only the 5 contacts that I had edited and selected prior to starting the export, but ALL of my Contacts in my PST. I wound up with a file called ABA.csv. I suspect that is a file that tried to back up ALL of my work computer’s Contacts; that’s probably why it took so long to import them to my home computer; I have thousands of contacts and don’t want to have to go through exporting and importing all of them every day. I want to just get the few that I edit each day, which are categorized as “New Edits.” This way, I don’t have to go through a long, drawn out process that requires me to have to wait several minutes as Outlook backs up all of the contacts and then imports all of them to my home computer.

In any case, after I imported aBA.csv, I wound up with all of my contacts on my home computer replaced with those on my work. All of the contacts should have been identical in my test because the PST’s were identical, just for hte test. However, not every Contact wound up on my home computer. Before I imported the foreign file, I had more contacts than when I had finished. So I suspect that Outlook tried to backup the foreign Contacts, failed to do so thoroughly, and then went ahead and deleted the contacts on my home computer and copied the contacts from work.

Additionally, the font in the Notes section on my home computer contacts changed from Times New Roman, which I like, to Arial. I would have to manually change each contact to fix this. Finally, the Arabic text I had in many of my contacts wound up with just a string of question marks after hte importing happened.

By a stroke of luck, I happened to backup my C drive today and so was able to recover the PST before the importing process deleted and changed records.

T8NTLIKLY’S METHOD 2
t8ntlikly: when I went to Actions, I did not see an option for “Send Full Contact.” Is that a tool in only Outlook 2007? I am testing from my home computer, which has Outlook 2003 on it. There is a “Forward” option that I tried, but when I received the forwarded contact, I copied it, went into the contacts view, and then pasted it, but instead of pasting, a blank new contact opened up.

Regards,

JMT

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T8NTLIKLY’S METHOD 2
t8ntlikly: when I went to Actions, I did not see an option for “Send Full Contact.” Is that a tool in only Outlook 2007? I am testing from my home computer, which has Outlook 2003 on it. There is a “Forward” option that I tried, but when I received the forwarded contact, I copied it, went into the contacts view, and then pasted it, but instead of pasting, a blank new contact opened up.

There is no reason to copy the forwarded contact. Just double click the attachment. It should open in a contact form. You should be able to click “save and close”.

Joe

--Joe

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JMT,
I am sorry for the problems you are having with this.
Having over 2000 contacts myself broken down into different contact folders, I feel your pain when all of a sudden you came up with duplicates for everyone. Yes, backups are a real lifesaver, and hey who knows you might not even have to pull any hair out either.

It was not I that recommended you try exporting the contacts as a .csv file. Even though I have never used that option there is no reason that I can think of as to why that method would not work. I have always used the .pst method.
Let me ask you a couple of questions that I should have asked up front:

1: Are both computers running Outlook 2003, or ?
2: Please state exactly what you are changing in the contact: Is it the name, title, notes, ?
3: Have you categorized your contacts?
4: Are both views set up identically?

I have used both of the methods I stated on numerous occasions, going from Outlook ’03 to ’03, as well as ’03 to ’07 and vice versa. Other than the “File As” wanting to change, all of the new information was imported correctly to the existing contact on a different computer.

Also please run a detect and repair on Outlook on both computers

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t8ntlikly: I think that the PST method would have the same result as the CSV method: both would back up ALL of my work contacts and replace my home contacts with the work contacts, as opposed to just copying over the ones that I edited.

Regarding your questions:

1: Are both computers running Outlook 2003, or ? No. Work: Outlook 2007. Home: Outlook 2003.
2: Please state exactly what you are changing in the contact: Is it the name, title, notes, ? Generally, I change the notes. HOwever, sometimes I create a whole new contact. Whether I edit the notes or change the whole contact, I categorize the contact as “New Edits” and then transfer it to my USB and when I get home, copy it into my home Outlook and then delete the old duplicates (when the contact previously existed).
3: Have you categorized your contacts? Yes. The contacts that I create or change at work are categorized as “New Edits.”
4: Are both views set up identically? Yes.

By the way, I checked with my work computer, which is Office 2007, and it does have the “Send Full Contact” option under Actions. However, when I tried that, I opened the email with the attached contacts and they were not in Contact format. Each attached contact, when opened, looked like a distinct, individual email from my work address with the title of the contact in the email subject line and the notes section of the contact in the email body.

Joe: when I double click the attached contact, it opens in contact form. However, when I then save it, I get a duplicate, and so then I have to go back and delete all of the old (unedited) contacts under the same name.
The advantage to your method is that I can all together avoid the USB and simply forward myself the edited contacts. The disadvantage is that I would have to open and save each contact individually, whereas by saving them to USB and then copying them into Outlook, I can copy then all at once and drop them into Outlook’s contacts view.
The disadvantage to both methods is that I have to then go back and delete the old duplicates.

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By the way, I checked with my work computer, which is Office 2007, and it does have the “Send Full Contact” option under Actions. However, when I tried that, I opened the email with the attached contacts and they were not in Contact format. Each attached contact, when opened, looked like a distinct, individual email from my work address with the title of the contact in the email subject line and the notes section of the contact in the email body.

Note: what I wrote above is what happened when in Outlook 2007 I chose Send Full Contact and chose Outlook format. When I chose vCard format, I did get the contact in contact form. However, the font of the Note was changed to Arial.

When I selected the edited contacts and pressed Ctrl + F from Outlook 2007, I wound up forwarding the edited contacts and they arrived to me not as contacts, but as attached emials in the way described in the quote above that applies to “Send Full Contact” in Outlook format.

Thus, so far, the only solution I have found (outside of the laborious backing up to USB) is to Send Full Contact as vCard, then open and save each edited contact individually, being sure to first delete the duplicate in the home computer.

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Note: what I wrote above is what happened when in Outlook 2007 I chose Send Full Contact and chose Outlook format. When I chose vCard format, I did get the contact in contact form. However, the font of the Note was changed to Arial.

When I selected the edited contacts and pressed Ctrl + F from Outlook 2007, I wound up forwarding the edited contacts and they arrived to me not as contacts, but as attached emials in the way described in the quote above that applies to “Send Full Contact” in Outlook format.

Thus, so far, the only solution I have found (outside of the laborious backing up to USB) is to Send Full Contact as vCard, then open and save each edited contact individually, being sure to first delete the duplicate in the home computer.

I got a hold of a friend of mine that has Outlook ’03 this morning, and we set up a couple of contacts to send back and forth. I am running Outlook ’07, and couldn’t get a contact to make a duplicate as you said yours was doing. I am going to have to do some more digging into this.

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