How to Import Outlook Contacts Into Your macOS Address Book

If you’re switching from Windows to macOS -- formerly OS X -- either permanently or temporarily, you’ll unfortunately lose your contacts saved in the Windows desktop client for Outlook. Or perhaps you just want to have all your contacts available on both platforms, and you don’t use the web client -- no matter the reason, there’s an easy fix.

Following the guide we created previously you can export your Outlook contacts to a CSV titled “ol-contacts.csv” and import this file into your macOS address book, Contacts. We’ll start by assuming you have the file on your macOS desktop.

1. Launch Contacts by finding the profile in the Applications folder, or using CMD + F and typing Contacts into the Finder window.

2. Select File > Import from the Mac menu bar atop your screen.

3. Select the CSV file from the desktop, or wherever you have it stored and press Open.

4. Check Ignore first card to ignore the headers in the CSV file.

5. Use the dropdown menus next to each piece of information to ensure it’s correctly categorized in Contacts. For example, name, phone number, and email address each have to be selected to ensure they appear in the right place. Doing this once will handle all the rest of your contacts so you won’t have to do it for each.