Backing up Contact Groups (Contact Lists) in Outlook - Windows

Audience

Employees

Question

How do I back up/import my contact list(s) in Outlook?

Answer

Contact Groups (aka Contact Lists, Distribution Lists) don’t back up automatically when you try to export your contacts.

Follow these instructions to locate, export, and import your Contact Groups from and to Outlook.

Backing up your Contact Groups

1. Go to the People tab in the lower left corner of Outlook

2. Select the Contact Group you’d like to backup.

• Note: An individual contact shows up as a single person, while a Contact Group shows as a group of people.
  To select consecutive contact lists: click on the first one -> hold shift -> click on the last one
  To select non-consecutive contact lists: click on one -> hold ctrl -> click on the next one

3. In the Share Group of the Home ribbon, click Forward Contact, then select As an Outlook Contact

4. Send the email with the contact lists attached to yourself

Importing your Contact Groups

1. Open the email with the contact list attachments in its own window
2. Go to the people tab in the lower left corner of Outlook

3. Click and drag the saved contact list attachment(s) back into your Outlook contact list