How to Export Office 365 Contacts to CSV: Full Guide

Professional users do not export Office 365 contacts to CSV just to download data on their system as a backup. Such data becomes beneficial for purposes like reporting for compliance needs, onboarding CRM, storing employees’ data in bulk, etc. For agendas like these, users need contact information in an easily accessible, flexible format that can be edited.

With differentiated contact types, like through sync behaviour, field mappings often influence the resultant data, which leads to users with incomplete or broken files as they depend of free steps without comprehending the structure of certain methods.

In this guide, users will get to know how to export Office 365 contacts to CSV using different types of techniques. It also explains the pros and cons of each method and how accurate the results are generated through them. Read this blog till the end to briefly understand the whats and hows.

What Drives Users to Export Office 365 Contacts to CSV?

Since the CSV file format is an organized and flat structure, it is diversely accepted by users from numerous platforms as it allows users to operate and process data briefly.

More benefits are the following, which lead users for office 365 export contacts to CSV:

• Departments like marketing and sales require am organized CSV file for sales numbers, contact ingestion, as well as initial leads.
• Although Office 365 is a safe space to backup information, it is also considered a “Cold Storage” when it comes to extracting professional information, as it sometimes results in syncing errors and accidental deletion of data.
• During the merger of the companies, switching platforms and data requires CSV files between different Office 365 tenants for field mapping.
• With CSV files being a universal format, it can also sync with users’ legacy or Gmail account.
• With the help of sorting and filtering in CSV files, users can easily navigate and remove duplicate items and edit large contacts simultaneously.

Different from other mailboxes, the CSV file is an optimized file format for the purpose of record-level data rather than message content.

Export Office 365 Contacts to CSV with Manual Solutions

Users looking for an easily available, free option for Office 365 export Contacts to CSV, Microsoft offers built-in solutions for desktop and web in order to facilitate mobility. Such solutions are known as the bridge that enables the export of user directories in a universal format.

1. Export Contacts from Office 365 to CSV (Outlook Classic)

1. In the Outlook application, click on “File”.
2. Select the option “Open & Export”.
   
3. Followed by “Import/Export”.
   
4. Go to “Export to a File”.
   
5. Choose “Comma Separated Values (CSV)”.
   
6. Among mailboxes, click on “Contacts”.
   
7. Now, tap on “Browse” and enter “File Name”.
   
8. Confirm your “Destination Path”.
9. Finally, hit “Next” option.

2. Export Contacts through Outlook on the Web

1. Log in to Outlook 365.
2. Click on the “People” icon.
   
3. Further, tap on “Manage”.
   
4. Select “Export Contacts”.
   
5. Choose “All Contacts” or click on only the required ones.
   
6. At last, confirm by clicking “Export”.
   
7. The file will be downloaded as the contacts.csv file.

What Contact Data is Exported in CSV File Format?

When users export contacts from Office 365 to CSV, the results are displayed in column-based format. Columns are reserved for each attribute, whereas contacts are presented in rows.

Here are some of the data that is included in CSV:

• First and Last Name
• User Name
• Display Photo/Icon
• Email Addresses
• Notes
• Contact Number
• Name of the Department and Company
• Current Job Title
• Address (Home, Work, and Other)
• Website Link and Custom Fields

Along with each element, it is essential to understand the behaviour of some of the fields that won’t surprise users after the completion of export.

• During export, Notes often lose their original formatting.
• Numerous contact numbers may get bifurcated in different columns.
• High chance of custom fields not getting exported through the web solution.
• Contact/Profile Photo is not carried in CSV files.

Drawbacks of Free Methods for Outlook 365 Export Contacts to CSV

• Not preferred by users from non-technical backgrounds due to the complex steps.
• The default heads of Office 365 do not go with the destination’s needs, resulting in “missing data”.
• Such solutions become inefficient if users have international contact details, as it fails to utilize UTF-8 and identify special characters as unrecognizable symbols.
• Solution steps often vary from version to version, which confuses the user in selecting the right method to export Office 365 Calendar to Excel.
• Encounters common errors like “empty export error” in the output file, even though the contacts are visible on the sender’s interface.

Amazing Attributes of the Professional Solution

• Ensures the export of contact information without even a slight risk of data loss.
• Seamlessly backs up information in Hard drive, Pen Drive, Local Drive, and PC.
• Along with contacts, the tool manages to convert emails to PDF, MBOX, PST, MSG, and the list goes on.
• Guarantees to conserve the integrity of users’ contacts during and after the completion of the export process.
• Proves to be 100% safe and protected through modern encrypted security.
• Provide the availability of Incremental backup to export new and upcoming data.
• Intuitive and user-friendly interface, suitable for both technical and non-technical users.

Conclusion

Users’ need to explore how to export Office 365 contacts to CSV file comes into the picture when contacts are being used, migrated, analyzed, projected, and systematized in the external environment of Office 365. While some of the easily available methods can be useful for exporting small amounts of contact data. They become a limitation while handling large datasets of contacts.

Therefore, selecting the right technique is more crucial than going with the convenient method to avoid contingencies like automation issues, lack of validation, limited data processing, etc.
This is why using the professional approach, like our backup tool, not only provides an accurate process to export Office 365 Calendar to Excel, but also keeps the data completely safe from data threats, cyber attacks