Import email contacts to WLM from gmail - how?

Hi,

I have saved my gmail contacts as a .csv file in excel. But, it does give this error message:

Attachment 236078

Although the data is there in excel:


Then I try to import to Windows Live Mail as so:


And it says "importing"..... and then nothing else. No contacts come in and no other message.

Please can somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Sorry - didn't see this thread.

Yeah, the import in WLM and Outlook suffer the same problem. there is no "select all".

So you have to tick each field you want to import.... each time you perform an import. It does remember some fileds, but not the ones you might expect, such as name.

anyway, the default mapping should suffice - just tick all fields and try again.

Before exporting/importing contacts from Gmail to WLM, you should do this first. WLM Mail Tips.docx

Well, I think you've stumped me. I checked the tutorial section and found this - it looks as though I essentially gave you the same steps, but you might want to read through it, just to be certain I didn't miss something.

The only thing I did notice is that not all of the fields were selected. Since you're having difficulty - eliminate one possibility, that one of the fields is needed to complet the import.

Try ticking all of the fields and use the default mapping WLM, i.e. don't change the mapping - if the .CSV file doesn't have the column, it will just skip that field.

If that doesn't work, try just one address. Make a copy of your .CSV file, edit the copy and delete everything below the first address, keep the header. Or create a dummy import file and test with either one.

Name,E-Mail Address,Phone
Bill,Bill@somedomain.com,555-1212

There might be a character in one of the rows that WLM doesn't like or the .CSV structure is out of whack.

If one entry gets imported..... we'll cross that bridge in a bit.

I keep reading and find nothing that indicates you're doing anything wrong. so, we'll have to dig a little deeper. I suspect that your contacts DB might be corrupt.

1st thing to try (this is just a short way to run WLM repair - instead of control panel, program & features)

type wlarp.exe into the search box on the start menu and hit enter
select repair

Try importing the small or dummy import.csv - if succesful, import the full file.
if not successful......

Next thing if repair doesn't fix it for you:

Please provide a screenshot of what's in the following folders (you'll need to view hidden system files)
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Contacts
and
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Contacts\default

there are two choices
1) use a big hammer to remove the "corrupt" contacts file - this might cause more issues down the line or other issues might be lurking
2) export any email you want to retain, uninstall WLM, remove trace folders, and reinstall WLM 2012 - you'll have to import any email you exported and the .aif and .csv files. - I prefer the standard uninstall install route, but that's up to you. It's probably easiest since teh machine is relatively new - not too much to import.

I'll provide more information on the processes above if the repair doesn't solve the problem.

But see if the wlarp repair helped first.

Good news Jenni,

Interesting..... your difficulty importing might be due to using Excel to edit the .CSV file. I don't recall having this issue in the past, but who knows?

2.59E+11 is just Excel's way of displaying large numbers. To "fix" that, select all cells (upper left box on sheet, or Ctrl-A) and format cells - change format to text. Take a look at the results and if they look good (phone number, dates, etc - anything with numbers) then save as... .CSV

Probably the easiest thing to do is export to a new .CSV file and don't use Excel to look at it - use a text editor. Notepad works fine and it's on every Windows system.

I like Textpad, it's a trial version that doesn't really expire. I became so used to it that I eventually paid for it. Note that I had some problems with the latest & greatest Textpad v6, so I installed Textpad v 5.4.2

Bill

sonyvaio2012 said:

.....
Yes, it worked. I deleted loads of stuff and left just First Name, Last Name and E-mail Address with just one entry....and it imported!!!

So, until I hear from you again, I will try it with a couple more in the same layout and let you know. One thing I noticed is that some of my phone numbers are displaying oddly.

Most of my numbers start with a "+" or a "0". they look like that in the edit bar of excel, but in the actual spreadsheet some of them show like this:

2.59E+11

.....