Trouble importing exported Outlook contacts

I have Office 365 on a desktop and am having trouble importing a Contacts list I exported a few days ago. Am using Outlook 2016 on Windows 7.

If I import the csv file, the contacts/address book are all blank. I looked at the csv file under Excel and it is blank until way down the sheet and then it contains some incomplete very old no longer wanted items. They look like they might have come from a deleted list some time ago.

I then emptied the deleted item folder and exported contacts again. The csv file viewed by Excel was blank. No sign of the old contacts.

What do I need to do to get contacts export/import to work?

Oddly enough, I have much the same set up on a laptop and it works just fine. In fact I used the laptop's csv file to import to the desktop and that worked. But when I exported the contacts to a csv file, Excel showed that file to be blank as above.

I will appreciate help in resolving this.

Thank you.

I have been having the same problem with Outlook 2013. Previously I had my email account set up as a POP3 account & my contacts were all showing in my address book. This has worked for a couple of years without any problems.

Last week my IP changed their email account system & I had to set up a new IMAP email account & while that worked for sending & receiving emails, I had lost the address book contacts, as it was all blank. I did find some contacts after I had imported them from Outlook's Address Book in Outlook Files. However, these were not in the address book, they were in Contacts that can be found by selecting People in Outlook & there you will find Contacts. This had about half of my contacts, which I actually think came from an old contact list I had.

The only way i have been able to get the address book to work & showing all my contacts is to revert to the old email POP3 system & change all the details there to suit my IP's latest account settings, as they do allow either POP3 or IMAP to be used. As I don't need my emails to be found & viewed on other media, I have no need for an IMAP account.

Are you using a POP3 or an IMAP account system?. Is your PC email system the same as your laptop one. As I mentioned above you could check People when in Outlook & see what are found in your Contacts.

People are listed down on the lower left edge, just above the task bar. There is Mail, Calendar, People, Tasks listed in this area. Well that is what Outlook 2013 has. So click on People & then look up on the left side of the screen & you will see Contacts, click on that & see if there are any names there.

Glad to have helped & thanks for getting back.