Getting Mac address book to Windows Live Mail

grumpycrab

Hi - first time I tried to export Mac AB as one big vcard file but Windows Live Mail(under W8) couldn't read it. Is there an obvious way to do this?

Assuming I can turn iCloud on (its a neighbours mac) would that help me? e.g. can I get AB into Windows Live Mail via iTunes or something? Thanks.

WilliamO

Export to vcard, import to gmail and export from gmail as CSV file.

grumpycrab

Thanks-just logged on and a reply! Neighbour doesn't have a gmail account. Can I import and keep separate from my addressees? (will have a look later)

macman

Can you not export from the Mac via CSV?
Set up temporary Gmail a/c for neighbour, it takes only a few minutes.

Mr_Toad

macman wrote: »

Can you not export from the Mac via CSV?
Set up temporary Gmail a/c for neighbour, it takes only a few minutes.

I'm not sure what the problem is, Windows Live Mail can import vCards and Mac Contacts are in vCard format.

Export the vCards from Contacts and import them into Windows Mail.

You can't export Mac Contacts to CSV without using a third party application. The easy way is, other than the above as suggested, via GMail.

Mr_Toad

I was having difficulty believing this was a problem so I've just done it from my Mac.

Open up Contacts on the Mac. Select 'All on my Mac' on the left side of the window. Go to File > Export > Export vCard

This creates a .vcf file containing all my contacts.

Move the file to a Windows 7 machine and because I don't have a Windows Live Mail account I used the Windows Contacts application.

Select Import and it offers four options;

CSV
LDIF
vCard
Windows Address Book (Outlook Express)

I selected vCard and it imported them.

A quick Google tells me that Windows Live Mail will import .vcf files, in fact it will import from all the four types of file listed above plus contacts from Outlook.

The OP doesn't need to use Windows Contacts they just need to export as vCard on the Mac and import directly into Live Mail.

Is Windows 8 really that different?

grumpycrab

Cheers guys. WLM wouldn't import a large (600 entry) vCard file from Mac.
I will try import to Windows Address Book (wab.exe) - is that the same as Windows Contacts? Then go to WLM.

Mr_Toad

grumpycrab wrote: »

Thanks-just logged on and a reply! Neighbour doesn't have a gmail account. Can I import and keep separate from my addressees? (will have a look later)

An easy way round this would be to export all your contacts then delete them.

Import his and do whatever needs doing.

Delete all his contacts.

Re-import all yours.

I hope that makes sense!

Mr_Toad

grumpycrab wrote: »

Cheers guys. WLM wouldn't import a large (600 entry) vCard file from Mac.
I will try import to Windows Address Book (wab.exe) - is that the same as Windows Contacts? Then go to WLM.

No!

Don't go there. Windows Address book is a legacy system from the Outlook Express days.

Windows Contacts is newer and more standard in that it understands vCards.

Since my last post I have downloaded and installed Windows Live Mail 2012 onto the Windows 7 machine and it imported the .vcf export from my Mac without any problem and a random selection of contacts look fine to me.

I need to do a bit more testing but I can't believe the size of the file matters that much. It worked for me with 200+ contacts.

When you selected all the contacts on the Mac did you click on 'All on my Mac' on the left of the contacts window or did you select a contact and then cmd + A, Mac equivalent of Ctrl + A, to select them all?

I can't imagine it matters but it might just be why the file appeared to be one large vCard rather than 600 separate vCards.

grumpycrab

Mr_Toad wrote: »

I need to do a bit more testing but I can't believe the size of the file matters that much. It worked for me with 200+ contacts.

When you selected all the contacts on the Mac did you click on 'All on my Mac' on the left of the contacts window or did you select a contact and then cmd + A, Mac equivalent of Ctrl + A, to select them all?

Hmm. Thanks for that. Doubt I did cmd+A (as I'm not a Mac user) so must have been an option to select all contacts; then "export as vcf".
We've pushed this job down the list. I've recommended upgrade to Mavericks first (so he can use the Cloud between his Apple devices). Need to work out how to do a backup first...

Mr_Toad

grumpycrab wrote: »

Hmm. Thanks for that. Doubt I did cmd+A (as I'm not a Mac user) so must have been an option to select all contacts; then "export as vcf".
We've pushed this job down the list. I've recommended upgrade to Mavericks first (so he can use the Cloud between his Apple devices). Need to work out how to do a backup first...

Mac's come with Time Machine built in, it's an excellent backup tool. Mine is pointing at an Apple Time Capsule but it can also see, and use, any external USB drive.

It's easy to set up, all you do is point it at the external drive and tell it to get on with it. It will then perform a full backup followed by several daily incremental backups. It will do this until the drive is full and then start to delete the oldest backups as space is needed. You can restrict the space it uses when you set it up if you prefer. It's one of the few fire and forget back up methods that I actually trust, the other, from my Windows days, was Acronis.

I use Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts as it works with just about every device on the planet. It means all my data and mail is in sync on my Mac, MacBook, Samsung Galaxy Tablet, Galaxy S4 mobile and every Linux and Windows device I use, it also means that wherever I am I always have all my emails.