How To Back Up Outlook Contacts

It's easy to create and add contacts in a digital address book. Many email programs have an address book feature included or linked to facilitate addressing emails. Outlook has a function to archive information in personal file folders. Exporting your contact list is a good way to create a backup of your address book. You can save this backup on a CD or external drive such as a hard drive or USB memory stick for safekeeping.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Select "Import and Export" under "File" in the top menu bar to launch the "Import and Export" wizard.

2. Select the option "Export to a file" from the list of available tasks. Click the "Next" button.

3. Select "Personal Folder File (.pst)" in the list of file type options. Click the "Next" button.

4. Click your "Contacts" folder from the Outlook directory. Click the "Next" button.

5. Type your file name such as "Contacts_Backup" and select your destination folder. Click the "OK" button. When the file has been exported, click the "Finish" button.

Tips & Warnings

• You can select subfolders in your Outlook directory by clicking the box "Include subfolders" when you select your "Contacts" file. Consider adding a password to encrypt your backup file. This option is available when you select your file (and subfolders) to export.

References

• Microsoft Outlook 2003: Create a Backup Copy of Contacts