New Outlook Microsoft 635 People CSV Import

Hi Karen Shahoian,

Not seeing a duplicate‑handling prompt is expected when importing contacts into Outlook.com / Outlook on the web. That option applies to classic Outlook for Windows, not the web‑based People importer.

Seeing “Looking good! 819 contacts were imported” followed by “This doesn’t look right. Try again” can happen when the import is accepted but the People view hasn’t fully refreshed yet. It may also occur if partial contact data already exists or if the CSV still has a formatting issue (such as mixed line endings, quoted fields with commas, special characters, or an incorrect header row), even when saved as UTF‑8.

You can try the following:

• Wait a short while, then sign out and back in to Outlook.com and check People again.
• Open Outlook.com in an InPrivate/Incognito window (or clear the browser cache) and recheck.
• Search for a few contacts by name or email instead of relying only on All contacts.
• Check People > Deleted items in case some contacts landed there.
• Switch between contact views or refresh the page to force People to reload.
• Use Manage contacts > Export contacts. If the exported file shows the imported names, the issue is likely display or sync related.
• Open the CSV and confirm the first row contains column headers (not contact data) and check for problematic rows.
• If needed, test with a small CSV (5–10 contacts) saved as CSV UTF‑8 using Microsoft’s sample header format.

If helpful, please confirm whether this is Outlook.com in a browser and whether exporting contacts after the import shows the 819 entries.

Please let me know if this proves useful to you, or if you would like further assistance.

I'm looking forward to your reply.

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I have repeated the import and do not get a prompt on how to handle duplicates.

The CSV import message indicates the file was processed, but the contacts are not visible. In this situation, focus on two areas: verifying the CSV content/format and re‑importing correctly, and then checking where contacts are being viewed.

1. Verify the CSV file content
   • Open the CSV file in Excel.
   • Confirm that:
     • All 819 contacts and their details are present.
     • The first row contains column headings and they have not been renamed or removed. Outlook requires the column headings in the first row.
   • If any information is missing, edit the CSV in Excel to add the missing data.
   • When saving, keep the file as CSV:
     • When Excel prompts with “are you sure you want to save it in .csv format?”, always choose Yes. Choosing No can corrupt the file and require starting over from the source.
2. Confirm UTF‑8 encoding
   • Ensure the CSV is saved with UTF‑8 encoding as required for Outlook on the web/Outlook.com imports. If the encoding is wrong, the import tool may not recognize and display text correctly.
   • If the import tool shows sample contacts and the text is not readable, cancel, convert the file to UTF‑8, and restart the import.
3. Re‑import the contacts in Outlook on the web / Outlook.com
   • In Outlook on the web/Outlook.com:
     1. From the navigation bar, select People.
     2. From the ribbon, select Manage contacts > Import contacts.
     3. Select Browse, choose the corrected UTF‑8 CSV file, and select Open.
     4. Select Import.
   • Wait a few minutes after seeing a success toast; contacts can take some time to sync to the cloud and appear under All contacts.
4. If contacts are still missing or incomplete
   • Reopen the CSV in Excel and confirm again that all information is present and that the header row is intact.
   • Repeat the import and, when prompted how to handle duplicates, choose Replace duplicates with items imported to ensure the imported data overwrites any partial or corrupted entries.
5. About the disappeared “All Contacts”
   • If “All contacts” suddenly appears empty, but the CSV export still contained data, the CSV re‑import should repopulate the contacts list once the file is correctly formatted and encoded and the import completes successfully.
   • If “All contacts” remains empty after a verified successful import and sufficient sync time, export any contacts that do appear (if any) to a CSV as a backup, then repeat the import steps above with the verified CSV.

References:

• Import or export contacts in Outlook using a .csv file
• Fix problems importing contacts to Outlook