How to transfer contacts from Windows to Microsoft Outlook 2016

Transfer contacts from your Windows to the cloud server

PhoneCopy.com is a web service which is free for personal purposes (with few limitations). This tutorial will show you how to backup your data from Windows. The whole process can be completed in few minutes.

This guideline also works for similar devices like Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 2003, Microsoft Windows 2008, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows 8.1, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows ME.

Download PhoneCopy for Windows to your Windows, which you can download free of charge. After downloading and installation PhoneCopy icon will appear on your desktop.

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Start the application and small PhoneCopy icon will appear on right bottom corner of your screen on status bar. When you will press this icon at first time you will be asked to fill your username and password. Any next icon click will start synchronization.

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Start PhoneCopy for Windows. Fill your PhoneCopy username and password, select local directory to store contacts, and choose VCARD format which will be used (we recommend to use 3.0 which is pre-selected). Another option is to use native Windows Contacts format and synchronize directly to Contacts folder. Also you can set your proxy.

Now you can start the first synchronization on your Windows to transfer your contacts from/to PhoneCopy server. Also you have some contacts at PhoneCopy.com server, they will be copied to selected directory. Status bar icon is animated during synchronization process.

When synchronization finish you will get confirming message.

And now it's time to transfer data to your Microsoft Outlook 2016

Setup using Control Panel

Certain Outlook version do not offer similar functionality directly from the app so our guide will use Windows Control Panel widget. Depending on the Outlook version, the texts on the following screens may differ. Always aim towards setting up an email account via Exchange ActiveSync using custom settings.

Press Windows Start button, search for Control panel, find and open Mail.

Press E-mail Accounts button.

On the E-mail tab, select New....

Select Manual setup or additional server types. Press Next.

Select Outlook.com or Exchange ActiveSync compatible service (or simply Exchange ActiveSync in some Outlook versions). Press Next.

Fill in your account details. Use your PhoneCopy username (not email) followed by @www.phonecopy.com as you email and username. Press Next.

Account test should be performed. Press Close.

Press Finish. Now you can close all Control panel windows. Setup is complete.

Your data in Outlook

Now you can run Outlook app. Your contacts, calendar and tasks should be synchronized automatically. Note that PhoneCopy items have their separate folder and calendar in Outlook app. Only these contact/task folders and calendar are synchronized with PhoneCopy.

This guideline also works for similar devices like Microsoft Outlook 2013, Microsoft Outlook 2019.

Now you have all your contacts backed up on PhoneCopy and you can edit all your contacts in your online account. If you lose your phone or the stored data, or if you just run out of battery, you can see your contacts online.

Some additional tips:

You can easily remove duplicate items among your contact list or SMS messages. Just go to the Contacts (or SMS) section and choose More Actions -> Search for duplicates. Detailed wizard will help you to solve this kind of problem easily.