Outlook Crashes When Importing Contacts – Reasons & Solutions

Overview: Are you experiencing Outlook crashes when importing contacts and don’t know how to fix this? If your answer is YES, then this article is for you only. Here we will discuss the most common reasons responsible for Outlook crashes while importing contacts error and solutions to fix it.

“I am trying to import a CSV file with 4000 contacts into Microsoft Outlook 2013 on a Windows 10 computer, but the application keeps crashing with a mapi32.dll error. I have tried renaming the file and repairing Office, but it didn’t help. Also, try to simplify the CSV file by cleaning up some of the contact fields and importing a DOS version of the CSV. But the problem still persists, please help.”

Why Outlook Crashes When Importing Contacts?

There might be several possible reasons that can result in an Outlook crash when importing contacts CSV issue and some of the common reasons are as follows:

• The CSV you are trying to import to Outlook is corrupted or inaccessible due to which Outlook is unable to access and import it. So, first, open the contact comma-separated values in MS Excel and save it with a new file name.
• You are not mapping CSV fields properly with Outlook fields during the import process. Wrongly mapped fields are creating conflict and crashing Outlook while importing contacts.
• The contact comma-separated values does not contain a “Header Row” that comprises the name of all the contact fields. If this is the case, then there will be no contact fields for mapping and it will result in issues like Outlook 2016 crashes when importing contacts.
• There is some issue with your Outlook Contacts folder and so try to set up a new Contacts folder.
• The Outlook version you are using needs to be updated or there is some problem with your Outlook profile. So, either update your Outlook or uninstall and re-install Outlook on your system. After that, create a new Outlook profile and try to import CSV contacts file to Outlook.

Automatic Solution to Fix Outlook Crashes When Importing Contacts Error

If none of the above-described solutions works for you, then converting your contact CSV to vCard (VCF) is the only option you are left with. Because vCard is a standard file format to save contact information and Outlook allows importing contacts from the vCard files also. Follow the guidelines given below to convert CSV to VCF safely:

• Download Excel to vCard Converter on your Computer and launch it

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• Click on the Browse button and navigate to the location where your contact CSV is saved

• Add the CSV file in the software and click Open Button

• The software will load the CSV file and preview the entire content with all contact details.

• Mapping all the CSV fields with vCard, the tool will display the entire list of mapped contact fields. Click Next

• Select vCard version 2.1 / 3.0 / 4.0 and check Create Single vCard option

• Click Change and browse a destination location for output vCard

• Hit the Convert button to proceed

• CSV contacts will start converting into vCard file format right after this and the software will display the live status of the ongoing process

Import Converted CSV into vCard Format

Once CSV is converted into vCard, you are ready to import it into your Outlook Contacts. Below is how this can be done:

• Launch Outlook on your computer
• Click File >> Open & Export >> Import and Export

• Highlight Import a vCard File (.vcf) option, click Next

• Navigate and select the converted vCard. Click Open

• All the vCard contacts will be imported and synced with your Outlook Contacts and can be accessed easily without any hassle

Concluding Lines

In this blog, we have discussed a common technical error i.e., Outlook crashes when importing contacts. All the possible manual and automated solutions to fix this issue are described here. The solutions mentioned here are simple and require no technical assistance. All the users facing Outlook crashes while importing contacts error can opt for any of the given solutions and import CSV to Outlook successfully.

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