With Microsoft dropping support for Windows Live Mail, a reader wants to know how to get his contacts into another email client.
“Microsoft has stopped any help Windows Live Mail and wants me to switch to their new program. Does my address book automatically transferer?”
I’m going to be using the terms email client and email provider with this explanation. So, if you aren’t clear exactly what they mean, click here to check out a thorough explanation.
Your address won’t automatically transfer, but it may be super-simple to get them there, depending on where your contacts are stored. If, for example, you’ve got all of your contacts stored online with your email provider like Gmail, Outlook dot com, or Yahoo or through the webmail interface of your ISP, as soon as you set up your new email client.
If not, you’ll need to export the contacts from the Live Mail email client. Open Live Mail and click Contacts at the bottom left.
In the top ribbon, select Export.
Choose CSV (comma separated value.)
Name the file and select the save location.
Select which information you’d like exported and then Finish.
You can then import that file into your email client like Thunderbird or Outlook. If you want to use the built-in Mail app that comes with Windows 10, you’ll have to do it a bit differently. It draws your contacts from your online email provider. We’ll need to import your contacts into Outlook.com. If you don’t have an Outlook.com email account yet, you’ll need to set one up. Click here to learn how to do that. You likely already have a Microsoft account with either an Outlook.com, LiveMail.com, or HotMail address. Go to Outlook.com and click on the square of squares and select People.
Then choose Manage. Select Import contacts.
Then Windows Live Mail.
Find your CSV file and choose Open.
Then select Upload.
Then click on Upload.
