Yes, it is possible to import your LinkedIn contacts into Outlook. LinkedIn is a great tool for building your professional network online, but you may also want to have those connections available offline in your Outlook address book. Luckily, Outlook makes it easy to import contacts from LinkedIn so you can access them directly within your email client.
In this article, we’ll walk through the steps for importing LinkedIn contacts into Outlook, including how to connect your LinkedIn and Microsoft accounts, where to find the import contacts option, what gets imported, and any limitations to be aware of. With just a few clicks, you can have your LinkedIn network integrated into Outlook for easy access and coordination.
Prerequisites
Before importing your LinkedIn contacts over to Outlook, there are a couple requirements to note:
- You need to have the Outlook desktop application installed and set up with an email account.
- You need to have a LinkedIn account with connections.
- Your LinkedIn account needs to be associated with your Microsoft account. If it’s not already connected, you can associate them from LinkedIn’s settings.
As long as you meet those requirements, you’re ready to bring your LinkedIn contacts into Outlook. Let’s look at the step-by-step process.
How to Import LinkedIn Contacts to Outlook
Importing LinkedIn contacts into Outlook only takes a few clicks, but there are some settings you can customize depending on exactly what and how much you want to bring over. Here are the steps to import contacts:
- Open Outlook and go to the File menu.
- Select Open & Export then Import/Export.
- Choose Import from another program or file and click Next.
- Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.
- Click Browse and navigate to the folder LinkedInOutlookImport in your user profile.
This LinkedInOutlookImport folder contains your LinkedIn data prepared for import into Outlook. As long as your LinkedIn and Microsoft accounts are connected, this folder will exist with your information ready to import.
- With the folder selected, click Next.
- Verify the folder contents show your LinkedIn contacts under Contact Folders.
- Select Import items into the same folder in and choose your Outlook Contacts folder.
- Click Finish to complete the import process.
Once the import finishes, all your LinkedIn connections will appear in Outlook Contacts. Depending on how many connections you have, this process make take a few minutes.
Customize Import Settings
When importing LinkedIn contacts into Outlook, you have a couple options to customize exactly what data gets imported for each connection:
- Select contacts: On the import screen, you can uncheck specific connections if you don’t want to import them all.
- Choose contact fields: Click the Map Custom Fields… button to select only certain LinkedIn fields to import for each contact.
Using these options, you can limit the import to just the LinkedIn data you actually want in your Outlook contacts. For example, you may only need names and emails, and not occupations, locations, etc.
What Gets Imported from LinkedIn to Outlook?
By default, the following contact fields and data will be imported from LinkedIn into your Outlook contacts:
- First, Last, Middle names
- Suffix (Jr., PhD, etc.)
- Email addresses
- Company
- Job titles
- Work phone numbers
- Addresses
- Websites
Essentially, the key details for each connection are imported, giving you a robust contact entry within Outlook.
As mentioned previously, you can customize which exact fields are imported using the import tool’s settings. This allows you to limit the data to just what you need for your purposes.
Limitations of Importing Contacts
While importing LinkedIn contacts into Outlook is straightforward, there are a few limitations to note:
- LinkedIn and Outlook sync is one-way only – changes to Outlook contacts do not sync back to LinkedIn.
- Importing can only be done on the Outlook desktop app, not the web version.
- The import tool may miss some details like Twitter handles and birthdays.
- Custom LinkedIn fields don’t get imported.
- You’ll need to re-import to get updated contact data from LinkedIn.
The main consideration is that importing contacts is a one-time transfer. Your Outlook contacts do not stay dynamically synced with LinkedIn profiles. You’ll need to occasionally re-import contacts to update any changed information.
Despite these limits, importing LinkedIn connections into Outlook is still a useful way to have your professional network available for emailing and coordination directly from your email client.
Conclusion
Importing LinkedIn contacts into your Outlook address book is a simple process that gives you offline access to your professional network. With just a few steps, you can integrate LinkedIn connections into Outlook for easy communication from your email client.
To recap the import process:
- Ensure your LinkedIn and Microsoft accounts are connected
- In Outlook, go to Import/Export > Import from another program
- Select the LinkedInOutlookImport folder
- Choose which contacts and fields to import
- Complete the import into your Outlook Contacts
While there are limitations like no automatic syncing, importing LinkedIn contacts is still useful for having your network available in Outlook. With a few clicks, you can access all your key LinkedIn connections and their details right within your daily email workflow.