Locked lesson.
About this lesson
This lesson teaches how to generate a much needed Contacts Backup and save it to your hard drive.
Quick reference
Contacts Backup
Secure your most important data from a disaster and backup your contacts!
When to use
More often than necessary we hear about smartphone synchronizing that ruins, rather than secures, your contacts file.
By pre-emptively saving a backup, you will be a step ahead of a potential loss of data.
Instructions
To export and backup contacts
- Click the File Ribbon
- Click "Open & Export" on the left panel
- Click the Import/Export button
- Choose Export to a File and click Next.
- Choose a file type.
- Comma Separated Values is compatible to Excel or Outlook.
- Outlook Data File (.pst) is compatible to Outlook only.
- Select the Folder to Export from your list.
- Outlook auto-names the file Backup.pst
- You should rename it something descriptive, such as Contacts Backup.pst
- Click Browse and store this file somewhere safe on your computer or on a USB removable drive.
- Click Finish.
Tips:
- Make backup files individually for email, calendar, and contacts.
Then, in case you need to restore just contacts, you won’t overwrite months of new emails with old ones from a combined backup file.
- Name your backup files accordingly and include the date in the name, i.e.:
Email backup, 05-05-25
Calendar backup, 05-07-25
Contacts backup, 06-08-25
Instructions to import and restore contacts
- Click the File Ribbon.
- Click "Open & Export" on the left panel
- Click the Import/Export button
- Choose Import from another program or File and click Next.
- Choose a file type - pick the same type you chose when exporting.
- Comma Separated Values is compatible to Excel or Outlook.
- Outlook Data File (.pst) is compatible to Outlook only.
- Click Browse ... and find your file.
- Select which folder to import from (should be the only folder unless you have done many of these.)
- Click Finish.
- 00:05 It is time to do a contacts backup, because even in the best of times,
- 00:09 things go wrong.
- 00:11 And if for some reason you sync your phone and all your contacts vanished,
- 00:15 you are going to love you took the time to make a backup.
- 00:19 Let me preface this, the reference guide has all the instructions, and
- 00:22 the exercise file guides you into making your own backup.
- 00:26 Let's go ahead and get started.
- 00:27 As you can see, I have all my contacts on my screen.
- 00:30 In order to back these up, I will go to the File ribbon up on the top left.
- 00:35 And notice we have a button that says Open and Export, it does not say backup yet.
- 00:41 When I click this, now we have a button that says Import/Export.
- 00:46 I'll activate that one, and it wants me to make a choice.
- 00:51 It defaults to import, but I actually want to export my contacts file.
- 00:56 So I'll click Next.
- 00:58 The option for Comma Separated is if I'm going to send this to Excel.
- 01:02 But I actually want the Outlook data file, so click Next.
- 01:08 And now I can choose what I want.
- 01:10 Contacts, Include subfolders, so
- 01:12 that means all of the subfolders underneath would be backed up.
- 01:17 I could filter this, maybe I just want my vendor category backed up, but
- 01:22 I want everything.
- 01:23 So hit Next, and this is the first time we see the word backup,
- 01:28 and it default named it that.
- 01:30 I can hit Browse, and choose where I want this to be stored.
- 01:35 And I am renaming this to read Contacts backup, so when I'm looking in my files,
- 01:41 there's no doubt what this file is, clicking OK, and Finish.
- 01:46 Now if I had thousands in here,
- 01:47 you would see little tiny pieces of paper flying across the screen.
- 01:50 I just had a handful, so it'll happen very quickly, Finish.
- 01:56 Now, I'm not going to assign a password, click OK, it is done.
- 02:01 You ready to test this?
- 02:03 I'm going to select all, and I'm going to delete all of my contacts, delete,
- 02:08 gone, catastrophe, no.
- 02:11 Well, I made that backup, so let's go get it.
- 02:14 Same process, click on File, top left corner, Open & Export.
- 02:19 It doesn't say import, I just have to know, Open & Export, now,
- 02:23 we have the Import.
- 02:26 And now it defaults to the one I want, import from a program or file, hit Next.
- 02:33 Not the comma separated, because I chose the Outlook Data File, and Next.
- 02:39 And I have to go find it, and
- 02:43 remember I named it Contacts backup, and Open.
- 02:48 So there it is, my Contacts backup.
- 02:52 Go ahead and hit Next, Outlook Data File,
- 02:56 Import Items into current folder.
- 03:00 I can include subfolders, now, keep in mind, you just saw it pop over here,
- 03:04 I just got duplicates of my subfolders, that's okay.
- 03:07 I'll take everything it gives me, if there's a catastrophe,
- 03:12 I want everything, Finish, OK.
- 03:14 And there we have it, see now, it didn't make the duplicates.
- 03:17 It showed me originally the duplicates, but now it's not.
- 03:20 So are they all still here?
- 03:22 Yes, I got everything back.
- 03:24 So go through the exercise file, do the step by step instructions and
- 03:29 make your backup.
- 03:30 You never know when you're going to need
- 03:35 to reinstall all your contacts.
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