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I've just been through a bit of wringer with this! :-)

I have a client with a MobileMe account and about 350+ contacts in there. He asked me to see if there was "an easy way" to copy the contacts from MobileMe into Outlook 2011 (Mac).

My background is primarily Windows-centric so I researched possibilities this way.

The first thing I did was export all the contacts from me.com into a multi-vcard file. I found out quickly that Outlook doesn't support importing multi-vcard formatted files. I found applications that would do it, but I preferred to stay away from buying something if possible.

So, I happened upon an Apple KB article about syncing with Outlook. It looked dead-on-simple. Turn on the option and away one goes. I did this on a Windows machine with Outlook 2010 x64.

Welll, it didn't turn out to be that simple.

What ultimately happened is that any MobileMe contact information that didn't conform neatly to Outlook's built-in fields was simply lost. This was a bit of a disaster since that malformed data then neatly (and succinctly) synced BACK INTO MOBILEME and spread it's erased mischievousness across the client's iPhone and three other Macs.

I had made a backup, so I've just finished restoring the original exported data. It's not perfect. Group memberships and contact photos were lost, but the client is not worried about those things.

So, I'm doing now what I, perhaps, should have asked in the first place. Can I accomplish the original goal?

I am loathe to reconnect MobileMe and Outlook through any sort of sync partnership. I have the original exported vCard but I still have the issue of fields within the vCards that do not conform to Outlook fields.

Has anyone else successfully done this? Any tips?

Cheers,

M

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Do you have access to an Exchange server? Is your Client using Outlook 2011 for Mac in an Exchange Environment?

If so, it is super simple to get your data into Outlook.

  1. Connect the Mac to Exchange (Address Book settings)

  2. Move all address book cards from "On My Mac" to the Exchange Account

  3. Open Outlook and... Bang! there they all are.

Well... the "bang!" was a little dramatic... really you will need to wait a bit while the address sync over..

I have done it a million times.

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  • Beautiful! I tried it just now and, yes, I am talking about Exchange. The only issue I have seen (thus far) is that assigned images don't come over. :-( Not a huge problem, though.
    – tcv
    Sep 30, 2011 at 0:44
  • Whoops! That doesn't really work. :-) Here's what I did: I went into Address Book and created a new contact called "Exchange Test." I then gave it several phone numbers, under work (555), mobile (666), home (777), iPhone (888), and main (999). I then copied the entry into the Exchange account. I wound up with work (555), mobile (666), home (777), car phone (888), and primary (999). Note that both iPhone and Main changed. Now, looking at the entry in Outlook I see: Mobile (666), Work (555), and Home (777). Both iPhone/Car Phone and Main/Primary have been lost. :-(
    – tcv
    Sep 30, 2011 at 2:36

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