Importing contacts to Outlook 2003 not working

[HMJessen]

Our office just upgraded to Office 2003 from Office 2000. At the same time
we went from Windows 2000 to Windows XP.

Since the upgrade a routine that worked under the old system is no longer
working. We have a MS Access program that has all employees listed -=
address, phone numbers, etc. This is compiled into a table that is setup
specificly for import by MS Outlook.

In the past, it took all of 2 minutes to import over 200 contacts into
Outlook. Now in 10 minutes, I import only seven contacts.

Can anyone give me some pointers about this? I have tried to export the
info to EXCEL (both .xls and .csv files) and the results are the same. It is
almost as if Outlook no longer wants to do the import function.

Thanks.

 

[Brian4]

I suggest you export them to a .pst file, then open the .pst file in Outlook
2003 and copy them to the contacts folder.

 

[HMJessen]

Brian,

How do I export them from Access or Excel to a .pst file? This would be
something new that I haven't done before and have no idea how to start.

Thanks, again.
Harry J.

 

[Brian4]

Not sure if you can export from Access or Excel to a .pst. Maybe program help
will tell. Also, not sure if the keeping the info in Access is primary or if
it is just a matter of getting the contacts into the new version of Outlook.
If the latter, then use Outlook 2000 (reinstall if necessary?) and export
them, etc.. Maybe once they are imported to Outlook 2003, you can work with
the data and figure out what the issue is. Hope this helps, Brian

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Does the import problem occur on more then one machine?

If it's only one machine that is having the problem - suggest re-installing
Office. If it's on more then one machine then it sounds very much like you
have a data related issue if the problem occurs across all file formats
mentioned. You may want to do a compact & repair on your database to ensure
there are no errors that have cropped up in the database itself.

Karl

____________________________________________________
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[HMJessen]

We have tried to import from MS Excel, MS Outlook and even a .csv file. They
all do the same thing. It takes over 2.5 hours to import 196 records, and
they don't have that much information.

The information used to be in version 2000, but we upgraded to 2003. All
files have been 'repaired and compacted' as well as converted to version 2003.

The problem is on everyone of our 50 some machines.

We are at a loss here. I can't go into details, but 90% of our personnel
are in the filed and need the most current contact information available to
them. We use the database as a central respository and upload to the
individual MS Outlook contacts.

Anyone have ANYTHING they can add that might help?

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Certainly an interesting issue. If this was an issue sent into us as a
problem with one of our import products with the issue being prevalent on
ALL systems, some of the initial questions that would be asked/advised would
be:

#1 - Send us a sample copy of your data just to check to see if the issue
can be replicated outside of your org - if not, you have a config issue and
first thing that would be checked is the import routine you're using itself
being the most likely cause of the problem (assuming this is a custom
routine you've written)
#2 - Are there any 3rd party addons installed that's common to all systems -
if yes, if those were taken our of the equation - does the problem persist?
#3 - Are you importing your data locally on each of these machines or across
a net connection?
#4 - Are you using a custom form that performs any kind of "validation"?

Given the amount of data imported into Outlook on a daily basis across all
Outlook versions by our customers, hard to believe that this is a pure
Office/Outlook/Access issue without being impacted by some external factor
(in-house or 3rd party). It most certainly would be something that would
have been reported to us a long time ago if it were a generic O'2K3 issue.

One quick way to determine if your import routine is the source of the issue
is to download either one of our import products (CG Importer or
DataPorter - http://www.contactgenie.com/cg20dlorder.htm) and run it against
your data (will only import 50 records but at least will provide you with a
benchmark given it now takes you 10 minutes for 7 records). That process
should complete very quickly if there are no issues with your data files. If
it doesn't send a message to CG Support - that would be something we'd be
really interested in pursuing just for our own selfish purposes.

Karl
_____________________________________________________________
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Brian Tillman]

We have tried to import from MS Excel, MS Outlook and even a .csv
file. They all do the same thing. It takes over 2.5 hours to import
196 records, and they don't have that much information.

The information used to be in version 2000, but we upgraded to 2003.

If the information was in Outlook 2000 and you want it in Outlook 2003, why
in the world are you importing at all? Just open the old PST:
File>Open>Outlook Data File.

 

[Karl Timmermans]

Brian,

Unless I've completely mis-understood the problem, this is a scenario where
a contact folder gets refreshed on a daily (or otherwise very regular) basis
from a central database file (something that a lot of our customers do) and
the performance issue has shown itself after the org upgraded to O'2K3 from
O'2K.

Karl
__________________________________________________
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com

 

[Brian Tillman]

Unless I've completely mis-understood the problem, this is a scenario
where a contact folder gets refreshed on a daily (or otherwise very
regular) basis from a central database file (something that a lot of
our customers do) and the performance issue has shown itself after
the org upgraded to O'2K3 from O'2K.

I was keying off the "the information used to be in OL 2000 and we upgraded
to OL 2003" statement. Perhaps that's not what he meant.