If you use Outlook a lot for work or otherwise you’ve doubtlessly organized your contacts into groups or mailing lists. What though if you need to transfer this list to another computer, or send it to a colleague? In Office 2010, Microsoft included a quick method for doing just that.
How To Email Contact Groups Or Distribution Lists As Email Attachments From Outlook 2010
Step 1
In Outlook 2010, Compose a new E-mail.
Step 2
In the new e-mail, Click Attach Item from the Message ribbon and Select Outlook Item.
Step 3
From the list under the Outlook Data File, Click Contacts. In the bottom pane a list of your contact groups will appear and you can Select Which ones you would like to attach to the email.
That’s all there is to it! With this quick little tip you can easily send your contact groups and mailing lists through Outlook without the hassle of importing or exporting them.
We tried to do that at work, but for some reason the recipient just gets an empty folder with no names? Any ideas?
Curtis, we are having the same problem. Did you get any answers to your post?
I have the same problem, I can send a contact group easily enough but the recipient cant save it? Emailing single contacts is fine, just no trigger to save a Contact Group.
Help would be appreciated.
The recipient will just need to drag the contact group directly from the email and drop it directly onto the “Contacts” option in the left navigation menu.
Hi Christine. Have you seen my posts in this thread? Any ideas on why a blank dist list is recieved, under some circumstances? Have you or any friends seen this happen at all? Mucho thanks.
dragging the contacts is not working either. Anyone else?
I have the same problem, sending distribution group as email attachment, but it arrived as .msg, so i cannot drag it to the contacts.
This worked – thank you!
This worked for me. Thank you Christine
My issue too. I need to save a group that was shared with me, but can’t find a way. Help!
Thanks
Is there a resolution for group and being able to share the group with another person?
The person I send it to cannot make any changes to the group (read only file).
Thanks.
Vicki
Did anyone find a resolution to this problem?
I saved a sent group by dragging the group from the email to contacts.
Awesome…why couldn’t the Outlook website have had such simple directions????
Yes, I have the same problem. Do we have an answer to why groups cannot be successfully sent to another colleague with the same Outlook program?
Oh very clever Julie! That works!!!
With the reading pane open so that you can see the contact group as attachment in the received email as well as your contacts folder icon in bottom left of application, drag the contacts group from the email to contacts folder.
Yahoo!
Hey, thanks, that dragging idea was a lifesaver. Had mailed several contact lists (distribution lists in outlook 2002) to myself to get them into the new computer.
It worked like a gem thanks to you!!!!
Aileen,
Thanks for your reply, but we’ve tried that and it doesn’t seem to work.
I was able to drag the contacts group to my contacts folder…but can’t edit any of the contacts! How do I change someone’s email address in the group now? And can I import them all as individual contacts in my address book?
Attaching/sending via drag/drop has always been available as far back as I can remember but now I have similar problem with reciept/save of attchment. When the proper attachment arrives, drag/drop is only way I know that works. At work (Win 7 Ent + Office 2010) the attchment arrives ok when sent from work; BUT at home (when sent from work) or at work (when sent from home – Home is Win 7 Home Prem + Office 2010) then I receive an attchment that is blank/empty. Need to resolve this asap as it is a real pain. Any progress/ideas yet?
Could this be affected by Outlook emails account settings and/or email service provider settings?
Furthermore, (this directed at grooveDexter, who posted original article) what other methods are there for saving a recieved Contact Group in one’s own Contacts, other than drag/drop? Save Attachments doesn’t appear to support this type of attachment. I have long wondered if there is any way other than drag/drop. More info would be most welcome. thanks.
For reference, I’ve just tried this – Open a (good) Contact Group attachment recieved in an email via simple double click on it, select File Tab, hover over “Move item to a different folder” icon and click dropdown, then select “Copy to Folder…”, then browse to and select your Outlook Contacts folder as the destination. One point to note, this method adds this Contact Group, even if another of the same name already exists, and leaves the old one intact. You are then faced with manually identifying which is most accurate and up to date and removing the other. So, best to manually remove old versions before saving in the newly recieved version.
I am having the same issue. My guess is maybe there is something done when the file is actually sent.
In other words in not an issue from the recipient side, but maybe an issue of how outlook handles the file when it is sent.
I tried using Windows Live mail to send a contact group and they arrive to the recipient in a usable format.
I’m still looking for an answer. I hope this helps maybe.
Thanks
I have the same problem of a blank email when receiving the attached group. It is being sent from Outlook 2010 to Outlook 2007. Could that be the problem?
I have a problem somewhat the same. I am able to attach the Distribution List within the email (but it is quite small for all the information stored – I have 51 contacts with all fields filled and photo attached) its size is 11 Kb (!!!??)
When the email is received by the recipient he manages to drag-and-drop it on Contacts. The Distribution List is actually there, and it can be opened, but only the list, the data from each contact is missing (no wonder its size), and when it is double clicked on any contact, a window pops out saying that the Element is empty, do you wish to remove it?
I am wondering if only the Sender link list is being sent here, the actual data is not.
Therefore when sending the Distribution List to oneself, it works because one has the actual data, and pressing the “received” Distribution List may link to where the data is. The problem is when is received to some other who has no data at all.
Do we need to send the “Distribution List” along with each Data Contact? Then the receiver would need to copy the whole thing to his/her Contact list in order to have both “Distribution List” and “Actual Contact Data”?… whaaaat a draaag!
Omar — did you ever find a way to share each contact distinct from the list?
I am having trouble emailing out to a group that I have created. It comes back to me stating that the email cannot be sent out due to possible spam abuse. What am I doing wrong?
If when trying to email a contact group & its undeliverable because of possible spam, try inserting your contact group as a bcc: instead of in the main recipient window. Some companies’ email servers do not like a high volume of addresses in the main recipient field and will not allow it through.
Thanks for these tips. But when I try & e-mail the attachment it changes from a “contact group list” to a regular e-mail attachment that doesn’t work in Contacts