Transfer Outlook auto-complete from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2010

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Outlook has an function to suggest email addresses as you start to type them in, commonly known as the ‘auto-complete’ feature.

It works by keeping a list of people you’ve emailed so when you go to write a new email address and start filling out the ‘to’, ‘cc’ or ‘bcc’ field it will suggest the similar email addresses.

This information is stored in a file called ‘outlook.nk2’ (please note, the name depends on what you called your mail profile – so it may be different)

Unfortunately if you upgrade from Office 2007 to Office 2010 or move to a new computer this list is not transferred.

You can transfer the list by taking a copy of the file which Outlook 2007 saved it in and then importing it into Outlook 2010.

If you simply upgraded from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2010:

  1. Type outlook.exe /importnk2, and then click OK.
  2. This should import the .nk2 file into the Outlook 2010 profile.

If you’re moving to a new computer:

  1. First you need to find you original file, depending on if you’re using Windows XP or Windows 7 it may be in two different places
    1. Windows XP –   C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
    2. Windows 7   –    C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook
  2. Copy ‘Outlook.nk2’ to a safe location, e.g. a USB drive
  3. On the new computer copy ‘Outlook.nk2’to
    1. Windows XP –   C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
    2. Windows 7   –    C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook
  4. Open the ‘Run’ window by pressing the ‘Windows (Flag) button’ and ‘R’
  5. Type outlook.exe /importnk2, and then click OK.
  6. This should import the .nk2 file into the Outlook 2010 profile.

What if it didn’t work??

As mentioned the file may be named something else depending on the name of your Outlook profile.

You need to check that the file is named the same as your Outlook 2010 profile.

To do this:

  1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel
  2. Double-click Mail
  3. In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.

 

For more detail about this process – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542