Wednesday, May 19, 2010

How to import NK2 Files into Outlook 2010 Suggested Contacts

To import contacts from your old outlook.nk2 file into Exchange 2010 Suggested contacts follow this procedure:

To import .nk2 files into Outlook 2010, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the .nk2 file is in the following folder:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook

Note The .nk2 file must have the same name as your current Outlook 2010 profile. By default, the profile name is "Outlook." To check the profile name, follow these steps:

a. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
b. Double-click Mail.
c. In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.

2. Click Start, and then click Run.

3. In the Open box, type outlook.exe /importnk2, and then click OK. This should import the .nk2 file into the Outlook 2010 profile.

Note After you import the .nk2 file, the contents of the file are merged into the existing nickname cache that is currently stored in your mailbox.

After the import is finished the .nk2 gets renamed with an . file name extension on the first start of Outlook 2010. Therefore, if you try to re-import the .nk2 file, remove the . file name extension.

127 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Thans for your tip, it's been very useful!

    Nico.

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  2. Thanks a lot. It really worked so easjy. Regards, MP

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  3. Hey man THANK YOU for posting this! You saved me a lot of time.

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  4. Great Review
    The only difference is that is renames the file to nk2.old

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  5. Didn't work (using Win 7 and office 2010) Only idiots live at Microsoft. Should be the most simple thing to do.

    30 Years and 1 Trillion dollars and they finally have a working OS. Maybe in another 30 Years office will work too.

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  6. Thanks a pant load Clint. I have Win7/Office 2010 and your solution worked.

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  7. Thanks Clint. Win 7 & Office 2010 worked like a charm. Not sure what the gripe fest is from Anonymous ^^

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  8. Worked like a charm on Win7/2010 but you have to copy the NK2 file to:

    \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

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    Replies
    1. Hi

      Yes this also worked for me copying the .nk2 file to:
      \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook and then importing it.

      Thanks

      Mike

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    2. Guys, step # 1 says to go to "%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook". "%appdata%" takes you to the users\username\AppData\Roaming folder. His instructions are correct, and more efficient than drilling down there manually. You can take whatever road gets you there, of course.

      Delete
  9. Thanks a bunch. Worked fine in Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit and Office 2010 Professional Plus 32-bit.

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  10. It's guys like you that make guys like me look smart.

    Thanks

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  11. Terrific!! it work perfectly

    I translate few word in french

    L'importation du fichier NK2 fonctionne parfaitement bien avec cette commande.

    Il faut placer le fichier NK2 au bon endroit et aller dans Démarrer Accessoires et Exécuter faire comme proposée par Clint

    Merci!

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  12. Ok so I have the nk2 file from 2007. Where do I put it in the Windows 7 folder so that it will import. Thanks.

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  13. C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

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  14. Brilliant works a treat thanks, if you put the %appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook into the run or search boxes it opens the correct location - C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Been trying in all sorts of locations by going via the c: path but just using the % took me to the right place. Doh!

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  15. thanks a ton!! worked perfectly!

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  16. Had a bit of trouble getting it to work until Simon made it that much clearer for me...then it imported straight away. Thanks!

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  17. Great tip! Worked fine for me, however it renamed my .nk2 file to .nk2.old after importing.

    Now the only thing that remains is how do we backup the autocomplete data in Outlook 2010 in case of a need for reinstallation, etc.?

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  18. Works great, saved me a ton of time! Dave - UW Madison WI

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  19. saved me a lot of searching time.......Thanks Mate.
    Dennis..... University of Cincinnati

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  20. Brilliant Tip! Thank you

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  21. Excellent - thanks so much!

    David Couzens - IT Lab

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  22. This does not work for me. I placed the file in the correct folder, however, whenI run the command outlook.exe/importnk2 I receive the error "Windows cannot find 'outlook.exe/importnk2'. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again".

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    Replies
    1. You didn't put a space after outlook.exe

      Delete
    2. THANK YOU! I spent an hour trying to figure this error message out and all because of a missing space - I'm off to get new glasses :o) Thanks again!

      Delete
  23. Same here

    Anonymous said...

    This does not work for me. I placed the file in the correct folder, however, whenI run the command outlook.exe/importnk2 I receive the error "Windows cannot find 'outlook.exe/importnk2'. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again".

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  24. Just click "Start" and type "outlook"

    Right-click the "Microsoft Outlook 2010" result and select "Properties."

    Copy the "Run" string. Perform the steps listed above, replacing "outlook.exe" with the string you just copied.

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  25. Works perfectly... But make sure you have a space after outlook.exe. The sting is:

    "outlook.exe /importnk2"

    not "outlook.exe/importnk2"

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  26. lol - oops. "STRING" not "STING".

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  27. I can get my old nk2 file to import using this method, but have to do it every day because the cache gets cleared or something. Then the .nk2 file gets renamed, I have to rename it back to outlook.nk2 and run this from the command line again. How do I make the addresses from the .nk2 file "stick" in the cache??? Thanks!

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  28. FYI it renames it with a .old extension, not a .file

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  29. Not sure why you have to open up your mail through control panel. Finally got this to work after I closed outlook. If you are having problems, be sure that outlook isn't open. Also noticed the outlook.nk2 file doesn't add the ".old" extension till after you reboot outlook, man I wish Microsoft would get their act together.

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  30. Hi Clint,
    Great review and a wonderful description. Thanks from Holland!

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  31. Thanks so much! Saved me a big hassle while migrating stubborn users

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  32. Great Tip - didn't know that Outlook 2010 had this restriction. Very useful indeed!

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  33. Yay! Outlook has to be closed first.

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  34. Very helpful. Thanks to you first and google second.

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  35. Thanks Clint,

    We had a few users that lost their autocomplete addresses when upgrading from 2003 to 2010. Turns out that their profiles for outlook were not defaulted to "outlook". Once we identified this and renamed the NK2 to match the profile name, the import worked. Thanks for the info.

    Alan...

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  36. This gets the emails, but not the names. As far as my salespeople are concerned, this IS their contact list. And they insist on names 'cause they don't type in emails, only 1st name. Argh!

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  37. I did this for my boss' boss.. Copied the NK2 from his old PC (XP/O2k7) to his new one (Win7/O2k10). Now when he tries to use the autocomplete the mail is undeliverable. When he picks the same name from the global address list it works fine..!! Double Aarrgghh! Any ideas?

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    Replies
    1. The problem is the x500 addresses are not correct, I've had this issue before where they become corrupt in the .nk2

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  38. Your are the man thanks for the fix!!

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  39. It worked in Philly. Win7/Outlook 2010. You rock.

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  40. Can't seem to make this work using an Exchange Mailbox... any ideas?

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  41. Hi Clint,

    I wonder if you can help?
    I have a client running Outlook 2007 , and jsu recently for no reason at all , all the email address's in his autocomplete feature have gone.
    Nothing has changed , we are running exchange 2003 , any way we can get these back or even recreate them ?

    Thanks id advance !

    Tony

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  42. Actually guys , there is quite a bit of help in the above posts , Duh

    Thanks again

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  43. thx a lot man. a BIG help!

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  44. I can get my old nk2 file to import using this method, but have to do it every day because the cache gets cleared or something. Then the .nk2 file gets renamed, I have to rename it back to outlook.nk2 and run this from the command line again. How do I make the addresses from the .nk2 file "stick" in the cache??? Thanks!

    No one answered this question
    I am having the same issue

    Thanks from TEXAS
    please help

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  45. I am having the same issue, the import of nk2 works great, but it only lasts one session. Soon as I exit Outlook the autocorrect information is lost (but still have all information in suggested contacts)

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  46. THANKS DEAR.

    WORKS GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!:)


    THANKS VERY MUCH

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  47. I can get my old nk2 file to import using this method, but have to do it every day because the cache gets cleared or something. Then the .nk2 file gets renamed, I have to rename it back to outlook.nk2 and run this from the command line again. How do I make the addresses from the .nk2 file "stick" in the cache??? Thanks!

    No one answered this question
    I am having the same issue

    ReplyDelete
  48. Same issues here, cache gets cleared upon closing Outlook. I'm using an Exchange account. Are you CliffB?

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  49. No I was not using exchange. I did resolve it - but it was a combination of office repair (now in the add/remove office-change button) - MAKE SURE THERE are no other office products (trials/old versions on the system.

    ~~~~did office repair then found poss rest of answer here:
    http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/outlooksend/thread/52096aad-d3a0-47fd-b6ca-7de814030544


    support.microsoft. com/kb/287623


    Microsoft Outlook maintains a nickname list that is used by both the automatic name checking and the automatic completion features. The nickname list is automatically generated as you use Outlook. If the nickname cache is corrupted, Outlook may not be able to identify recipients, may offer incorrect recipients when automatically completing the e-mail address, or may send the message to the wrong person.

    Unlike earlier versions of Outlook that store the nickname cache in a file on your hard drive, Outlook 2010 stores the nickname cache in your primary message store. For example, if you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server account, your nickname cache is stored in a hidden message in your mailbox.

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  50. EXELENTE AMIGO GRACIAS VERY SIMPLE AND VERY USEFULL THANKS.

    PLAYZONA

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  51. Worked great for me ... thanks!

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  52. That worked like charm.....

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  53. A million million thank yous. Seriously.

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  54. The import worked for me. However, once I quit outlook and open it again, the suggested contacts are gone. I have to go through the same process. Any insight as to why and a possible fix to have it stick?

    Thanks

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  55. Fair play man. Great tip.

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  56. Well, this American found the advice useful Could Microsoft document this better, of course, but you guys would not have so many MC___ next to your names :)

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  57. The steps work fine but as for many other the list disappears when I restart Outlook, any help appreciated. /Niklas

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  58. By the way, we do not use Microsoft Exchange, we use Mailer Daemon mail server. /Niklas

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  59. Found the reason for the people who are using Mailder Daemon with their product Outlook Connector so we have to wait it out:

    •Current known issues with using Outlook Connector with Microsoft Outlook 2010:
    ◦The 64 bit version of Outlook 2010 is not supported
    ◦Autocomplete list is emptied after each Outlook shut down on Outlook 2010

    /Niklas

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  60. Dear Clint Boessen ,
    This is brilliant suggestion and it worked perfectly fine for me. I just moved from win7/outlook 2007 to win7/outook2010 and could move my nk2 file of 1000 entries in few seconds. Thanks a lot to you!!
    --Sreekanth G from Singapore

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  61. thanks for the solution

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  62. It works but every time outlook is closed the file gets renamed to nk2.old and then everything has to be re done

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  63. Works like a charm - ONCE YOU PUT A SPACE in the command "outlook.exe /importnk2" and not "outlook.exe/importnk2" - even the MS site had this wrong

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  64. I've done this successfully on at least 10 other computers, but this computer didnt work at all using the suggestions from this article.
    After several times it just worked. It could have been that I was already in Outlook. If it doesnt work for you, go into Task Manager and kill the Outlook.exe.

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  65. I know we have just met but im pretty sure I love you

    Thanks , worked !

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  66. Goofballs, this doesnt work.

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  67. the man:)
    worked first pop!

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  68. Wow it works!!
    Thanks so much!
    Happy Holidays Santa
    Hehehe

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  69. Thanks
    very helpful

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  70. Thanks a ton for this advice. We use Google Apps for our email, but my boss insists on using Outlook via Google Apps Outlook Sync. He doesn't understand that his Outlook contacts are in an abysmal state & actually thought his nk2 entries were part of his synced contacts.

    You're a life saver :D

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  71. When I import the file, only outlook opens and nothing gets imported, any thoughts?

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  72. Big Thanks!! This is the only site that actually fixed the issue. This post nailed it for me.

    Works perfectly... But make sure you have a space after outlook.exe. The sting is:

    "outlook.exe /importnk2"

    not "outlook.exe/importnk2"

    The fact that MS has an extraneous space after the .exe, and somehow forgets to even try to point this out on the support site is unbelievable. MS needs to stop making such crappy software.....

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  73. Thanks a million! Work perfectly!

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  74. Worked perfectly! Thanks so much!
    System: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit), Office 2010

    One note: After the import was finished, .nk2 got renamed with a NK2.old file name extension within the folder:
    C:\Users\(user-name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

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  75. Needed some fine tuning on locating outlook.exe but it worked with some slight modifications to the process.
    C:\”ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office\microsoft outlook 2010.lnk”/importnk2

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  76. Needed no fine-tuning for me...must have changed too much when customizing the desktop.

    Worked perfectly for me first time and second time an a different computer, using a different user account.

    Thanks-a-million!

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  77. Worked great. Thank you for posting this.

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  78. ...like a charm! Thanks for the tip!

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  79. Worked perfectly. Thanks!

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  80. This does not work unless you first shutdown everything office. I had to shutdown excel for this to go through.

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  81. Hmmmmmm Can not get it to work for me.

    It launches outlook but does not import the NK2 file.

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  82. I am having the same problem as James is having in that this process launches outlook, but does not import the NK2 file.

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  83. Excellent tip, shame it took me an hour to find it!

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  84. Thanks so much. Who needs a util when there's an Outlook switch that does it for you.

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  85. question!!
    i need to move the nk2 file (win7 doesn't have it anymore)
    from a win7 office 2010 to a win7 office 2010
    hwo do i do that?

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  86. A further mention to your instructions, my first attempt to import did not work, even though I had renamed the nk2 fiile to the same name as the new profile. eg Andrew.Smith (being the new profile name) would not work. But when I renamed the nk2 file without the the . between the name it worked. eg (Andrew Smith) leaving the space between the name. This was importing onto Win 7 Pro machine using outlook 2010

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  87. Had to do this with our CEO's account. Saved my hide and I thank you very much.

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  88. Microsoft auto fix utility
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542

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  89. It works ones for me but everytime I close outlook 2010, my NK2 file is renamed to .old ... please hhhhhhhhheeeeeeeelllllllllpppppppppppp

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    Replies
    1. That's fine it's imported it. After that there is no nk2 file in Outlook 2010 it's a hidden file in Exchange:

      http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542

      "After the nickname cache is imported, the profilename.nk2 file is renamed to profilename.nk2.old. On the next start of Outlook, your nickname cache is not imported"

      Delete
  90. Thanks a lot!

    You save my life =)

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  91. You're instructions aren't working for me. What am I doing wrong. I've set up my new outlook 2012 account on my new laptop. I've opened the old .pst from Outlook 2003 (which gave me files from 2006). I have the Outlook.nk2 file on a memory stick but don't know what to do now??? Please help.

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  92. I'm also going from Windows XP to Windows 7. Hope you can help.

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  93. Fascinating staff a task thought impossible is straightforward and FREE. My task was to copy the predictive file from Xp Outlook 2003 to Windows7 Outlook 2010. Without Google and Blogers like Clint Boessen you are looking at hours of work doing the task manually. A BIG THANK YOU from a grateful end user

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  94. Fabulous...thanks so much for this!!

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  95. Had same error issues as others above and adding in the SPACE after outlook.exe in the string "outlook.exe /importnk2" solved it. Thanks so much, guys!

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  96. Perfectly explained in a nutshell Clint Boessen you rocks

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  97. initially it didn't work for me, but verified my syntax in the run command line, and all worked perfectly. Thanks for taking the time in posting this solution.

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  98. Awesome Thank you!!!

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  99. worked like a charm, thanks.

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  100. Had to run the command once, paste another copy of my nk2 file in the folder and run the command again before it would take.

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  101. Saved me some time. Works perfect. Thx.

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  102. awesome! thank you!!!

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  103. Just a PS re the space before the /, this is normal syntax and if folks arent familiar with it then its helpful that they have now learnt it. It is not 'bad microsoft programming'. It is to make things consistent as the space is used in a million other examples . Its so normal that one should put in a space without even thinking about it. If microsoft didnt use the space here then that would be sloppy programming!

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  104. Thank a lot for the wonderful tip. It worked perfect

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  105. Why not just post http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542#LetMeFixItMyselfAlways instead of taking credit for it? Word for word...

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  106. You are brilliant, this worked like a charm. People tend to forget to place the nk2 file in the same folder %appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook. Rename the file identical to your profile then run the commando outlook.exe /importnk2,

    Thanks for your wisdom! :)

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  107. hi team,

    I have one problem and after i import the NK2 file on outlook 2010 i get the email ids resolved but once i restart the outlook it does not resolve the emails ids, for that i need to import the nk2 again .
    please guide me if there is any permanent solution.
    ASAP.

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  108. Holy crap when importing n2k from 03/07 office into 2010/2013 just;
    copy n2k from old outlook 03/07
    then copy n2k into the roaming outlook folder 2010/2013 (make sure that outlook is shut down!!!!!)and rename n2k file to the outlook profile being used...
    start it up and bamm..

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  109. Truly works
    thanks a lot!!!!

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  110. thanks .. budy. its working .. lot of thanks dear.

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  111. Occasionally this does not work for me. Nothing imported, file not renamed with the .old extension.

    Solution:
    Close all instances of OUTLOOK.EXE.
    Open the NK2 file using NK2Edit by NirSoft.
    Click 'Save As' and create a new NK2 file.
    Replace the original NK2 with the new one created by NK2Edit (this should be in %AppData%\Microsoft\Outlook).
    Run outlook.exe /importnk2 again

    Voila! It works this time.

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  112. Thanks ! You saved my time. Its working fine :)

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