What problems occur when importing Excel contacts directly into Outlook or Gmail?

[rowanfletcher]

Importing Excel contacts directly into Outlook or Gmail often causes issues because spreadsheets don’t follow a strict contact file standard. Excel stores data as generic cells, so email clients struggle to understand which values represent phone labels, email types, or addresses. This leads to problems like contacts importing partially, fields merging incorrectly, duplicate entries, or Outlook and Gmail rejecting the file altogether. It’s a common Excel contacts not supported or contact upload failed scenario.

Email clients are built around structured contact formats, not spreadsheet tables. That’s why converting the Excel address book into a proper contact file first makes a difference. In my experience, using Softaken Excel to vCard Converter helps avoid these issues by generating clean VCF files that Outlook and Gmail can read correctly. It preserves contact attributes and prevents data loss during the import process.