How to Import Email Addresses from a Nickname File (.NK2)

Nickname file is a repository of AutoComplete Cache in Outlook 2007 and older versions. All the recently used email addresses will reside in the NK2 file. This article will talk about how to import all the internal addresses into Outlook 2010 and newer.

Outlook 2007 and previous versions are programmed to store the recently used email addresses in a Nickname file (*.nk2), which refers to AutoComplete Cache. But for Outlook 2010 and later, all of these addresses wholly reside in a contact folder – “Suggested Contacts”. That is to say, there is no Nickname file any more. All the AutoComplete Cache will be included in the Outlook mailbox itself or the Outlook data file automatically.

In general, when you upgrade from Outlook 2007 or older versions to Outlook 2010 and employ the same mail profile, Outlook will import the Nickname file data automatically. But if Outlook didn’t import it automatically, or you intend to use another computer without moving the Nickname file, or you create a new profile, you will need to import the Nickname file manually. Here are the elaborate steps.

Import Addresses from a Nickname File (NK2)

1. To start with, go to the “Start Menu” and click “Computer”.
2. Then in the latter window of File Explorer, you should copy the following folder path in the address bar:

• For Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, the folder path is: “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook”
• For windows XP, the folder path is “C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Settings\Microsoft\Outlook”.

3. After that, press “Enter” and jump to the destination folder quickly. Copy the source nickname file to this folder.
4. Next you need to rename the Nickname file to the name of your default mail profile. As a rule, the default profile is usually in name of “Outlook”. So here you need to rename the Nickname file as “Outlook”.

Note: To check the profile name, you can go to “Control Panel” > “Mail” > “Show Profiles”. In the “Mail” dialog box, you can see the default profile.

5. After completing all the steps above and ensuring that you’ve closed Outlook thoroughly, you can go to “Start Menu”. Now you need to start Outlook with “/importnk2” command.

• For Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, you can directly type “outlook.exe /importnk2” in search box.
• For Windows XP, you have to enable “Run” dialog firstly and then input “outlook.exe /importnk2”.

6. Eventually you should press “Enter” button. Now Outlook will start with the task of processing the Nickname file and importing the internal contacts into Suggested Contacts folder. Also, the source Nickname file will be renamed with “.old” as the suffix.

Get back Maximum Data from Corrupt PST Files

It is almost an unquestionable fact that PST file is susceptible to corruptions. Due to this fact, a majority of Outlook users will keep making regular backups. But at times the backup may have the limited value in that it is not current. In this case, so as to repair PST file corruption and get back maximum data, you have to call in a well-proven repair tool, like DataNumen Outlook Repair.

Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including sql recovery and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com