Issues Importing Exported Google Contacts .csv into New Access Table

Question

Issues Importing Exported Google Contacts .csv into New Access Table

James 125

When I try to import a exported Google contacts .csv the 'Name' column ends up being split-up into'First name', 'Middle name' and 'Last name.'

For instance:

First Name: Middle Name: Last name
Google Technical Support

It doesn't occur with ever contact.

How can I merge these columns or prevent the export from doing this??

James

George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T12:57:23.7833333+00:00

Perhaps we could offer more focused suggestions if we could see a sample of the data involved in a Google sheet. To be honest, it's hard to know how one column could be arbitrarily split into 3 without some sort of conversion code running during the import. Help us help you by providing us some sample data in the format exported by your Google contacts.
Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T13:19:37.9433333+00:00

I don’t believe James is exporting a Google “sheet”. I understand it is Google “contacts” which has a plethora of fields/columns under the hood.
George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T14:05:40.9066667+00:00

I see. I was misled by the title, "...Exported Google Contacts .csv ..." into thinking it involved a csv created by exporting to a Google sheet and then converted to .csv format.
Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T19:55:32.8433333+00:00

These are the columns when I export my Google Contacts:

First Name

Middle Name

Last Name

Phonetic First Name

Phonetic Middle Name

Phonetic Last Name

Name Prefix

Name Suffix

Nickname

File As

Organization Name

Organization Title

Organization Department

Birthday

Notes

Photo

Labels

E-mail 1 - Label

E-mail 1 - Value

E-mail 2 - Label

E-mail 2 - Value

Phone 1 - Label

Phone 1 - Value

Phone 2 - Label

Phone 2 - Value

Address 1 - Label

Address 1 - Formatted

Address 1 - Street

Address 1 - City

Address 1 - PO Box

Address 1 - Region

Address 1 - Postal Code

Address 1 - Country

Address 1 - Extended Address

Website 1 - Label

Website 1 - Value
George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T11:25:27.83+00:00

So the real question would be what are Outlook, Thunderbird, et al doing with the three source fields to present them as a single field. My guess is that, behind the scenes, they are concatenating the name fields for display in their interface. I can see that as a default method for email applications, whereas Access is not subject to that level of "assistance".

5 answers

Your answer

George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T12:57:23.7833333+00:00

Perhaps we could offer more focused suggestions if we could see a sample of the data involved in a Google sheet. To be honest, it's hard to know how one column could be arbitrarily split into 3 without some sort of conversion code running during the import. Help us help you by providing us some sample data in the format exported by your Google contacts.
Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T13:19:37.9433333+00:00

I don’t believe James is exporting a Google “sheet”. I understand it is Google “contacts” which has a plethora of fields/columns under the hood.
George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T14:05:40.9066667+00:00

I see. I was misled by the title, "...Exported Google Contacts .csv ..." into thinking it involved a csv created by exporting to a Google sheet and then converted to .csv format.
Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T19:55:32.8433333+00:00

These are the columns when I export my Google Contacts:

First Name

Middle Name

Last Name

Phonetic First Name

Phonetic Middle Name

Phonetic Last Name

Name Prefix

Name Suffix

Nickname

File As

Organization Name

Organization Title

Organization Department

Birthday

Notes

Photo

Labels

E-mail 1 - Label

E-mail 1 - Value

E-mail 2 - Label

E-mail 2 - Value

Phone 1 - Label

Phone 1 - Value

Phone 2 - Label

Phone 2 - Value

Address 1 - Label

Address 1 - Formatted

Address 1 - Street

Address 1 - City

Address 1 - PO Box

Address 1 - Region

Address 1 - Postal Code

Address 1 - Country

Address 1 - Extended Address

Website 1 - Label

Website 1 - Value
George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T11:25:27.83+00:00

So the real question would be what are Outlook, Thunderbird, et al doing with the three source fields to present them as a single field. My guess is that, behind the scenes, they are concatenating the name fields for display in their interface. I can see that as a default method for email applications, whereas Access is not subject to that level of "assistance".

Answer 1

James 125

I exported my Thunderbird's Address Book to a csv and imported into an Access table.

It worked great! There were a few anomalies. But it took me no time at all to fix them.

The export put the name into a 'Display Name' column, and it worked out nice.

Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-26T13:37:09.1833333+00:00

Thanks for the update. Glad you got it sorted.

Answer 2

James 125

I found that if I remove the commas after the name and any coma separating the name into three Access then regards it as one field.

But it would be a pain doing this to nearly 194 rows.

Access_CSV

Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T19:13:22.98+00:00

Why go through the work when you can simply concatenate the columns together in Access where needed?
George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-19T19:51:28.3+00:00

I agree with Duane. Split() and concatenating are relatively simple to implement string handling function.

Retaining the non-normalized string consisting of all three names in a single field make sorting by last name more difficult as well.

There are automated ways to manipulate strings. I'm sure you can create an update query that replaces the commas with nothing (that's even a hint about how you'd go about it). But offering to help you de-normalize the data runs counter to what we see as one of our more important roles. That is, helping people understand and use Access appropriately.

That said, your sample data reveals something additional about the actual data we didn't see clearly before. These contacts, apparently, are not people. they appear to be organizations or companies. That's a whole different ball of wax.

If 100% of your contacts are actually companies or organizations, with no people mixed in, I can see why you'd want to avoid splitting the names up artificially into first, middle and last names.
So, before we go further, please make it clear. Are ALL, as in 100%, of your contacts companies and organizations?

Answer 3

Duane Hookom 26,710 Volunteer Moderator

Names should always be stored in three fields. You can always concatenate them where needed or, run an update query to populate an undesirable field.

James 125 Reputation points

2026-03-17T17:12:40.7766667+00:00

I don't want to store names in three fields only one.

If Access doesn't like that then maybe it's time for me to move on.
James 125 Reputation points

2026-03-17T17:51:46.0766667+00:00

I want my contact names to use only one field.

It's odd.

When I import google contacts into Outlook... no problems.

When I import google contacts inti Emclient... no ptoblems.

When I import google contacts into Thunderbird... no problems.

When I try to import into Access I have issues.

Why?
George Hepworth 22,680 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-18T13:01:18.6033333+00:00

There is really only a small number of instances where a single field works out well for storing people's names. One is with authors and another is personnel involved in movies, e.g. actors and directors. These are generally widely recognized names which can be stored in a single field for that reason. In most other contexts, including contacts I would think, separate fields allows much greater flexibility and usability.

It's your call, obviously, but decades of experience have taught seasoned Access developers the importance of well normalized tables.

Answer 4

James 125

I don't have excel.

0 comments

Answer 5

The Google export is not doing anything wrong here; it is Access interpreting the CSV and mapping the “Name” data into separate First/Middle/Last name fields based on delimiters in the file. To handle this, there are two practical approaches: clean the CSV before import, or adjust how the data is imported/mapped.

Since the context focuses on CSV import behavior and fixing import issues, the safest supported pattern is:

Open and inspect the CSV in Excel
1. Locate the exported contacts CSV file from Google (typically contacts.csv).
2. Open it in Excel.
3. Confirm which column(s) contain the full name and how they are separated (spaces, commas, etc.).
Normalize the name into a single column in Excel
1. If Google exported separate columns (e.g., Given Name, Additional Name, Family Name), insert a new column such as FullName.
2. Use a formula to concatenate them into one field, for example:
  - =TRIM(A2 & " " & B2 & " " & C2)
3. Copy the formula down for all rows.
4. Convert the formulas to values (Copy → Paste Special → Values) so the CSV contains plain text.
5. Delete the original separate name columns if not needed.
Save correctly as CSV
1. Save the file as CSV.
2. When Excel prompts “are you sure you want to save it in CSV format?”, choose Yes each time so the CSV structure is preserved.
Import into Access using the cleaned CSV
1. In Access, import this edited CSV into a new table.
2. Map the FullName column to a single text field (e.g., Name) in the Access table.

This approach prevents Access from splitting the name into First/Middle/Last because the CSV now has a single, already-merged name column. If some rows still split differently, check those specific rows in Excel for extra delimiters or formatting and correct them before re-importing.

References:

James 125 Reputation points

2026-03-17T16:55:22.0066667+00:00

I don't have Excel.
Duane Hookom 26,710 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2026-03-17T18:53:28.3666667+00:00

Using Excel is a poor choice of a solution when:

you can concatenate easily in Access

there is no reason to create a field with the concatenated value.

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Issues Importing Exported Google Contacts .csv into New Access Table

5 answers

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