How to import contacts from Gmail

You’ve always used Gmail to manage email from your PC and, of course, all your contacts are saved in the address book of this popular service. Now, however, have you bought a new smartphone and would like to know how to import your address book to it? I guessed it, right? Then don’t worry, because you have landed on the right guide at the right time!

If you give me a few moments of your free time, I can in fact explain to you how to import contacts from Gmail acting on a wide range of different devices and operating systems. Going into more detail, I will explain how to act on Android and iPhone, as regards the mobile side. Then I will show you how to synchronize the Gmail address book with email clients for PC, such as Outlook and Thunderbird, and with online services, such as iCloud.

In short, in the end you should have a fairly complete picture of the situation. Then? May I know what are you still standing there? Start immediately to put into practice the instructions below and you will see that, in a flash, you can finally meet your need. That said, there is nothing left for me to do but wish you a good read and wish you a big good luck for everything!

Index

• How to import contacts from Gmail on Android
  • How to import contacts from Gmail to SIM
• How to import contacts from Gmail to iPhone
• How to import contacts from Gmail to iCloud
• How to import contacts from Gmail to Outlook
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  • Microsoft Outlook (Windows / macOS)
• How to import contacts from Gmail to Thunderbird

How to import contacts from Gmail on Android

Do you need to import contacts from Gmail to Android? To do this, all you need to do is associate your Google account with the device and activate the appropriate synchronization function in the device settings. In this way, you will immediately have access to your Google contacts on your smartphone or tablet and, moreover, any changes made will be available both on the device and on Gmail.

However, keep in mind that, in general, the synchronization of Gmail contacts is an option active by default on Android, as long as you have associated a Google account to the latter: to make sure that the function is active on your device, do tap on the Settings icon (the one in the shape of a gear wheel ) and select the Account item first and then Google from the menu that opens.

At this point, if synchronization is enabled, in correspondence with the Synchronize Contacts item, you should find the switch moved to ON. If not, to remedy the thing, enable the function yourself.

If you need to withdraw Gmail contacts from an account other than the one already configured on the device, do this: open the Android Settings, select the Account item from the displayed screen, touch the word Add account, select the Google icon and provide the data relating to the Gmail account of your interest by filling in the appropriate fields on the display, as I explained in my guide on how to associate an Android phone with Google.

Then, select the Google item from the list of accounts, select the Gmail address you just added and check that, on the next screen, the switch located next to the Synchronize Contacts item is set to ON. If not, you enable the function and that’s it.

Note: the items in the Android settings that I have indicated to you in this chapter may differ slightly from what you see on the device screen, depending on the device of the Android version in use. For your knowledge, I used a Samsung Galaxy S6 updated to Android 7.0.

How to import contacts from Gmail to SIM

If, on the other hand, you are interested in understanding how to import contacts from Gmail to SIM, know that this is feasible, but only on Android, using the default functions of the device or some third-party apps.

Before anything else, however, import the contacts of the Gmail account on the memory of your smartphone or tablet, creating a CSV file with the contact details of your interest. So, take your device, unlock it, access the Home screen, open the app you usually use to surf the Net (eg. Chrome ) and go to the web page dedicated to Google contacts.

If necessary, also log in to your Google account, providing the relevant credentials. At this point, tap on the button with the three horizontal lines located at the top left, select the Export item from the menu that opens, make sure that the Google CSV option is selected in the displayed box (otherwise you can do it) and tap on the wording Export.

If you want to export only some contacts or certain groups, first select them from the relevant list and proceed as I have just indicated. Afterwards, a file in CSV format will be saved on the device with all the contacts in your Gmail account.

Now, open the Contacts app  (the one with the icon with the little man ), tap the button with three vertical dots located at the top right, choose the Settings option from the menu that appears and select the Import / Export contacts from the new screen that is proposed to you. At this point, press the Import button located under the Import contacts item, select the location of your interest and the CSV file obtained previously and tap on the Done item at the top right.

If your device doesn’t offer an option to export contacts to the SIM card, you can take advantage of the Copy to SIM Card application, which is free and very easy to use. To download it, visit the relevant section of the Play Store and press the Install button. Then, start the app by pressing the Open button that appeared on the display or by selecting the relative icon that has been added to the Home screen.

Now that you see the main screen of the application, grant it permissions to access the contacts by tapping the word Allow, then go to the Phone contacts tab and if you intend to copy all the contacts saved in the phone, check the box next to the Select item all. Alternatively, select the contacts of your interest one at a time.

Finally, tap on the button with the three vertical dots located at the top right, select the Copy selected to SIM option and you’re done.

How to import contacts from Gmail to iPhone

Would you like to import contacts from Gmail to your iPhone and don’t know how to do it? No problem: I’ll explain everything to you. To do this, just take advantage of the option of your “iPhone by” which allows you to associate Google accounts and, therefore, activate the synchronization of contacts with the device.

So, take the iPhone, unlock it, access the home screen and tap the Settings icon (the one with the gear wheel ). In the screen that at this point is shown to you, select the wording Password and account (on iOS 14 and later you must go to Settings> Mail or Settings> Contacts ), tap on the Add account item and touch the Google logo.

Then log in to your Gmail account by filling in the fields visible on the display with the required data; then leave ON only the switch that you find next to the Contacts item and tap on the word Save, at the top right, to save the changes.

Subsequently, open the Contacts app (the one with the icon depicting an address book ) and, among the contacts in the list, those of the Google account will also be visible. If this is not the case, it is because you must first enable its display: to do so, click on the Groups item, at the top left, select the item All (Gmail) that you find under the heading Gmail and touch the item End, at the top.

How to import contacts from Gmail to iCloud

Now let’s see how to import contacts from Gmail to iCloud, the storage and synchronization system made available by Apple for its users. The practice in question must be carried out from the browser but, once imported, the contacts are also accessible on all iPhones, iPads and Macs connected to the same Apple ID.

Before proceeding, however, you have to worry about creating a vCard file with all the contacts on Gmail (which you will then have to upload to iCloud): to do this, start the browser you usually use on your computer to surf the Net (eg. Chrome ) and go to the web page dedicated to Google contacts. If necessary, log into your Google account, providing the required credentials.

At this point, select the Export item that you find in the left sidebar, choose the vCard option  (for iOS contacts) in the box that opens and click on the Export item, in order to obtain your file with all the contacts. If you want to export only some contacts or certain groups, instead, first select them from the list in the center of the page, then proceed as I just indicated.

Now, visit the iCloud.com home page and log in to your iCloud account by filling in the appropriate fields visible on the screen with the required data. Next, click on the Contacts icon (the one with the address book ), select the button with the gear wheel located at the bottom left, click on the words Import vCard in the menu that appears and select the vCard file previously obtained, to upload contacts, which you can access from the same section.

It should be noted that this procedure does not synchronize contacts between Gmail and iCloud – it only imports Gmail contacts to iCloud at the current time. Changes made on one or the other platform will remain confined to the same.

How to import contacts from Gmail to Outlook

If you are interested in understanding how to import contacts from Gmail to Outlook, because you also use Microsoft’s e-mail service or the related client for your computer, I inform you that not only is this feasible but, moreover, it is also very simple. Find out everything in detail below.

Outlook.com

If you use the Outlook.com Webmail service and want to import Gmail contacts into it, first save the address book of your Google account as a CSV file. To do this, start the browser you usually use on your computer to surf the Net (eg Chrome ), go to the web page dedicated to Google contacts and log in to your account (if necessary).

Then, select the Export item located in the left sidebar, choose the CSV Outlook option from the box that opens and click on Export. If you want to export only specific contacts or certain groups, first select them from the relevant list and then proceed as I have just indicated. After doing this, a file in CSV format will be saved on your computer with all the contacts in your Gmail account.

Now, go to the Outlook.com home page and, if necessary, log into your Microsoft account. Then, select the icon with the two men located at the bottom left, to access the service directory, click on the Manage item located at the top right and choose the Import contacts option from the menu that appears.

Finally, click on the Browse button, select the CSV file obtained above and proceed with the import of Gmail contacts by clicking on the Import button. Done!

It should be noted that this procedure does not synchronize contacts between Gmail and Outlook but only brings the Gmail address book into Outlook. Subsequent changes will remain only on the platform used.

Microsoft Outlook (Windows / macOS)

Do you use Microsoft Outlook as a client to manage email on Windows or macOS and would you like to know how to proceed in this case? Then, first of all, save the Gmail account address book as a CSV file, following the instructions on what to do that I gave you in the previous chapter.

Next, follow the instructions below, depending on the operating system you are using Outlook on.

• Windows– start Microsoft Outlook by selecting the relative link from the Start menu, click on the File tab at the top left, select the Open and export item from the menu that opens and click on the Import / Export button located in the displayed panel. Then, click on the item Import data from other programs or files, press the Next button, select the item Comma-separated values, click again on the Next button, then on the Browse button and select the CSV file created earlier. Finally, choose whether to replace the duplicates, create them or avoid importing them, putting the checkmark on the most suitable box, click on the Next button, select the Contacts folder attached to the e-mail account you are using and press the buttons Next and Finish.
• macOS– right-click on the previously saved VCF file and choose the items Open with> Microsoft Outlook from the menu that is proposed to you. Finally, click on the Save and Close button, at the top left, and that’s it.

At the end of the procedure, regardless of the OS used, you can view the imported contacts by clicking on the icon depicting the two men that you find in the lower left part of the program window.

To get a synchronization of your contacts, instead of simply importing them from Gmail into Outlook, follow the advice I gave you in this other tutorial of mine.

How to import contacts from Gmail to Thunderbird

In conclusion, I would like to explain to you how to import contacts from Gmail to Thunderbird, Mozilla’s e-mail client. First of all, save the Gmail account address book as a CSV file, following the instructions on what to do that I provided in the chapter dedicated to Outlook.

Then, start Thunderbird, click on the button with the three horizontal lines located at the top right and first select the Tools item from the menu that appears and then the Import one. In the further window that opens, choose the Address books option and click on the Next button, then highlight the Text file option and click on the Next button again.

Once this is done, select the file of your interest, click on the OK button and, finally, press on Finished. You will then find all the contacts in the Address Book section of the program, accessible by clicking on the appropriate item located at the top.

This procedure imports contacts but doesn’t sync them between Gmail and Thunderbird. To get a synchronization, follow the advice I gave you in this other tutorial of mine.