How to import VCF to Gmail

The VCF files are virtual business cards that contain the data of one or more persons, such as name, email address and mobile phone number. They are supported by many applications and many e-mail services, which can use them for importing and exporting contacts in the address book. Gmail, the famous Google Webmail service, is no exception.

With today’s guide, I therefore want to show you how to import VCF to Gmail, acting directly from the web panel of the service (Google Contacts) or from smartphones and tablets, using the synchronization functions of the address book with Gmail available in Android and iOS. Contrary to what you might think, I assure you, this is a very simple operation that can also be carried out by those who, a bit like you, do not consider themselves an expert in computer science.

That said, I’d say ban the chatter and take action. Set aside five minutes of free time, dedicated to reading the following lines and try to put into practice the instructions I am about to give you. I am sure that, within a few minutes, you will be able to import your contacts into Gmail and easily synchronize the address book on all your devices.

Index

• How to import VCF into Gmail
• How to import VCF into Gmail on Android
• How to Import VCF to Gmail on iPhone

How to import VCF into Gmail

The easiest way to import VCF to Gmail is to open the browser you usually use to surf the Internet from your PC (eg Chrome ), visit the Google Contacts service and, if necessary, log in to your Gmail account. Are we here so far? Perfect.

Now, if you don’t see the side menu of the service, click on the ☰ button located at the top left. Scroll therefore the above menu, expand the item More and click on the option Import and bottom appear.

At this point, to import the new names into Gmail via the VCF files, click on the Select file button that appeared in the center of the screen and select the file with the contacts to be transferred to the Gmail address book.

Once this step is also done, click on the Import button and wait a few moments for all the names in the file to be added to the Gmail address book.

If at the end of the import Gmail warns you about the presence of duplicate contacts, you can quickly solve the problem by pressing the View button (at the top). You will then be shown a list with all the names of which duplicates have been found in the address book. Double-check that they are all duplicates (otherwise deselect them) and click on Merge all to merge them.

Alternatively, you can merge single duplicate contacts leaving the others intact by pressing the Merge button related to them. Easier done than said!

If you want to ignore the duplicate warning, instead, click the Ignore button (above) so that it doesn’t appear again.

How to import VCF into Gmail on Android

Have you saved some files in VCF format on your Android smartphone or tablet and don’t know how to import all the names they contain into the Gmail application? If, as I believe, you have set your Google account to synchronize contacts with Android, all you have to do is import the VCF file into the Google Contacts application: by the way, if you have not yet downloaded it to your device, open the Play Store (the default Android store, marked by the colored ▶ ︎ symbol icon), search for it and download it, selecting its icon and pressing the Install button.

If you have not even set up the synchronization of your Google account with your smartphone (or tablet), open the Settings app (the gear icon located on the home screen or in the drawer, i.e. the screen with the list of all the apps installed on the device), go to Account> Google> [your Gmail address] and move the levers relating to the synchronization of contacts, person details, Gmail and other data of your interest (eg Calendar and Drive ) to ON.

If you have not configured any Google account on your device, go back to the Settings> Android Account menu and press the Add account item to configure your Gmail address. In case you have some difficulty in completing the procedure, check out my tutorial on how to associate an Android phone with Google.

Once you have configured the Google account on your phone/tablet, you are ready to take action: open the Google Contacts application, select the Gmail account to use (the one you previously set up on the device) and press the button It is located at the top left.

Then select the Settings item from the menu that appeared laterally, choose the Import option from the next screen and press the .vcf file button. Then indicate the Gmail account in which to import the contacts (this is only necessary if there are multiple Google accounts configured on the device), select the VCF file with the contacts to import into Gmail and that’s it.

The names will be imported into the address book within a few seconds and synchronized with the Google online address book. For more information on the subject, see my guide on how to synchronize your address book with Gmail.

How to Import VCF to Gmail on iPhone

If you have an iPhone (or an iPad ) and you want to import VCFs to Gmail using the latter, you must first set up your Google account on the device. If not already done, then go to the iOS Settings menu (the gear icon located on the home screen), go to Password and account (on iOS 14 and later you need to go to Settings> Mail or Settings> Contacts ) and press on Add account to add a new Google account to the device.

At the end of the procedure (which I told you about in detail in my guide on how to set up Gmail on iPhone ), make sure that the contact synchronization lever is active. Next, you need to set the Gmail address book as the default iOS address book (so that all new contacts are synced with it). Then go to the Settings menu > Contacts> Default account and check the option relating to Gmail.

Now all you have to do is auto-send you the VCF file with the contacts via email, to an address that you can access from the iOS Mail app. Then open the app in question, select the message you sent yourself and press the attachment icon (i.e. the VCF file with contacts).

A screen will open with the list of names contained in the file and the Add all contacts button , which allows you to add all the contacts contained in the VCF file to the iOS address book (and, consequently, to that of Gmail, synchronized with the device ). Press on the aforementioned button, choose the item to create new contacts from the menu that is proposed to you and that’s it!