How to sync Gmail contacts

Synchronizing the address book of your e-mail client with an online service is a really good idea, not only because you have the names of friends and colleagues always at hand (on all devices) but also because, in this way, a backup of your contacts is constantly created to be used for any eventuality.

That said, with today’s guide I want to explain how to synchronize Gmail contacts with some of the most popular email clients in the world, Outlook and Thunderbird, and with all the main operating systems for computers, smartphones and tablets: Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.

The procedure is safe and very simple to carry out. However, to avoid any inconvenience, before you get to work, I recommend that you download a backup copy of your Gmail contacts by following the tutorial I published on the subject. So, are you ready to get started? If your answer is yes, roll up your sleeves and take action immediately: you will find all the steps you need to take illustrated right below!

Index

• How to sync Gmail contacts with Outlook
  • Windows
  • macOS
• How to sync Gmail contacts with Thunderbird
• How to sync Gmail contacts on Windows 10
• How to sync Gmail contacts on macOS
• How to sync Gmail contacts on Android
• How to sync Gmail contacts on iPhone
• How to sync Gmail contacts with iCloud

How to sync Gmail contacts with Outlook

If you use Microsoft Outlook as an e-mail client and want to synchronize your contacts with the Gmail address book, you have to act differently depending on the operating system installed on your computer.

Windows

If you use the Windows operating system, you can synchronize Gmail contacts with Outlook by turning to GO Contact Sync Mod, a free and open-source software designed for this purpose. It’s fast, secure, and compatible with all versions of Office from 2003 onwards. To work it requires the presence of the .Net Framework 4.0 (and related updates ) on the computer.

To download GO Contact Sync Mod on your computer, connected to the SourceForge page that hosts the program and first presses the I Accept button and then the green Download button located at the top right. When the download is complete, start the GO Contact Sync Mod installation package ( SetupGCSM- [version] .msi ) and click on the Next button.

In the window that opens, put the checkmark next to I accept the terms in the License Agreement and complete the setup by first clicking on Next twice in a row and then on Install, Yes and Finish.

When the installation is complete, start GO Contact Sync Mod and wait a few moments for the application to detect the Outlook folders. Then type your Gmail address in the E-Mail text field, click on the Sync button located at the bottom right and log in to your Google account.

Finally, click on Accept to authorize the program to access your Gmail account and answer Allow the Outlook alert to start synchronizing the address book. If you are told that some contacts no longer exist, choose whether to keep them in the Gmail address book ( Keep Google ) or to delete them from there too ( Delete Google ) by clicking on the appropriate buttons. Likewise, choose whether to keep duplicate contacts or merge them.

At the end of the initial synchronization of the contacts, if you want, by putting the checkmark next to the items Outlook to Google only and Google to Outlook only you can make sure that the synchronization takes place only in one direction (from Outlook to Gmail or from Gmail to Outlook) rather than being bidirectional.

To activate the automatic synchronization of contacts between Outlook and Google, put the checkmark next to the Auto Sync item and specify the time interval that must pass between one synchronization and the other in the Sync Interval text field.

macOS

If you use Outlook on Mac and have an active Office 365 subscription, you can synchronize your contacts with Gmail using a native feature of the Microsoft program.

Go, therefore, in the Tools> Outlook Account menu (at the top), press the [+] button located at the bottom left of the window that opens and select the item New account from the proposed menu. Then, log in to your Gmail account, answer Allow the request to synchronize data with Outlook and press the Done button. Simple, right?

How to sync Gmail contacts with Thunderbird

Can’t sync Thunderbird address book with Gmail address book? No problem: you can solve the problem easily with a free extension compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux. Therefore, connect to the Mozilla Addons website and download the gContactSync extension on your PC by clicking on the Download now button.

When the download is complete, open Thunderbird, click on the ☰ button located at the top right, go to the Add-ons> Add-ons menu and select Extensions from the left sidebar. Now, click on the gear icon located at the top right and choose the option Install add-on from file from the menu that opens.

Then select the xpi file you just downloaded and install the extension by first clicking on Install now and then on Restart now. With Thunderbird restarted, go to the gContactSync menu > New Thunderbird account and choose whether to synchronize the address book with a Gmail account already configured in the program or whether to use a new account. Then log in to Gmail (if required) and, in the window that opens, click on the Allow button.

Then choose which address book to synchronize (eg Personal address book ) and what type of synchronization to implement ( bidirectional, read-only or write-only ) using the appropriate drop-down menus and click on the Done button. Depending on the versions of the extension and the operating system you are using, the gContactSync interface may be in English. In any case, following the instructions I have given you, you should not encounter major problems in proceeding.

Once the gContactSync configuration is complete, you can wait for the automatic synchronization of the address book to start (by default it happens every 120 minutes) or you can start the synchronization manually by selecting the Synchronize item from the Thunderbird gContactSync menu.

How to sync Gmail contacts on Windows 10

If you use Windows 10, you can take advantage of the synchronization of contacts with the operating system to then transfer them to Outlook. To proceed, click on the Start button (the flag icon located in the lower-left corner of the screen), select the gear icon on the side of the menu that is proposed to you (in order to access the settings of the system) and click on the Account item.

On the next screen, select the item Email accounts and for apps from the left sidebar, press the Add an account button and select Google from the list of supported providers. At this point, click on Continue, log in to your Gmail account and answer Allow the request to synchronize data with Windows.

Once this is done, click on the Done button and check that synchronization of contacts with Google is active by selecting your Gmail address and then the Manage button that appears next to it. In the box that is shown to you on the desktop, click on the item Options for content synchronization, scroll the next screen down and verify that the lever relating to Contacts is moved to Activated (otherwise you can activate it).

How to sync Gmail contacts on macOS

If you have a Mac, you can activate address book synchronization between macOS and Gmail by going to System Preferences (the gear icon in the Dock bar) and clicking on the Internet Account icon.

In the window that opens, select the Google logo, login to Gmail and, when the operation is complete, make sure there is a checkmark next to Contacts.

Contacts synchronized in this way will become available in the macOS Contacts application and Apple Mail.

How to sync Gmail contacts on Android

If you use an Android terminal, 90% of you have already set up a Gmail account. To make sure that contact synchronization is active, go to the Settings menu, select the Account> Google items from the latter and select your Gmail address. If in the screen that opens there is a checkmark next to Contacts, the address book is already synchronized with Gmail (otherwise activate the option and the synchronization will start instantly).

If you have not yet set up a Google account on your device, go to the settings menu > Android account, press the Add account button and “tap” on the Google logo. In the screen that opens, log into your Gmail account and that’s it. If any steps are not clear to you, you can take a look at my tutorial on how to associate an Android phone with Google.

How to sync Gmail contacts on iPhone

If you have an iPhone, you can sync Gmail contacts with the iOS address book simply by adding your Google account to the operating system settings and setting it up as the primary account for contacts.

Synchronization is bidirectional, in the sense that Gmail contacts are imported to the “iPhone” and new contacts created on iOS are automatically added to the Google address book. However, the contacts that were already present on the iPhone memory are not transferred to Gmail: to transfer them, you have to act “manually” according to what I explained to you in my tutorial on how to synchronize iPhone contacts with Gmail.

If everything is clear so far, we can proceed. To configure your Gmail account on the iPhone, go to the iOS Settings by pressing the gear icon on the home screen, select the Password and account item (on iOS 14 and later you need to go to Settings> Mail or Settings> Contacts ) from the menu that opens and presses the Add Account button.

At this point, “tap” on the Google logo, login to your Gmail account and press Allow; make sure that the mail, contacts, calendars and notes options all have the lever moved to ON (therefore green) and press the Save button to complete the connection between Gmail and iOS.

To set your Google account as the default account for syncing contacts, go to the Settings> Contacts menu and choose Gmail from the Default Account menu. That’s all.

How to sync Gmail contacts with iCloud

Would you like to keep your Gmail and iCloud contacts in sync? I’m sorry to tell you, but unfortunately, there is no way to keep the two columns constantly synchronized. What you then do, however, is to “manually” export the Gmail address book and import it into iCloud, in order to have Google contacts also in the Apple cloud address book. You will then have to repeat the operation at each change in the rubric, but always better than nothing, right? So let’s see how to proceed.

First, connect to the Google Contacts service from your computer and log into your Gmail account if necessary. Then it expands the field More located in the left sidebar, click on the option Export and in the box that opens, put the checkmark next to the option contacts and vCard (for iOS contacts) . Once this is done, click on the Export button to start exporting contacts in VCF format.

When the download is complete, connected to the iCloud web panel, login with your Apple ID (if necessary) and click on the Contacts icon. Then press on the gear icon located at the bottom left, choose the Import vCard item from the menu that is proposed to you and select the VCF file you previously obtained from Gmail.

Mission accomplished! Now the Gmail contacts are also in the iCloud address book and, therefore, will be automatically synchronized on all the devices you have connected to your Apple account. The changes applied to the Gmail address book, however, as already pointed out above, will not be automatically carried over to the iCloud one.