Import Google Contacts into iPhone Address Book

Question

Level 4

1,161 points

Import Google Contacts into iPhone Address Book

I know how to sync my google contacts to my iPhone already. That isn't what I want to do. In fact I have already done that.

I am planning on dropping Gmail and will probably close my other google services down as well. Their new privacy rules are just too invasive and look like they will give away my information to anyone willing to pay them for it. So I may set up a web site of my own with an email account and work off of that.

I have used gmail since it came around and I did like the way they stored all of my contacts so that when I changed phones, or lost a phone or had a need to recover my address book it was there. So I need to get all of my contacts down off of google's servers and import them into my iPhone address book so I can close out my exchange account on my phone and still have all my contacts.

Is it a matter of exporting my gmail contacts to a spreadsheet and then importing that to my phone through iTunes? Or is there a simpler way to do it?

I will be doing this on a Windows 7 PC using the latest version of iTunes.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1, White 32 GB

Posted on Jan 25, 2012 3:55 PM

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Answer 1

danbi84

Level 2

280 points

Jan 25, 2012 4:00 PM in response to Thom_D

you will need to export the google contacts to a spreadsheet, and then you can upload those contacts to either outlook or icloud.

www.icloud.com

if you can export your contacts as "vCard" that would be best. i'm sure ical may work as well. You should then be able to import those into your icloud address book

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Answer 2

Apr 24, 2012 5:49 AM in response to Thom_D

Navigate to your Gmail Contacts and then Export the contacts in a vCF file format. Once exported, use the vCF entries to import iPhone Contacts from your computer.

Finally, delete the Exchange account associated with your Gmail from within your iPhone Settings>Email Contacts and Contacts.

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Answer 3

KMcT

Level 1

0 points

May 30, 2012 12:25 PM in response to Thom_D

This worked for me on I-P4s

Exprort file from current Google contact list as .vcf and save to desktop.

emial .vcf file to email account on your I Phone, open attachment and follow prompt to download all contacts.

You may need to run a "free find duplicate app" if you already have contacts in both your Google account and I-Phone

hope this helps

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Answer 4

ED3K

Level 4

1,790 points

May 30, 2012 12:28 PM in response to Thom_D

If you already have your contacts on your phone that you synced to Google, then just select a different contact sync option in iTunes (and dont select replace data on iPhone) and it will just sync to whatever you want.

I did that already last week too when I saw their new crap for privacy policy.

I just use Outlook now to sync.

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Answer 5

May 20, 2013 1:48 AM in response to Thom_D

Hi guys,

Just as an FYI for the ones that still want to use the Gmail contacts:

You can use the Gmail account (the one that you set up for e-mail) - sync the accounts from Settings and toghether with the cardDAV from google. The only catch (for the ones that saw that not all the contacts were synched) is that it's synchronizing only the My Contacts group from Gmail.

Have fun with the re groupping 🙂

Alin.

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