How-To

How to Import iCloud Contacts to Gmail

By Adam Davidson

Updated March 1, 2024

If you have contacts saved on your iPhone you may want to access them when using Gmail. Learn how to import iCloud contacts to Gmail.

You’ve just drafted the perfect email in Gmail. You’ve spent ages crafting it to perfection, and there’s not a wasted word or unnecessary comma to be seen. All that’s left is to send it, but when you start typing the address, nothing comes up. And that’s when you realize; the email address is saved in your iCloud contacts and not your Gmail contacts.

At this point, you could just open your phone, find the contact, and type out the email in full. But the chances are that the same issue is going to keep happening, and besides, you wouldn’t be a true geek if you didn’t spend ten minutes finding a clever solution to a problem that would take you a few seconds to fix manually.

By importing your iCloud contacts into Gmail, you can ensure that you’ll always have all the contact details you need when you’re sending messages from Gmail, with all of your contacts saved in one place. Here’s how to import iCloud contacts to Gmail.

How to Export Contacts from iCloud

If you have contacts saved in iCloud, you can use the iCloud website to export these contacts in bulk. You can then import this data into your Gmail account. You can choose specific contacts to export from your iCloud account, or you can export your entire contact list.

1. Sign in to icloud.com with your Apple ID.
2. Click the Contacts app if you can see it on your Home page.
   
3. If not, click the Apps icon at the top of the screen.
   
4. Select Contacts.
   
5. To select individual contacts to export, click on the first contact you want to include.
   
6. Hold down Cmd and click any other contacts that you want to include in your export.
7. Alternatively, select one contact, hold down Shift, and click another to select all the contacts in between.
8. If you want to export all of your contacts, click the Three Dots icon above your list of contacts.
   
9. Click Select All Contacts.
   
10. All of the contacts in your list will be selected.
11. Once you’ve made your selection, click the Share icon in the top-right of the screen.
    
12. Select Export vCard.
    
13. Your contacts will be exported in vCard format.

How to Import Contacts to Gmail

Once you’ve exported your contacts from iCloud, you can import them into Gmail using the vCard file you’ve just created. The easiest way is to sign into your Gmail account on the same computer where you’ve just saved your vCard file so that you can easily access the file to import it.

1. Sign in to your Gmail account on a browser.
2. Click the Google Apps icon at the top of the screen.
   
3. Select Contacts.
   
4. Under the Fix & Manage options in the left-hand menu, click Import.
   
5. Click Select File.
   
6. Locate the VCF file that you exported from iCloud and click Open.
7. Click the Import button.
   
8. Your contacts are imported into Gmail.

How to Import a Single iCloud Contact to Gmail

If you only want to export one address from your iCloud contacts to Gmail, you might prefer to use the sharing options on your Apple device. You can do this from your iPhone, without having to sign into iCloud on a desktop. However, to import the contacts you’ll still need to sign in to your Gmail account on your desktop. This method is not really practical for more than a few contacts, however, as you can only share one contact at a time.

1. Open the Contacts app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Select the contact you want to share.
3. Scroll down and tap Share Contact.
   
4. Alternatively, you can long press on any contact in your list and select Share.
   
5. Select the contact information you want to share. The exported contact file will include anything with a blue check.
   
6. If you want to include all contact information, you can tap Select All Fields at the bottom of the screen.
   
7. When you’ve made your selections, tap Done at the top of the screen.
   
8. From the sharing options, select Mail.
   
9. Enter the Gmail address that you want to share the contact with; you’ll see the contact card already attached to the email.
   
10. Tap the Send button and the contact is sent to the address you entered.
    
11. Sign in to Gmail on your computer.
12. Open the email you’ve just sent yourself.
13. Hover over the attachment and click the download button.
    
14. Save the file to your computer.
15. Click the Google Apps icon at the top of the screen.
    
16. Select Contacts.
    
17. In the left-hand menu, select Import.
    
18. Click Select File.
    
19. Navigate to the VCF file you just saved and click Open.
20. Click Import.
    
21. Your contact is imported to your Gmail account.

How to Automatically Save Contacts to Gmail

Importing your iCloud contacts to Gmail using the methods above is simple enough to do, but it’s not something you want to have to keep doing every time you add a new contact on your iPhone. Thankfully, there is a way to have any contacts you add on your iPhone automatically save to your Gmail account. However, this means that they won’t automatically save to your iCloud account. If you want your contacts to sync to your other Apple devices, you’ll need to leave this setting alone, but if you’re happy for Gmail to be where all your contacts are stored, then all it takes is a couple of taps. You’ll need to have a Gmail account set up on your iPhone before this will work.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Scroll down and tap Contacts.
   
3. Near the bottom of the screen, select Default Account.
   
4. Tap Gmail to set it as the default account.
   
5. Now any contacts you add on your iPhone will be saved to your Gmail account rather than iCloud.

Importing iCloud Contacts to Gmail

As you move phones or change email accounts, your contacts can quickly become a bit of a mess. You may have some contacts saved locally on your devices, some saved in iCloud, some saved in your Gmail account, and some lost forever in the mix-up. Keeping all of your contacts in one place is the best way to keep on top of them and ensure you always know where all of your contacts are stored. If you have contacts in iCloud that aren’t in your Gmail contacts, you can use the methods above to export your iCloud contacts into Gmail.

Once you’ve done so, if you’re still using an iPhone, you can set Gmail as the default for contacts, meaning any contacts you add on your iPhone will automatically sync to your Gmail account, so you’ll always have all of your contacts in one place. You can of course do the opposite and import all of your Gmail contacts to your iCloud account. You may prefer this option if you want to sync across all your Apple devices, although you can still access your Gmail contacts on other Apple devices too.