How to sync my Gmail contacts to iphone Android Easy Way {2023}

How to sync my Gmail contacts- Synchronizing the address book of your e-mail client with an online service is a really excellent idea, not only because in this way you always have the names of friends and colleagues 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.

How to Remove Gmail sync contacts from android phone iphone Macos

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

How to sync my Gmail contacts with Outlook

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

How to sync Gmail contacts on Windows

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

To download GO Contact Sync Mod to 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, then put the check mark next to the item I accept the terms in the License Agreement and complete the setup by first clicking on Next twice consecutively and then on Install , Yes and Finish .

Once the installation is complete, launch 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 warning to start address book synchronization. If you are told that some contacts no longer exist, choose whether to keep them in the Gmail address book ( Keep Google ) or whether to delete them from there too ( Delete Google ) by clicking on the appropriate buttons. Similarly, choose whether to keep duplicate contacts or merge them.

At the end of the initial synchronization of the contacts, if you want, by placing the check mark 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) instead of being bi-directional.

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

How to sync Gmail contacts on macOS

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

Go, therefore, in the Tools> Outlook Account menu (top), press the [+] button located at the bottom left of the window that opens and select the New account item from the proposed menu. Subsequently, 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 fix the problem easily thanks to a free extension compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux. Therefore, connect to the Mozilla Addons website and download the gContactSync extension onto 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 the Extensions item from the left sidebar. Now, click on the gear icon located at the top right and choose the Install add-on from file option 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 . So log in to Gmail (if required) and, in the window that opens, click the Allow button .

Then choose which address book to synchronize (e.g. 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 shouldn’t 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 occurs 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 offered 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 and app accounts from the left sidebar, press the Add an account button and select Google from the list of supported providers. At this point, press Continue , log in to your Gmail account and answer Allow the request to synchronize data with Windows.

Once this is done, press the Done button and check that contact synchronization 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 Content synchronization options , scroll down the next screen and check that the Contacts lever is moved to Activated (otherwise you 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 Accounts icon .

In the window that opens, select the Google logo , log in to Gmail and, once the operation is complete, make sure there is a check mark next to the Contacts item .

Contacts synced this way will become available in the macOS Contacts app and Apple Mail .

How to sync Gmail contacts on Android

If you use an Android terminal , 90% have already set up a Gmail account. To make sure that contact synchronization is active, go to the Settings menu , select the items Account> Google from the latter and select your Gmail address . If in the screen that opens there is a check mark next to the Contacts item , 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> Android account menu , press the Add account button and “tap” the Google logo . On the screen that opens, log into your Gmail account and that’s it. If some step is 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 to iPhone

how to sync iphone contacts to gmail

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

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

If so far everything is clear, we can proceed. To set up 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 have to go to Settings > Mail or Settings > Contacts ) from menu that opens and presses the Add Account button .

At this point, “tap” the Google logo , log into 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 Gmail contacts in sync with iCloud contacts ? Sorry to tell you, but unfortunately there is no way to keep the two address books constantly in sync. What you then do, however, is to “manually” export the Gmail address book and import it into iCloud, so that you also have Google contacts in the Apple cloud address book. You’ll then have to repeat the operation each time the rubric changes, but it’s still better than nothing, isn’t it? So let’s see how to proceed.

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

Once the download is complete, connect to the iCloud Web panel, log in with your Apple ID (if necessary) and click on the Contacts icon . Then press the gear icon located at the bottom left, choose the vCard import item from the menu that is offered to you and select the VCF file you previously obtained from Gmail.

Mission accomplished! Now Gmail contacts are also in the iCloud address book and, therefore, will be automatically synchronized on all devices that 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 address book.