This handy tutorial shows you how to copy iCloud contacts that are on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to Google Contacts using various easy methods.
Most people moving from Android to iPhone look for ways to get Google Contacts on iPhone. However, if you’re planning to sell your iPhone and move to Android, you must know how to have your iCloud contacts on Google so that they can appear on your Android phone.
Secondly, if you use Google Contacts for work or business, you might also want to have your iCloud contacts on it. This ensures everything is in one place.
Additionally, you can copy iCloud contacts to your Google account for backup purposes. This way, if you accidentally delete one or all contacts from iCloud and can’t restore them, you still have a copy on Google.
Note: If you use one Apple Account on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, you have the same contacts on all these devices as they sync via iCloud. Therefore, depending on your choice, you can use either device to transfer them to Google Contacts. If you ask me, I prefer using my Mac.
Copy iCloud contacts to Google from iPhone or iPad
1) Get the Exports Contacts app by iDB and grant it access to your contacts. The app is very privacy-focused, and everything happens locally on your iPhone. Your contacts are never uploaded to a server for processing or storing.
2) The app already selects your first 100 contacts. Getting the premium version ($1.99 for a year or $4.99 for lifetime) gives you a lot more flexibility, as you can select more than 100 contacts at once or select just the specific contacts and contact groups/lists.
3) With contacts selected, go to the Format field and make sure it says vCard. After that, tap Continue.
4) Once the app gets the file ready, tap the Export button.
5) Choose Save to Files from the iOS Share Sheet, select a folder in your Files app, and hit Save.
6) Visit contacts.google.com and sign in with your Google account if you haven’t already.
7) Tap Import contact if you have no existing contacts saved on Google. If you already have one or more contacts, tap the hamburger button from the top left and choose Import.
8) Tap Select file and it will open the Files app interface. Tap Recents or tap Browse to navigate to the folder where you saved the exported contacts file in Step 4 above, and then tap the contacts file.
9) Tap Import, and in a short while, Google Contacts will add your iCloud contacts here.
You can access these contacts anytime by visiting contacts.google.com. Alternatively, you can add this Google account to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Android phone, and then these contacts will appear automatically in the Contacts app.
Copy your iCloud contacts to Google using Mac
You have two quick ways to do that. Note that this doesn’t move the contacts; it simply copies them. So, basically, you will have one copy of your address book on iCloud and one on Google.
Method 1. Drag & drop inside the macOS Contacts app
1) Open the Apple Contacts app and press Control + Command + S to show the sidebar. Now, if you see your Google account here, move to Step 3. If not, follow Step 2.
2) Click Contacts > Accounts from the top menu bar.
In the System Settings or System Preferences window that opens, ensure your Google account is added and Contacts is checked. If it isn’t, click the Add Account button or the plus icon, select Google, and add your Google account to your Mac. After that, return to your Mac’s Contacts app.
3) Select All iCloud from the left sidebar, which will show only your iCloud contacts.
4) Click a contact to select it, and then press Command + A to select all your iCloud contacts. If you want to select just a few, hold the Command key and click the desired contacts.
5) Now, drag the selected iCloud contacts onto your Google account shown in the left sidebar. Make sure to drop it under the heading that says “All Google” or “your actual Gmail address,” like example@gmail.com. Avoid dragging it over the word “Google,” which may appear under the Directories heading.
With this, you have copied your iCloud contacts to Google. To confirm, click All Google or your Google account in the left sidebar, and it will show the contacts.
After about a minute, visit contacts.google.com and sign in with this Google account. You will see all your iCloud contacts here, which means that your contacts are now uploaded and stored on Google.
Method 2. Export and import vCard file
If you don’t want to add your Google account to your Mac, you can use the Contacts app to create a vCard (VCF file) of your iCloud contacts and then import that file to Google Contacts.
1) Open Mac’s Contacts app and press Command + A to select all your iCloud contacts. Make sure you are selecting contacts from the All iCloud section.
2) Control-click or right-click and choose Export vCard. You can also click File > Export > Export vCard from the top menu bar.
3) Select a Finder location and click Save. Your iCloud Contacts are now saved as a VCF file.
4) Visit contacts.google.com and make sure you’re signed in using the Google account of your choice.
5) Click Import > Select file. Now, pick the file you saved in Step 3 above and click Open, followed by Import.
Google Contacts will upload the VCF file, read all the contacts in the file, and save them to your Google account.
Note that Google Contacts may fail to import all contacts if you have a huge number of contacts in a single VCF file (like above 700 contacts). In that case, try again or create several smaller vCard files.
Get iCloud contacts on Google Contacts using a Windows PC
Note that you can also follow these steps on a Mac or Linux machine to export your iCloud contacts.
1) Visit iCloud.com in Microsoft Edge or Chrome, sign in with your Apple Account, and select Contacts.
2) Select all your iCloud contacts by pressing Control + A. You can also select just the desired contacts.
3) Click the share icon from the top right and choose Export vCard.
4) Once you have your iCloud contacts downloaded to your PC, visit Google Contacts in a web browser and import them. The steps are similar to what we have explained in the above section.
Use only Google Contacts on iPhone (and not iCloud)
If you often switch mobile phones across platforms (iOS and Android), it would help to sync your contacts only to your Google account, which can be used on both platforms with ease.
It involves adding your Google account to your iPhone and then turning off the Contacts switch in iCloud Settings. Alternatively, you can leave iCloud contacts enabled but select only to show Google Contacts in the iPhone Contacts app by tapping All Gmail list instead of All Contacts.
On a related note: