Import Gmail Contacts to Outlook

If you really want Gmail and Outlook to work together smoothly, you need to do two things. The first is, of course, to get your Gmail messages to appear in Outlook. Doing that is covered in this Gmail Outlook lens.

The second thing you need to do is to make sure that Outlook has a copy of all your Gmail Contacts. How to import Gmail Contacts into Outlook is the focus of this lens.

Before we go any further, let's get this clear. What is about to happen is that we are about to import contacts to Outlook. There won't be any continuing back-and-forth synchronization between your Gmail Contacts and you Outlook Contacts like you get with the usual Gmail Outlook connection.

Why? Because while there is a protocol (a set of rules) called IMAP that tells systems like gmail and Outlook how to stay synchronized, there isn't such a protocol for contacts. That means if you add new contacts using the Gmail web interface instead of Outlook 2010, you'll need to run this process again to get the new Gmail Contacts into Outlook. And if you add contacts on the Outlook side, they won't show up on the Gmail side.

Yeah, it is kind of a pain, but if you do most of your work in Outlook, and you import your Gmail contacts now, you'll seldom run into any hassles. So let's get to it.

Oops, not quite. The process for doing this varies slightly between Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007. So I've put together two sets of instructions, one for each case. The first one is for Outlook 2010, so if you are an Outlook 2007 user, skip ahead to that section.

Now we're ready to roll!

It isn't difficult to import Gmail contacts to Outlook 2010. Because there are a lot of steps, it may look tough, but there's nothing complicated here. I tried to make the instructions super easy to follow by breaking them down into these tiny steps:

1. Log into your Gmail account and click the down arrow next to the word Gmail on the left side of the window (see the figure below).



2. The word changes to Contacts, and your Gmail Contacts appear. To the right of the word Contacts, click the More button shown in the figure below.



3. In the menu that appears, click Export. This displays the Export Contacts box.



4. Select "All contacts" and "Outlook CSV format," then click Export. Depending on your browser, Gmail will either display a "Save As" dialog box, or automatically save the Gmail Contacts file, with a file name of "google.csv" or "contacts.csv" to your browser's default download directory. If you get to choose the file name and location, be sure not to change the extension (.csv) and to record the filename you use and where you save it.


5. In Outlook 2010, click the File tab in the Ribbon, then the Open
button.


6. Click Import. The "Import and Export" Wizard appears.



7. Select "Import from another program or file," then click Next.


8. Select "Comma Separated Values (DOS)" and click Next. This opens the Import a File dialog box shown below.



9. Select the "Do not import duplicate items" option.


10. Click Browse, and navigate to the location you recorded earlier. You should see the filename you recorded, probably without the ".csv" part.


11. Select the file name and click OK. This displays a list of the available Outlook folders so you can specify where you want to put the imported contacts. Unless you have some other specific plan in mind, I would simply select the Contacts folder to tell Outlook to import all the contacts into this folder, and click Next.


12. In the screen that appears while your computer is importing contacts to Outlook, you can see exactly what it will be doing, which is importing contacts from the file into your Contacts folder. Click Finish to start import the Google contacts to Outlook.

It may take a few minutes for Outlook to process your contacts. While it is working, you will see a box on your screen that shows you how the work is progressing.

Once that box disappears, the work is done and your Gmail Contacts have been imported into Outlook.

This section tells you how to import Gmail contacts to Outlook 2007. You can, of course, skip this section if you are an Outlook 2010 user. Because there are a lot of steps, these instructions might seem difficult, but there's nothing complicated here. I tried to make the instructions super easy to follow by breaking them down into these tiny steps:

1. Log into your Gmail account and click the down arrow next to the word Gmail on the left side of the window (see the figure below).



2. The word changes to Contacts, and your Gmail Contacts appear. To the right of the word Contacts, click the More button shown in the figure below.



3. In the menu that appears, click Export. This displays the Export Contacts box.



4. Select "All contacts" and "Outlook CSV format," then click Export. Depending on your browser, Gmail will either display a "Save As" dialog box, or automatically save the Gmail Contacts file, with a file name of "google.csv" or "contacts.csv" to your browser's default download directory. If you get to choose the file name and location, be sure not to change the extension (.csv) and to record the filename you use and where you save it.

Ok. That's the first part. You now have a copy of your Gmail Contacts on your computer hard drive. Our next (and final) task is to import those contacts into Outlook 2007. Here's how you do that:

1. In Outlook 2007, click File, then Import and Export. This starts the "Import and Export Wizard."


2. Select "Import from another program or file," then click Next.


3. Select "Comma Separated Values (DOS)" and click Next. This opens an Import a File screen.


4. Choose the Gmail Contacts file format for importing.


5. Click Browse, and navigate to the location you recorded earlier. You should see the filename you recorded, probably without the ".csv" part.


6. Select the file name and click OK. This displays the Import a File screen.


7. Select the "Do not import duplicate items" option, and click Next. This opens a screen that allows you to specify where you want to put the imported contacts.


8. Navigate through the folder until you see the Contacts folder. Select the Contacts folder to tell Outlook to import all the contacts into this folder, and click Next.


9. Next, Outlook 2007 tells you that it is ready to import contacts from the file into your Contacts folder. Click Finish and allow Outlook to do its work.

It may take Outlook 2007 a few minutes to import your Gmail Contacts. While it is working, you will see a box on your screen that shows you how the work is progressing.

Once the status box disappears, the work is done and your Gmail Contacts have been imported into Outlook 2007.