Although Gmail is almost all over the place, it is by no means the only mail service we can use.

Outlook and Exchange are equally popular, and Outlook is installed on most personal computers, as it comes as an add-on to Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

A Step-by-step Guide on How to Transfer Contacts From Gmail to Outlook

Before Android’s rise as a mobile device operating system (with the permission of iOS, of course), Gmail and Outlook were both contending the podium of being the most used mail service.

So at present, we can use many mail services, but the ones mentioned above are undoubtedly the most used.

The problem comes when we use both, and we want to transfer contacts.

It’s effortless to export and import your contacts, either from Gmail to Outlook or vice-versa.

Before we go into the details, I’d like to share this handy short video I found online. Please watch the first 60-seconds of the video.

This video will tell you how to import your Google Mail Contacts to your MS Outlook easily.

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Now, let’s get it started!

Let’s learn how to export Gmail contacts to Outlook and from Outlook to Gmail.

How to export contacts from Gmail and import them into Outlook in 3 Easy Steps

• First, you should go to your Gmail account and select Contacts from the drop-down menu at the top left on your computer.

• Now, click on More,  located in the menu on the left, and choose Export.

• In some new versions, this export won’t be supported. Go to the older version to get the export option.
• Then, it would be best if you choose which contacts to import. You can select all the contacts, a group, or only certain selected ones. You have three different format options to export them in, but the one you want is ‘Outlook CSV format (to import into Outlook or another application).’

• Then click on Export.
• By default, the file will be saved with the name Contacts, but you can choose both the name and this file’s location.
• Once the export is done, open the CSV file with Excel to modify or correct contact data. If not, go directly to Outlook to import them.

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Import contacts into Outlook

• Now it’s time to open Outlook and go to the ‘File’ tab.
• In the menu that appears on the left, choose ‘Open and Export.’
• From the options, choose ‘Import from another program or file ‘and then ‘Next.’
• In the next window, select ‘Comma-separated values‘ and, again, ‘Next.’
• After this, choose the CSV file created by using the ‘Browse’ option. Choose one of the options that appear (the most convenient would be ‘Do not import duplicates’).
• In the next window, you must select ‘Contacts’ as the destination folder (in the Outlook mail account in which you want to import the contacts, in case you have several).
• In the last window, you will have a new option for assigning custom fields. This is because some Gmail fields may match Outlook, so we can select them and join them, as if it were a map, by dragging the CSV file from the right window to the Outlook field in the left window.
• After this, click on ‘Finish‘ to finish the process.

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How to export contacts from Outlook and import them to Gmail

• Let’s now see it the other way: choose contacts from your Outlook account and transfer them to Gmail. As you will see, the process is the same but in the opposite direction.
• In your Outlook account, open the ‘File’ tab and choose ‘Open and export’ from the menu on the left. Then, click ‘Import / Export. ‘
• In the following dialog box, select ‘Export to a file. ‘
• After clicking ‘Next,’ a new dialog will appear where you should choose ‘Comma-separated values’ and, of course, ‘Next.’
• After that, select ‘Contacts’ in the window. Then, choose a name and place to save the exported file. As in the reverse case, you can open this CSV file in an Excel sheet, too, if you need to modify some content.
• Now, in your Gmail account, select ‘Contacts‘ again from the drop-down menu on the left.
• In the left part of the screen, open the ‘More’ menu, and select ‘Import.‘
• Choose the previously saved file and select ‘Import’ so that the Outlook contacts will go to your Gmail account.

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Merge contacts in Gmail

• Once you import your contacts from Outlook, you will notice that a new group called ‘Imported … (date of import) ‘ appears in your Gmail account. That’s because this mail service does not automatically merge contacts, so we must do it manually as follows:

• Again in the top menu, you should click on the ‘More’ option and, from the options, choose ‘Search and merge duplicates.’
• It will present you with a list of all the duplicate contacts that Gmail has found that, when in doubt, you can check individually.
• Once you are sure that everything is fine, you have to click on ‘OK,’ Now, you will have finally combined all the contacts between Gmail and Outlook. Until you change them in either of the two post services, the modifications will not synchronize automatically. Therefore, it will not reflect the changes.

Important Note for Outlook 2010 users:

The methods mentioned above only work as directed on Outlook versions 2013 and 2016. If you are using any Outlook version that came before 2013, you’ll need to follow slightly different steps. Worry not! Just in case, I’ve compiled the list of steps you should take if you are running Outlook 2010:

1. Open Outlook 2010 on your Windows PC.
2. Click File, and then select the Open tab. Now, click Import.
3. Once you do that, the Import / Export Wizard should pop up on your screen.
4. Within the Wizard, select, “Import from another program or file.” Then, click Next.
5. The next window will appear. Select, “Comma-separated values (Windows).” Click Next again.
6. By selecting that, you will essentially be importing a .csv file to your Outlook account called contacts.csv.
7. It will ask you where you want to store it—select the Contacts folder.
8. Click Finish and you should be good to go!

If you are running a version of Outlook that is even older than Outlook 2010, you should really consider updating. The new features in Outlook 2016 are sure to make your user experience improve significantly. By upgrading, it will become even easier to manage your multitude of contacts!

So, this was all about exporting contacts from Gmail to Outlook account! I hope that this guide has helped you transfer any essential contacts into your Outlook account from other mail services. After all, Outlook is one of the most popular services and it can’t hurt to have everyone in one place.

If you know any other methods to import contacts from other mail services, especially into Outlook 2013 or later versions, let us know in the comment box below. We’ll be sure to add them in the next update of this article.

Which methods do you use to transfer contacts between Gmail and Outlook accounts?