How to Export Gmail Contacts?

Do you need help finding how to export Gmail contacts? Read on to find out the necessary.

Your entire Google contacts don't need to be used with a single email address. It is possible to export the Gmail contacts to other applications or accounts.

Exporting Gmail contacts helps back up the contact data and add contact information to another email account.

The following section provides a step-by-step guide on how to export Gmail contacts.

Step 1

Open your Gmail account. Go to the Apps menu at the top right and find Google Contacts from the drop-down menu. Click it open.

Step 2

From the options that appear at the left, click Export.

Step 3

You can either export an entire contact book or a particular group of contacts. To choose the complete contact book, click the Contacts option at the top. You can scroll down to find more contact groups and choose accordingly.

Step 4

On selecting the Contacts or a contact group, several Export Format options appear on the screen.

Google CSV Format

  • Exports all data
  • Preserves international characters using Unicode
  • Several email services like Outlook do not support Unicode

Outlook CSV Format

  • Exports all data
  • Changes names to suit the defaults character encoding

vCard Format

  • An internet standard
  • Email services like OS X Mail support this format

You can choose any of the formats to export your contacts to. Click Export.

Step 5

You can now export or download the contacts file to your system. The file will be available in the name Contacts. You can rename the file if needed.

Step 6

You can always import the contact file back to Google Contacts whenever necessary. For that, you only have to open the Contacts application and choose the Import option.

It is not possible to export Gmail Contacts on your Android/ iOS device in CSV format. But exporting the contacts on an Android device in a VCF (Virtual Contact File) format is possible.

To export Gmail contacts on an Android device, go to the Google application and go to the Menu and Settings to find the Export option. The rest of the process is similar to that of a desktop.