How to Export Outlook Contacts to Gmail in a Trouble-Free Way
Microsoft Outlook is a desktop-based email application that is widely used among people personally and in the corporate world. On the other hand, Gmail is a web-based email application that can be accessed anywhere including your phone. People who use Outlook regularly, it is important for them to backup their contacts in other email application. This is where we bring in Gmail. The user can export Outlook contacts to Gmail in order to maintain backup. In this article, we will understand how to copy contacts from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail without any hassle.
Let us understand the topic with the help of query:
User Query 1 – I started working as a business development manager during the pandemic and since it requires making calls, all of my contacts are saved in my Outlook account. Now, I find it very difficult to search for these contacts whenever I don’t have my laptop with me. I would like to transfer contacts from Outlook to Gmail so that I have access to them anywhere anytime. Could anyone help me out?
User Query 2 – I found out a few days back that one of my colleagues had lost all his data from Outlook and the major problem was that he did not save the data anywhere else. All my work is of calling and most of the important contacts are saved on my Outlook account. I got so scared that I have been searching for solutions to move my contacts since then. Is there any successful way to do so?
Reason to Export Outlook Address Book to Gmail
The main reason to transfer Outlook contacts to Gmail is that the latter is a web-based email application that can be easily accessible from anywhere but you should have a working internet connection. Let’s move forward to various techniques to import Outlook PST contacts to Gmail.
Also Read: How to Export Outlook calendar to Google calendar
Manual Method to Export Outlook Contacts to Gmail
The manual technique is a two-way procedure to transfer Outlook contacts to Gmail. One is through export followed by another import procedure.
Step 1: Export PST contacts to CSV file format
This manual method to Export Outlook Contacts to Gmail aims at moving PST to CSV file format. The steps are:
- To begin with, Open MS Outlook on the system and go for File option
- Thereafter, from the File menu, select Open & Export option.
- Then, click on the Import/Export button.
- From the Import and Export Wizard, select Export to a file option and Click Next
- In Create a file of type, select the file of type which user wants to export like Comma Separated Values also known as .csv. After that click on Next button
- Choose Contacts folder by scrolling up in the select folder to export from option and then click on Next button
- To choose the destination folder, click on Browse button and navigate to the location of the file
- After that Click on OK followed by Next Option in the Export to a file dialog box
- Lastly, click on Finish to migrate contacts from PST to CSV file
- Select OK to exit after exporting is finished. Go to the next step to export Outlook Contacts to Gmail
In case you just have the PST files and not Outlook to support these files, what can one do to copy the PST contacts? Here, you can use the Outlook PST to VCF Converter to get all contacts in vcard files.
Step 2: Import vCard/CSV to Gmail
In order to import PST to Gmail contact, the resultant file has to be imported after the above steps. Further instructions to import contacts to Gmail file are:
- To begin with, log in to the Gmail account.
- Then, in the top left corner of Gmail Window, click on the Gmail
- Afterward, click on the Contact app
- Thereafter in the Contacts Window, in the bottom right corner click on More option
- To Browse the location of CSV file where the user has stored previously, click on Select file option
- Choose the resultant CSV files and hit Open.
- Lastly, to begin importing process, click on the Import option.
- After completion of importing process, a message will be displayed. Click OK and exit tab.
The above steps are for moving contacts to a single free Gmail account. If you want to move Outlook contacts from to business Gmail account, then proceed with the next method.
A Way to Export Outlook Contacts to Gmail Business
If you wish to export Outlook contacts to Google Workspace account, you can opt for the Outlook to Gmail migration tool. It provides the option to select contacts and even apply date-range filters for selective import. Just make sure to go to the “Restore” tab.
The free version of the tool allows you to move data to/from 2 accounts.
Steps to Convert Outlook Contacts to G Suite
1: Run the tool on your Windows system.
2: On the Restore tab, select Outlook and G Suite respectively.
3: Select Contacts from the Workload selection.
4: Make sure to create folders in the root directory like “C:/PST Files/user1@domainName.com/(put all PST files of user1)” and select “C:/PST Files” as the path.
5: Input the information as required.
6: Click “Fetch users” to automatically fetch the account name as per the folders.
7: Finally, click on the Start Restore button to start the process.
As the process is completed successfully, click on the OK button. Then, you can go to the business Gmail account and click on the individual contacts to open it.
Conclusion
These days users work with multiple email applications simultaneously. Sometimes, users need to export Outlook contacts to Gmail. It is a good thing as Gmail is a reliable source of the web-based email applications. There are two methods to get this done as discussed in this article. One is manual and the other one is with the help of the tool. It is up to the user to decide which method to go for.
