IMPORT PHONE CONTACTS TO GMAIL
By SIlversoft How to import multiple vCards (.vcf files) into Gmail or Outlook at once In this article we will look at how to go about importing multiple vCards, also known as .vcf files, or other contacts into either your Gmail account or Outlook account in one go. Note that I will be using Gmail’s Export tool to create the required csv file that will then be able to import into Outlook. The whole process shouldn’t take that long and is fairly simple to complete, so don’t be put off by the wall of text below. Scenario: You decide to export all of your contacts from your old email account, (in my case it was Yahoo! email) and wish to import them to a new email account, such as Gmail or Outlook. The contacts though are vCards, and a lot of them. Then you run into the issue of not being able to import multiple vCard’s at once to either Gmail or Outlook. Instead, you have to import them one-by-one as Gmail and Outlook don’t allow you to batch import multiple .vcf files. This can be pretty infuriating as vCards can contain a ton of useful information for your contacts such as the name and address information, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, URLs, logos, photographs, and audio clips. Now what if you want to import all of your contacts (that are all in .vcf format) to Gmail or Outlook at once without resorting to paid software? Solution: Merge all of your vCards into one .vcf file via the command prompt in Windows and then just import that file to Gmail. For Outlook we will export a CSV friendly file from Gmail. To do this, you will first need to place all the .vcf files into a folder to the root of your C:\ Drive. Where you actually save it isn’t that important, but the command lines that I will be using will assume that the file resides in C:\ so you may need to adapt your commands if you choose to store it somewhere else. In my example I have named the file MyContacts. Note this is a step-by-step tutorial so if you know your way around the command line you can skip some of this. Now open up a command prompt by hitting the Windows Key+R Now type cmd and hit OK run cmd Now type cd C:\MyContacts and hit Enter. This will make sure the directory is pointing to the root of the C :\Drive cmd1 Now type copy /B *.vcf all_in_one.vcf and hit Enter. cmd3 This will immediately start to merge the multiple .vcf files into one file called all_in_one.vcf containing all of the information. Once it has finished (a few seconds) you should see 1 file(s) copied. cmd4 Close the command prompt by either typing exit and hitting Enter or just hit the Red X at the top Now open up the MyContacts file in C:\ and check that it has created your file. It will be the largest file there. finished making one vcf file Now lets import your contacts into Gmail. Open your Gmail account and click on the drop-down arrow on the word Gmail and select Contacts