2 Ways to Import vCard to Google Contacts without Hassle

Google Contacts is a web-based address book built into Gmail. It allows you to create, edit, organize, merge & fix, and delete your contacts.

vCard (VCF or Virtual Contact File) is a standard format for importing and exporting contacts data between programs on computers, mobiles, and online.

Google Contacts is compatible with most VCF files. If you import VCF into Google Contacts, you will be able to directly choose email recipients from the contacts you imported, quickly send messages to groups of people and keep all your vCard contacts in one place. We have come up with this article to disclose how to import vCard to Google Contacts.

First, Find Google Contacts

Google shut down the old (classic) Google contacts interface. And since February 12, 2019, the "switch to old version" option has been removed, so you can’t use the classic version anymore. To find Google Contacts in the new interface, you should:

1. Login in your Google Account on your Mac or PC.
2. On Google.com or in Gmail, click the 3×3 grid of dots in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Scroll through the dropdown menu until you find the “Contacts” icon. Click it to open your Google address book.

To easily access your Google Contacts, you can:

• Drag the “Contacts” icon in the apps panel to the top.
• Simply add the page - contacts.google.com to bookmark bar in your browser.

How to Import vCard to Google Contacts?

# Import Single vCard File

If you are going to import VCF into Google Contacts one by one or import tons of contacts that are exported as a single file (e.g. Mac Contacts app can export all contacts as an individual vCard file), you are able to follow the steps as below.

Step 1. Open contacts.google.com.

Step 2. Click “Import” on the left panel.

Step 3. Click the “Select file” button to upload the VCF file you want to import from your Mac or PC.

Step 4. Click “Import”.

# Import Multiple vCard Files

There is no batch option to import vCard to Google Contacts, but you have two ways to complete the task.

Way One: Manually Create Multiple Contacts

Step 1. Open contacts.google.com.

Step 2. Click “Import” on the left-hand side.

Step 3. Click the texts- “Create Multiple Contacts”.

Step 4. Manually add the names, emails, or both you desire to import to Google Contacts. For example: Florence B. Gomez, FlorenceBGomez@armyspy.com, David S. Deese David .

Way Two: Merge Multiple VCF Contacts and Then Import Them

For Mac OS X

Step 1. Drag all vCards files into one folder on Mac.

Step 2. Launch Terminal app and navigate to that folder in Terminal.

Step 3. Type the command- “cat *.vcf > combinedfile.vcf” into Terminal.

Step 4. Press the “Enter” key or “Return” key to execute the command, your VCF files will be combined into one file and named as “combinedfile.vcf”.

For Windows

Step 1. Copy your vCard files into one directory/folder via File Manager.

Step 2. Click “Start button” > type “cmd” > press “Enter” to run command prompt.

Step 3. Go to the destination directory where your vCard files are stored.

Step 4. Enter the DOS command- “copy *.vcf all.vcf”. Or you can try another command like “copy *.vcf combinedfile.vcf”, or “copy *.vcf merged.vcf”.

Step 5. Press the “Enter” key or “Return” key.

After the combination, you can start to import vCard to Google Contacts. But it’s difficult to merge multiple VCF contacts into one, as the process is time-consuming and asks for technical experts.

Will the Imported vCard Contacts be Added to Google Other Contacts?

No, they won’t.

The "Other contacts" tab is different from the "Contacts" tab. The former one contains the contacts that you've sent email messages to. The later one collects the contacts you have imported, saved, or created. After you import VCF into Google Contacts, the vCard contacts are displayed only in the “Contacts” tab and “Labels”.

Why Fail to Import VCF to Google Contacts?

Sometimes, when importing VCF into Google Contacts, you may receive an error message, "Gmail is temporarily unable to access your contacts", “Can’t import contacts”, etc.

• Reason one: Import too many contacts at a time. Google Contacts only empowers you to import up to 3000 vCard contacts at once.
• Reason two: Reach the limitation. You can import up to 25,000 VCF contacts or 20MB (images not included). For each vCard contact, it can't exceed 128 KB, 500 fields, and 1024 characters per field (except "Notes").
• Reason three: Incompatible formats. Make sure the contacts you intend to import to Google Contacts are in vCard or CSV format.
• Reason four: The network is down.

How to Fix the Errors?

• Solution one: If you wish to import more than 3000 VCF contacts, you have to split them into multiple ones.
• Solution two: Pay attention to the file limitations.
• Solution three: Check the format of the import contacts.
• Solution four: Try to import vCard to Google Contacts again a few minutes later.
• Best Solution: Look for a piece of reliable alternative software to get work done.

An Ultimate Professional Way to Import vCard to Google Contacts

Cisdem ContactsMate for Mac, an amazing contacts manager tool, is designed to simplify and centralize all your contact needs. It organizes your contacts from various sources like Google, Outlook, iCloud, Facebook, local, etc. all into a single app. You can also import contacts from CSV, vCard to Google Contacts, or other places.

All your operations in ContactsMate will be synced to the corresponding sources. If you import VCF into Google Contacts via the software, the vCard contacts will be added to Google immediately.

Steps to Import vCard to Google Contacts on Mac:

Download and install the application on your Mac, and then launch it.

Free Download

Click the “Add Account” button on the main dashboard to bring up the “Internet Accounts” dialog.

Choose “Google” from the right panel and sign into it. Make sure the “Contacts” option is checked.

Exit Cisdem ContactsMate and re-launch it. On the left sidebar of the app, you will see a new group named Google with all your Google contacts synced.

Drag and drop the vCard files directly into the Google group of ContactsMate. Alternatively, click the “Import” button. When you check the contacts on contacts.google.com, you will find the new VCF files are synced as well.

Click “Scan” in the toolbar, the program will start to analyze the contacts with incomplete or duplicate names, emails, phone numbers, etc., and show you the scanning results in a second. You can click "Merge" > "Fix All" to merge all your duplicate Google Contacts, or click "Edit" > > "Fix All" to optimize them.

It ensures you to export single, multiple, and a group of Google Contacts to vCard, CSV, Docx, HTML, Excel, TXT, Numbers, and Pages format. Just select the contacts you want to export > right-click them > click “Export”.

Closing Thoughts

That's all on how to import vCard to Google Contacts. Although Google allows you to import VCF files straightway, it might encounter unexpected problems and make your procedure unsuccessful. Hence, I'm more inclined to an all-in-one third-party contacts management tool like Cisdem ContactsMate. Not only can it import, sync, export contacts, but also keep your address book well organized, preventing it from being messed up.