Guides · Contacts

Bring your contacts from Google, Apple or Outlook into one address book

Updated 12 October 2026 · 7 min read

Most people don't set out to have three address books. It just happens. Your first smartphone saved numbers to a Google account, a later iPhone started saving to iCloud, and your work e-mail quietly built its own list in Outlook every time you replied to someone. Years later, a friend's new number is in one place, their old one is in another, and their e-mail address only turns up when you search your inbox.

This guide shows you how to get those contacts out of Google, Apple and Outlook, combine them into one address book, and tidy them up so that the result is actually nice to use. Most of the steps work whichever address book you end up with.

Before you start: vCard and CSV in plain words

Address books exchange contacts in one of two kinds of file.

• vCard (.vcf) is a format made for contact details. Each contact is a small block of text that starts with BEGIN:VCARD and ends with END:VCARD, and one file can hold a single contact or hundreds of them. It has fields for names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, postal addresses, birthdays, notes and more, and it records what kind of number each one is (mobile, work and so on). The format is an open standard. Version 3.0 is defined in RFC 2426 and version 4.0 in RFC 6350, so nearly every contacts app can read and write it.
• CSV (.csv) is a plain spreadsheet. There's one row per contact and one column per field. You can open it in a spreadsheet to check or bulk-edit. The catch is that every app names its columns differently, so a CSV from one service doesn't always line up neatly with another.

If you get to choose, pick vCard. It carries more structure and loses less on the way. Use CSV when it's the only export on offer, which is the case with Outlook, or when you want to look over the data in a spreadsheet first.

Step 1: Export from where your contacts live now

Menu names change from time to time. The paths below follow the official help pages, which are linked in case yours looks different.

Google Contacts

1. On a computer, open contacts.google.com.
2. Select the contacts you want. To select everything, tick any one contact, then use the selection menu at the top left and choose All.
3. Open More actions › Export at the top right.
4. Choose vCard if it's offered, or Google CSV, and click Export.

Google can also merge duplicates before you export. In the left-hand menu, open Merge and fix. Google's instructions are in its help pages on exporting contacts and merging duplicates.

Apple: iCloud.com

If your iPhone syncs contacts to iCloud, this is the simplest way to get all of them out in one go. You'll need a computer or a tablet, because Contacts on iCloud.com doesn't work on a phone.

1. Go to icloud.com/contacts and sign in.
2. To select everyone, click the Actions button at the top of the list, then Select All Contacts.
3. Click the Share button and choose Export vCard. All the selected contacts are saved together in a single .vcf file.

Apple: Contacts on a Mac

1. Open the Contacts app and select the contacts you want. ⌘A selects all of them.
2. Choose File › Export › Export vCard, pick a folder and click Save.

Avoid Contacts Archive: only the Mac Contacts app can read it. To clean up first, Card › Look for Duplicates finds and merges duplicate cards. The steps are in Apple's Contacts guide.

Apple: iPhone and iPad

The iPhone is fine for sending one contact at a time. Open the contact, tap Share Contact and save or send the file. It isn't a good tool for exporting a whole address book. If your contacts sync with iCloud, use iCloud.com as described above. If they sync with a Google or Exchange account instead, export them from that service.

Outlook.com and Outlook on the web

1. Open People from the side panel.
2. On the toolbar, choose Manage contacts › Export contacts.
3. Choose All contacts or a single folder, then Export. A .csv file lands in your Downloads folder.

Outlook for Windows (classic desktop app)

1. Choose File › Open & Export › Import/Export.
2. Choose Export to a file, then Comma Separated Values.
3. Under the account you want, select the Contacts folder, choose where to save the file and click Finish.

Microsoft covers both versions in its pages on exporting from Outlook.com and exporting from Outlook for Windows. If you use the new Outlook for Windows or Outlook for Mac, the menus are different, so check Microsoft's help for your version.

Step 2: Clean up before you import

When contacts come from three places, the same person often turns up two or three times. It's much easier to fix that at the source, so do these before you import:

• Merge duplicates in each service with the tools mentioned above, then export again.
• Pick a main source. Import your most complete address book first. Then add only the people who are missing from it, rather than importing every file in full.
• Skim the CSV files in a spreadsheet. Delete rows with no name, mailing-list addresses and "noreply" entries.

Step 3: Import into one address book

Most address books have an import option that accepts .vcf files and usually .csv files too. In TheyreMine:

1. Open the Contacts page and click Import in the toolbar.
2. Choose your .vcf or .csv file and click Import.
3. The list refreshes and tells you how many contacts were created.

Keep two things in mind. Contacts that have neither a name nor a company are skipped. And TheyreMine doesn't look for duplicates when you import, so importing the same file twice gives you two copies of everyone. That's another reason to merge before you import. Once the import has finished, the uploaded file isn't kept on the server. The full steps are in the help section on importing contacts.

Step 4: Tidy up so it stays useful

Once everything is in one place, a short tidy-up makes the address book far easier to search and read.

• Use the same name format for everyone. Put first names in the first-name field and surnames in the surname field. Avoid entries like "Dave plumber" or "MUM". If you need a reminder of who someone is, use the company or notes field.
• Label phone numbers and e-mail addresses. "Mobile", "work" and "home" save you guessing which number to call. In TheyreMine, each number and address has its own label, and the first one listed is the main one. See contact fields.
• Write numbers in international format (+44 …) so they work from abroad.
• Sort people into groups such as family, friends, work or clients. A few broad groups work better than a dozen narrow ones. TheyreMine groups are colour-coded, and you can filter the list by group with one click. See groups.
• Delete what you no longer need: old colleagues you'll never contact, businesses that have closed, numbers you know are dead.

Step 5: Keep a backup

A single address book is only an improvement if you can't lose it all in one go. Every so often, export your contacts and keep the file somewhere private, such as an encrypted drive: it holds other people's personal details.

TheyreMine lets you export any contact as a standard vCard file. Open the contact and click Export vCard, as explained under exporting a contact. Export is one contact at a time, so it's most useful for sharing a contact or keeping copies of your most important entries. For a complete backup, keep your original export files from Google, iCloud or Outlook, together with a note of any changes you've made since.

A quick checklist

1. Merge duplicates at the source, then export as vCard where you can.
2. Import your most complete source first, test with a small file, and never import the same file twice.
3. Make names consistent, label numbers and use a few groups.
4. Keep your export files somewhere private as a backup.