How to Sync iCloud and Gmail contacts – 2022 Guide

How to Sync iCloud and Gmail contacts

Every day, you see a new post from one of your friends on Facebook asking for numbers, because they bought a new phone and lost all their contacts. Contact details of our friends, family, and colleagues are very important information for us, and we don’t want to lose them every time we change our phone. Here is how you can keep your contacts synced on your new phone, regardless of whether you use Android or iOS. The two major contact managers are iCloud and Google. In this article, we will discuss how to sync Google contacts to the iPhone directly? And how to sync Google contacts with iCloud?

How to Sync Contacts to iCloud on iPhone?

Follow these steps on your iPhone/iPad to sync your contacts with iCloud.

1. Go to Settings > [your name] 
2. Tap on iCloud. 
3. Toggle on Contacts.

How to sync Google contacts on iCloud?

Google Contacts is a free contact manager for Google users to store and organize their contacts online. Contact details include the name, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. If you are switching from an Android phone to an iPhone, you need to sync your Google contacts to iCloud. But first, you should sync your contacts with iCloud, so that you can use your contacts across all Apple devices.

There are multiple methods to sync contacts from Gmail to iCloud. We will discuss them all one by one. 

Method 1. Sync Google Contacts on iPhone/iPad.

Follow the following steps to sync your Google contacts on iPhone easily.

For iOS 11 users:

1. Go to Settings on your iPhone.
2. Scroll and search for Passwords & Accounts.
3. Under Accounts, Tap on Add Account.
4. Choose Google from the list.
5. Sign in to Google with your Gmail ID.
6. Go to your Gmail account and Toggle on Contacts to start syncing.

For iOS 10 users:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap on Contacts
3. Tap on Accounts
4. Add Account.
5. Choose Google from the list.
6. Sign in to Google with your Gmail ID.
7. Go to your Gmail account and Toggle on Contacts to start syncing.

For iOS 8/9 users:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendar 
3. Add Account.
4. Choose Google from the list.
5. Sign in to Google with your Gmail ID.
6. Go to your Gmail account and Toggle on Contacts to start syncing.

Method 2. Sync Google Contacts on iCloud 

To transfer Gmail contacts to iPhone from iCloud, follow the steps given below.

1. Go to Google Contacts on your browser.
2. Select all contacts or the contacts you want to sync with iCloud.
3. Click on Export 
4. Click on Export as vCard

After downloading the vCard, Visit icloud.com on your browser and log in with your Apple ID and Password and then follow the following steps.

1. Open Contacts
2. On the bottom left side, open Settings.
3. Click on Import vCard file and select the file that you downloaded from Google Contacts.

Give some time to import, and now all your Google contacts have moved to iCloud. Here, you got your answer on how to keep Gmail and iCloud contacts in sync.

What to do if Gmail contacts not syncing with iCloud?

If your Gmail contacts are not syncing with iCloud, Try the following methods to start the syncing.

Note: Make a backup of your contacts before trying these methods.

Method 1: Check Apple System Status

Sometimes, there is a problem with one of Apple’s services, and they are working to fix it. Make sure to check Apple System to see if iCloud Contacts is available. If you see Apple is fixing the problem, then wait patiently, it might start working on its own.

Method 2: Update your iPhone to the latest iOS.

Regularly check for updates for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and update your Apple device to the latest iOS. Your devices need to meet the system requirements to use iCloud contact sync. 

Method 3: Check if your network connection is enabled.

For iCloud contacts sync to work, you need a Wi-Fi network (recommended) or cellular data network. If your network connection fails to connect to your iPhone, you might face a sync problem. Try reconnecting to the Wi-Fi network or turn off your cellular data and turn back on again.

Method 4: Check your iCloud storage

Your iCloud storage is limited, and our iCloud storage gets full your iPhone contacts cannot sync to iCloud. To check your storage, do the following.

1. Go to Settings > [your name] 
2. Tap on iCloud. 

 If your storage is full, buy more storage or free up some space if your storage is not full check that the total number of your iPhone contacts synced to iCloud is less than 50,000.

Method 5: Check Date & Time on your iPhone 

A wrong Date & Time setup on your iPhone can also cause problems with contacts sync. Make sure to set Date & Time correctly according to your time zone. To do that, follow these steps.

1. Go to Settings
2. Go to General
3. Tap on Date & Time
4. Toggle on Set Automatically.

Method 6: Sign in with the same Apple ID and turn on Contacts.

Sign in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on all your devices and check your settings for Contacts. Follow the following steps to do that.

1. Go to Settings 
2. Tap on [your name] 
3.  Tap iCloud
4. Turn on Contacts

Method 7: Refresh your Contacts

To refresh your contact groups:

1. Go to Contacts.
2. Swipe down your contact list to refresh.

Method 8: Restart the Contacts

1. Close Contacts App
2. Go back to your Home screen.
3. Wait a few minutes and reopen the app again.

Method 9: Turn off iCloud Contacts and turn it back on

1. Tap Settings, [your name], then iCloud. 
2. Slide to turn off Contacts
3. Wait a few minutes and turn Contacts on again.

Method 10: Restart your iPhone

Restart your iPhone. Sometimes, merely restarting a device can help sync Gmail contacts in the iPhone.

If the above methods don’t solve the problems, You can also try to delete the google contacts and import the vCard file again.