If you’re looking to sync contacts between the Android and iPhone/iPad fear not– it’s not that messy at all.
I have a Nexus One (Android) device running 2.1 but I’m hoping this method will work for most Android users. I’d love to hear your input.
Here’s a way to do it :
1. Go to “contacts” on your Nexus One. In the settings you will see an option to export contacts to SD card. Go ahead, export.
2. With the device mounted to your desktop, make sure the file you exported is on the SD card. It exported my contacts list to a file called ” 00001.vcf
3. Go to gmail > settings > import (on your desktop). Choose the”00001.vcf” / contacts export file from your SD card. This will make sure all the contacts from your Nexus One are sync’d with gmail (I’d thought my gmail account was syncing with my Android but apparently it wasn’t. There were tons of contacts on my device not listed in gmail contacts).
4. From the iPad or iPhone open the “settings”. Click add account > Microsoft Exchange. Here we’re going to add your gmail account information.

5. In the first screen you’ll enter the fields like this:
Domain: leave blank
User: enter your google email address, example, brodiebeta@gmail.com
Password: enter your google password
Click Next
**if you get an error (Unable to verify certificate) message hit cancel. I got one too, it’s okay.**
6. It will now ask you to enter server information. Enter “m.google.com”
7. The iPad / iPhone should now ask you if you’d like to keep your existing contacts. If you select yes it may create duplicate contacts. Google says “Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes”
8. Done. You should now have the option to sync mail, contacts and calenders with the iPad or iPhone.
More help on syncing the iPad and iPhone.














Ha! You did it; and you were woried…
Best thing to happen to phones was contact storage in the cloud. Weird about the Nexus not synching 100%, now I’m worried my HTC is doing the same. Argh.
I am trying to do this and I get hung up here: gmail > settings > import (on your desktop). I go to gmail and then settings, but I am unable to locate import(on your desktop). Will you be more specific?
Hi Danielle,
Let’s get this fixed for you.. are you on gtalk, FB or Twitter ?
Brodie
Great post. Worked like a charm. Strangely my Droid Incredible was also not syncing all of my contacts to gmail. Did anyone find a solution to this?
Worked perfectly!
Thanks a lot!
Best,
Rafael
Great it works! I really was going to copy the contacts manually
will this transfer my iphone contacts to my gmail?
Thanks so much for this walk-through! Worked GREAT!
I found this article because I am toying with the idea of taking my wifes phone upgrade and getting a Droid and giving her my iphone4. My fear is that I will be unable to adequately sync my ipad, droid and imac without a lot of work. It appears that it is doable as per your article. My only impetus to do a droid is really the 4g for surfing my ipad with clients for presentations. Do you know of any other pro’s for me to get the Droid?
Pardon my ignorance, but how does one do it the opposite way i.e. syncing my contacts from the iPhone to my Asus EEE Pad?
Hey, i wanna go the other way around any suggestions?
Well, actually, i wann to go any direction google, android, ios. haha
ill figure it out
Hi Brodie — I am having the same problem as Danielle (above) had. I have exported my contacts to my SD card and created the file (which I can now see on my computer when I attach my Android phone to my computer); but when I go to “Settings” and “Import” in Gmail, I don’t see an option for importing the file that I’ve created. All I see is an option to import mail and contacts from other email accounts. Can you please help me with this? Thanks so much!!!
Thanks a lot you saved my life
Looking to do this process but not to up to date on how to go through with these steps, please help in more detail.
Actually I got it, Instead of going to gmail>settings>import I went to gmail>contacts>Import Contacts this gave me the pop window that you have clipped on your site. Thanks!
Hi.. I tried doing this from htc desire to iPhone 4s .. the issue is tht my contacts do get sync , but it only syncs the email addresses and not the numbers. Also it shows some HTC data in notes.. Please help me with this
Actually, if you email the export file to your gmail account, and open that file on the ipad, it gives you a list of all the contacts in the file. you can touch a contact, see the details, and chose to create a new contact, or combine with an existing contact. This was useful for me, since I had several hundred contacts I didnt want to clutter my ipad up with.