To import contacts from a CSV file
Open your Excel spreadsheet.
Make sure your column headings are in row 1 and your first contact is in row 2.
The Name field can be a single column, or you can use separate columns for first name, middle name and last name.
There must be a column for email address.
If you have a Notes column, it will be imported into the Contact's Notes field.
Additional Notes
The import process supports a Notes field. However, the maximum size for a contact is 128 KB. So if a contact exceeds this size, the Notes field might be truncated.
Still Not Working?
Here's a tip from our Senior Technical Trainer.
She writes: "When I need to import data into a program, the first thing I do is export a record from the destination app. I figure, surely the app can import it's own file. Right? After I export a record, I do not rearrange, delete or rename any columns. I simply use that file as a template for my import."
So try these steps if all else fails...
- Open a contact in Google Contacts and complete all the fields you care about or create a new one and fill it with dummy data
- Export that contact to a csv or Excel file
- Open the exported file and use it as a template for importing your data.
In other words, copy your data into a file Google creates when you export a contact.