Say that Gmail wasn't the first or only email service that you've ever used, but you want to have all of the same contacts that you had in another email service — such as Microsoft Hotmail or Yahoo Mail — in Gmail as well. But flipping back and forth between that service and Gmail, entering in the information for each contact one-by-one… that would be a total pain, right? Fortunately, Gmail has a feature that makes this otherwise tedious process quick and easy.
How to import contact information to Gmail Contacts
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Go to www.gmail.com in your web browser and log in (if you haven't already).
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Click the gear icon (
) in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings from the drop-down menu.
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Click Accounts and Import in the menu across the top, and then click Import Mail and Contacts.
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A new window will pop up asking you which email account you want to import your contacts from. Type in your email address for that account, and then click Continue.
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You may be asked to sign into your other email account in order to move your emails or contacts from that account to your Gmail account. Just click Continue.
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Now, log into your other account. In our case, it's a Microsoft Hotmail account.
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Your other email account may ask you if you want to let ShuttleCloud (the app that Gmail uses to transfer your email and contacts to your Gmail account) access your info. Since it's going to need that access in order to move your stuff to Gmail, go ahead and click Yes.
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Once ShuttleCloud has access to your other email account, you'll be asked to close that window (click the "X" in the top right corner). A new window will pop up asking you what you want to import to Gmail from your other account. You can:
— Import all of your emails that you already have in the account
— Import all of your contacts that you already have in the account
— Have the account forward all emails it receives to your Gmail account for the next 30 days
Click the check boxes next to each option to select or deselect it. In this case, we'll be choosing to just import contacts. When you've selected the options that you want, click Start Import.
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You'll get a confirmation window telling you that Gmail will begin importing your selected information, even if you close Gmail or turn off your computer. It may also take some time before you start seeing any of your imported information. Just click OK.
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Now, let's go to the function selector (it automatically changes back to Gmail when you go to the "Settings" screen) and change it back to Contacts. Voila! All of the people we knew from our other email account and their information are now in our Gmail Contacts!
Great! Now you know how to import information about your contacts from other email services into Gmail!
