• How to find phone contacts on Google. Where are they stored, how to add, return and save contacts in a Google account

    Often, many smartphone users store telephone contacts on the SIM card, but there comes a time when the SIM card is full of numbers and there is nowhere to write it down. Plus, only one number can be written down for one name, and the number of characters is also limited, and the phone book takes on the following form: VasilIvanovich MTS, TamaraNikol Kievst, etc. Whether it’s contacts saved in the phone - you can specify: first name, last name, company and position, write down the numbers of different mobile operators(personal and work), email, and most importantly, add a photo and set a ringtone.

    But before creating a complete and beautiful phone book You need to work hard, spend a lot of time and effort. Imagine, you finally did it, didn’t sleep for several days in a row, wrote down all the numbers of your relatives, friends, acquaintances and employees, and at one point the phone malfunctioned and the entire phone book disappeared. Therefore, in order to protect yourself from such situations and not go through this procedure again, you just need to transfer all your existing contacts to your account once. Google entry and set up synchronization so that in the future, when you add or change contact data on your phone, it will automatically change in your account.

    How to Transfer Contacts to a Google Account

    If you are using an Android smartphone, you need to export all existing contacts to vcf file. You can read how to do this in the article “How to create a backup of contacts on Android”.

    If you have another phone, you need to connect it to your computer and use branded programs extract all your contacts from it in CSV or vCard format.

    Once you have received the file or files with all your contacts, you can begin transferring them to your Google account. If you still do not have an account then you need to register one, the registration process is very simple and is described in the following article.

    Step 1 Open contacts.google.com in your browser.
    Enter your username and password if you are not logged in yet


    Step 3 A pop-up window will appear in front of you, select Import from CSV or vCard file


    Step 4 New version Google Contacts does not have the ability to import from these formats, so you need to switch to the old version of the program, to do this, click Go to old version


    Step 5 A new window will open with the old version of the program, click the More button and select Import... from the drop-down list.


    Step 6 In the pop-up window, click the Select file button and specify the location from backup copy contacts, then click Import. In a few seconds all your contacts will appear on the page


    This completes the transfer of contacts to your Google account. Now let's add an account on Android or iOS device and set up their synchronization.

    How to set up Android contacts synchronization with Google account

    Step 1 Open the Settings app on your smartphone and select Accounts or Accounts and Synchronization

    Step 2 If your account is already entered, then select Google → [email protected] and check whether the checkbox or slider on the Contacts item is in the position On, if not, then turn it on


    Step 3 If you don't already have a Google account on your phone, you'll need to add one. Click item Add account or Add an account and select Google


    Step 4 Enter your account and password, after each entry click Next. If you have Android 4.4 and lower installed, you will first need to select Existing, and then enter the data



    From now on, all your contacts will be synced with Google Contacts. In the future, when you create new contact, select a Google account so that it automatically appears on your other devices.

    How to set up synchronization of iPhone and iPad contacts with a Google account

    Step 1 Open the Settings app and select the menu option Mail, addresses, calendars

    iOS 11 and above

    Select menu item Accounts and Passwords

    Step 2 Click Add an account and select Google


    Step 3 Fill out all the fields available. In the "Description" field, enter a name the record being created and click Next. Slide the switch in the “Contacts” item to On


    iOS 11 and above

    Enter your email Gmail and the password for it, after each action you need to click Next. Now move the slider on the “Contacts” item to the right to activate it and click the Save button


    Step 4 Go back to the menu item Mail, addresses, calendars, find the “Contacts” section and click on Standard account, select your email address Gmail


    iOS 11 and above

    Return to home page settings and select Contacts → Default account and check the box Gmail


    Step 5 Open the Contacts app. After some time, all your contacts will be synchronized with your Google account and when you subsequently change or add new data, they will automatically be sent to your other devices

    Now your phone book will no longer be lost, and you will be able to access it even without a phone.

    Read even more interesting information on our pages in social networks and also share this article with your friends

    IN modern society people communicate a lot, constantly making new acquaintances. Contact lists are regularly updated with phone numbers, addresses, birthdays and other important information about new acquaintances.

    Until recently, we used simple paper notebooks and notepads. We kept many numbers in our heads. But over time, everything changes.

    Nevertheless, electronic method Contact storage can also fail. If you want to save your contacts so that you never lose them, then the best way to do this is to use a Google account. After all, Android itself is a creation of Google. Therefore, contact synchronization Android phone With Google Gmail will work without problems.

    The first thing you should do is register your Google.com account and link your Android to it. Registered only Google users get access to all the features of Android.

    The synchronization of Android phone contacts with Google Gmail itself is necessary so that you can use your contacts on any Android device. It doesn't matter whether you lose your Android phone or buy something new. Your contact list will always remain with you. After all, all the data of your friends will be stored not only on the mobile device, but also on Google servers, directly in your account. To access your contacts on your new phone, all you need to do is sign in to your Google account.

    How do I set up synchronization of contacts with my Google account?

    1. You need to go to the “Settings” menu and select “Accounts and synchronization”.

    2. At the bottom of the screen, click “Add account.”

    4. If you already have an account, then add an existing one; if not, create a new one.

    5. Enter your username and password and we already have an account for synchronizing contacts.

    6. Now go to “Contacts” on your phone.

    7. Call up the menu (for me it’s the left touch button of the phone) and click “import/export”.

    8. Choose where to get contacts for synchronization. In our case, this is the phone and click “Next”.

    9. Select where contacts and Google profile will be synchronized.

    10. Mark the contacts that will be copied to Google and click the “Copy” icon in the lower right corner. The process goes unnoticed, or rather it is displayed with a copy icon in the top status bar, so you should not click several times to avoid duplicate contacts.

    11. After 1-5 minutes you can go to Google contacts ( www.google.com/contacts) and edit the list.

    Now everything is ready and you can be sure that you will never lose anyone's data. You can edit contact data from your computer, laptop, phone or tablet. All you have to do is log in to Google. After the changes are made, the data is synchronized on any of the devices.

    In contacts you can attach photos and write down several phone numbers. Contacts can be divided into groups. In general, contacts can be described in great detail: you can indicate the organization, phonetic name, e-mail, address, website, various events (for example, birthday), relationships, etc.

    Thus, on the one hand, you have a very detailed notebook that can be edited on any device. On the other hand, you protect all your contacts from loss.

    The presence of modern devices (smartphones and tablets) and their functions help to enhance communication between users. Almost every day, new phone numbers, email addresses, and important information about loved ones, colleagues and acquaintances appear on devices. Saving all this data in the smartphone - the right way do not lose them and always keep them at hand.

    However, problems also sometimes occur with “smart” devices. Their solution is to synchronize information with the Google system. Using the instructions, you can quickly activate it on your device.

    First steps

    To have maximum access to the capabilities of the operating room Android systems, the user needs to register on Google.com - create an account and attach it to a mobile device.

    The need for synchronization lies in the fact that the user has access to contacts on any gadget running . Even if the device is lost or replaced with a new one, the contacts will not disappear anywhere, since all information after synchronization is stored in the account (on Google server). Once you start using new smartphone, just log in old account and use the data.


    Synchronization settings

    1. Open the settings in the smartphone menu and select “Accounts and synchronization”.
    2. In this section, click on “Add an account”.
    3. The system prompts you to perform one of the following actions:
    • Add an existing account;
    • Create new.

    Select the appropriate item by filling in the required fields with your email address and password, or create new profile(this will take a few minutes). Your Google account is ready.

    1. Open your contacts list on your device.
    2. Call the section menu and select one of the “Import/Export” functions.
    3. The system will ask the user to select one of the items that will become the source of data copying: device, memory card, system memory. IN in this case you should select a phone.
    4. The next step is to select the target storage, that is, the account with which the synchronization will be performed.
    5. Mark all or required contacts to be saved in the Google system, and then click on the copy icon. Please note that no action will be taken in this case, since the process of copying data is invisible. Therefore, you should not click on the icon several times - this will lead to duplicate contacts.
    6. The system will need some time to synchronize (from 1 to 5 minutes). Now you can log into your Google account to edit your contact list.

    After adding new data, it automatically appears in Google.com - resynchronization not needed. You can access your contacts by logging into your account from a smartphone, tablet or computer. They are stored securely in the system. Contacts come with a wide range of settings: you can attach photos, specify additional information, important events, etc.

    Where is the best place to store contacts - in memory mobile device or on a SIM card? In the event of a planned transition to service by another mobile operator or when purchasing a new mobile device, in principle, there is no difference. Today, transferring phone numbers does not even need to be done manually, because modern mobile devices are equipped with the function of exporting and importing contacts. Without taking into account force majeure circumstances, the memory of a mobile device will outperform the memory of a SIM card in terms of convenience of data presentation. The smartphone's memory provides unconstrained conditions for naming contacts, while SIM cards strictly limit the length of characters, especially in Cyrillic. You can also combine contacts in the smartphone’s memory into groups, set different ringtones, photos, pictures for subscribers, specify an E-mail, etc.

    But the SIM card will be useful when resetting the settings of a mobile device, as well as in the event of its destruction. In this case, of course, the SIM card itself should not be damaged. But if both are destroyed or if you lose your mobile device with contacts, you will either have to say goodbye or make efforts to restore them. In such cases, what mobile operators can usually do is offer call details for a certain period. Most reliable way storing contacts for owners of Android gadgets is a Google account. And not only reliable, but also convenient due to cross-platform. We will talk in detail about the advantages of storing contacts in a Google account and how to transfer data from the phone book of an Android device or SIM card to it in this article.

    1. Contacts trusted by Google

    After clicking the button to add a new contact in the phone book of the Android device, before opening the data entry form, we will see a request to select the storage location for the contact - mobile device, SIM card and Google account. What benefits will we get by choosing the latter for storing contacts?

    Storing contacts using a Google account is a guarantee that nothing will ever happen to your data. Today Google company is at the peak of its power, and its potential will last for another couple of decades to come. If there is a more reliable place to store data than the search giant's servers, it is perhaps paper notepad, locked in a fireproof and waterproof container. Even if you switch to a mobile device with a different Android operating system system and the lack of ability to synchronize directly with a Google account, contacts can be transferred using universal file vCard export-import (file with “.vcf” extension). This, in particular, is supported by Apple devices.

    You can change your Android device every day or reset its settings to factory settings; the contact book will be restored a couple of seconds after connecting your Google account and completing the synchronization process. The necessary conditions for this are the presence of the Internet and an active auto-synchronization function, if not the entire account, then at least the contacts application.

    Now about the cross-platform mentioned above. Contacts of an Android device can be managed in a browser window on a computer with any desktop operating system - be it Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. The Google Contacts web service is an interface for working with phone book data stored and synchronized on mobile devices. Edits made to contacts within the web service will be available in the Android device's phone book either within a few seconds if the Internet is connected, or when it becomes available. And vice versa: contacts edited in the smartphone’s phone book with an active Internet connection will appear in Google web interface Contacts.

    2. Google Contacts web service

    The Google Contacts web service, authorization in which is carried out through a single Google account, can offer convenient functionality for creating and editing contacts, the ability to combine subscribers into groups, search for similar contacts, import-export data, and the ability to restore contacts at any time within the previous 30 -ty days. Plus, the web service displays contact information for Google+ circles - friends, family, acquaintances, subscriptions on the social network itself and on YouTube. These contacts are not synchronized with mobile devices; they are available only in the web interface of the service. But with just one click they can be copied to contacts synchronized with Android devices.

    And contacts synchronized with Android devices are presented in the main window of the web service, also known as the “All contacts” section. To create a new contact, click the button at the bottom of the browser window.

    Enter the subscriber’s name and click “Create”.

    We fill out the required fields of the form, if desired, we can add a photo and click “Save”.

    Existing entries are edited and deleted using the buttons at the end of each individual contact's line.

    By selecting the desired subscriber, directly from the web window Google service Contacts This subscriber can be called through another Google service - Hangouts. True, calling mobile operator numbers in this way is not a cheap pleasure. And before that, of course, you need to top up your account balance.

    3. Connecting a Google account on an Android device

    In most cases, connecting a Google account to your Android device is only a matter of time. Without authorization using a single Google account, some of the capabilities of the mobile device simply will not be available. In particular, this applies to access to the application and game store Google Play. Fortunately, creating a Google account is very simple. In case one has not yet been created or connected, on your Android device go to the “Settings” section and click “Add account”.

    IN earlier versions Android this settings section is called " Accounts and synchronization." Inside it you need to click the “Add account” button.

    Select an account, respectively, Google.

    4. Transfer existing contacts to your Google account

    We've figured out the benefits of storing contacts in a Google account, we've looked at connecting it on an Android device, now it's time to put things in order in the phone book. With new contacts, everything is simple - what you will need to do in the future is when creating them, select where they are stored in your Google account. What to do with old entries in the phone or SIM card memory? How to transfer them to your Google account without unnecessary red tape? Let's look at this process using Android version 4.4.2 as an example.

    On your smartphone, go to the contacts application and select “Settings”. In other versions of Android, this may be a button with three vertical dots or a touch button on the smartphone panel. In the settings we need the “Import-export contacts” section.

    In it, select the “Custom import/export” item. In other versions Android lettering The options may differ, but the essence will be the same.

    In the list of sources for obtaining contact data, we indicate either a phone or a SIM card. If you need to export data from both sources, we first work with one, then repeat the procedure with the other. Click “Next”.

    The next step is to select the location where the contact data should be transferred. Accordingly, select a Google account. Click “Next”.

    In a couple of seconds, you can go to Google Contacts and work with data in the web interface.

    But Android is a whimsical platform. In some cases, the described option may not work and may freeze at the stage of exporting data to a Google account. In this case, you can resort to the method of exporting/importing contacts using a universal vCard file format. In the same version of Android 4.4.2, having selected “Import-export contacts” in the phone book settings, select another item – “Export to storage”.

    An action confirmation window will appear, where the save path will be indicated. vCard file with exported contacts.

    Now the vCard file should be imported using the Google Contacts web service. By opening its placement path in file manager Android devices can transfer the vCard file to a computer using any available communication channels.

    Or we can transfer this file to a computer by connecting a smartphone to it using a USB cable. For import Google web service The contacts vCard file does not necessarily involve a computer. The web service can be opened in a smartphone browser window, but the screen size of not every Android device will make this process quick and convenient. In the Google Contacts web interface, click the “Import” function and select “Import from a CSV or vCard file.”

    The Google Contacts website has been switched to the style Material Design, and some of the web service features in the new interface format do not yet work. But these opportunities open up when you switch to the old interface format in a new tab. Click “Go to previous version contacts."

    Click “Import contacts”.

    In the window that appears, click the browse button labeled “Select file” and specify the path to the file with exported contacts (remember, its extension is “.vcf”). Next, click the “Import” button.

    After this, all entries in the smartphone’s phone book will appear in the web interface of the Google Contacts service.

    Import-export of contacts is also possible using third party applications from the Google Play store. But there is no need for them, since the standard Android functionality can completely cope with these responsibilities. Thus, the ability to transfer contacts to a Google account from the phone’s memory or SIM card is even supported old version Android 2.3. In the contacts application you need to call up the settings touch button and select “Merge with Google”. This is the option to transfer contacts to a Google account, however, only for entries in the phone’s memory. To transfer all contacts to your Google account, you must first copy those stored on the SIM card to the phone's memory. This is done by clicking the “Import-export” inscription and then selecting the “Import from SIM card” item.

    5. Force synchronization of contacts on Android device

    If changes to contact data made in the Google Contacts web interface must be urgently displayed in the phone book of an Android device, and synchronization is delayed, this process can be forced. Go to Android settings, select the “Accounts” section (in earlier versions of the platform, as mentioned, this section is called “Accounts and synchronization”), select “Google”.

    We enter the synchronization parameters.

    We find the “Contacts” item and by clicking on it, we force synchronization of the phone book.

    When you turn on a new phone running for the first time operating system Android user is prompted to enter Google account information and register. You can skip this step, but it is not recommended due to the following benefits it provides:

    • synchronization of information from a notebook;
    • saving passwords and logins in a single place;
    • simplifying the use of services that remember your actions on other gadgets under this account.

    However, the main and most important task of a Google account for the average user remains the ability to synchronize and save to remote cloud all telephone numbers, which sometimes number several hundred or even thousands. As a result, when changing a gadget manually, the transfer takes a lot of time, and if the smartphone was broken or lost, then copying them to a new one will be simply unrealistic. Using a Google account will allow you to quickly restore all data and not lose the contacts of a single friend, colleague or acquaintance. This is especially important given that you do not communicate with every person today regularly, and among many of your contacts, communication is maintained only a few times a year or they are not needed at all until the onset of some emergency or specific situation.

    How to view contacts in your Google account

    You can see all the contacts stored in your account from any PC or tablet. To do this, just open your browser and go to the search page Google systems. On the right top corner you will find your avatar (provided that you are logged into your account in advance) or a button to enter your login and password (the browser can “remember” several accounts, so you need to select the appropriate one). Nearby there is an icon in the form of ten squares, after clicking on it a menu appears where you need to select “Contacts”.

    Now you have access to a list of contacts saved in your Google Account. On the left side of the page, the main menu will be available at the same time, which, if desired, can be collapsed by clicking on the three horizontal stripes located at the top. By default, each contact has a name, email address, phone number, and job title. At the top of the list are the "important" contacts, and then they go in alphabetical order.

    In the “Similar Contacts” tab (menu) you can see positions with same number or name, which, if desired, can be combined to reduce their number and simplify use.

    Google Contacts on your computer

    A Google account allows you to add new contacts on your computer and then synchronize them with other gadgets. This is much more convenient if you need to enter data large quantity people. To add, follow these steps:

    • in the “Contacts” section, click on the round pink button in the lower right corner;
    • fill in the required fields with contact information;
    • click on the “Save” button.

    After saving, the contact will automatically be saved in your account and will be added to your smartphone or other gadget linked to your account (provided that synchronization is configured). This is very convenient, since it is enough to fill out the user data plate once and it will immediately appear under the same name on other gadgets, saving a lot of time on manual entry.

    How to save phone contacts to Google

    Most contacts on a smartphone are initially entered on the phone, from which they need to be transferred directly to the account. This can be done using export/import or synchronization. In the first case, follow the following algorithm:

    • in the “Contacts” section, open the “Settings” menu (names may vary slightly depending on specific model phone and, for example, on Samsung, you need to follow the following path - Menu - Contacts - three dots in the upper right corner - Manage contacts);
    • Click on the item “Export/import contacts” and select the “export” we need;
    • the entire phone book of the smartphone will be saved to a file that must be found on the phone and sent to Google Drive or other storage.

    If you need to copy all the contact information from a file to your phone, just follow all the listed procedures, but select “import” rather than “export.” Similarly, import everything telephone numbers you can directly to own account on Google. To do this, there is a corresponding section in the menu, where you just need to select required file. If after importing the number of contacts in the browser window has not increased, refresh the page. After this, the problem should disappear and you will see an updated list of contacts, where “similar numbers” will be highlighted, which will be combined in a couple of clicks and you will see the list in order.

    Synced contacts in Gmail

    Fiddling around with importing files into the phone book on your smartphone every time and searching for similar contacts is problematic and quite time-consuming. It’s more reasonable to set up contact synchronization, in which new data will automatically be sent to your phone from your Google account, and you don’t have to worry about the relevance of the data, having an up-to-date telephone directory always at hand.

    To activate this feature on your Samsung, follow these steps:

    • go to “Settings”;
    • select “Cloud and accounts”;
    • Click on the "Google" section.

    Then all that remains is to select the “Contacts” item for synchronization. Now after a new contact appears in your account Google information will immediately appear in your phones or tablets connected to a specific email address. Please note that if you have added new contacts to your phone, they will appear on the remote server only after all data has been exported and synchronized to reverse side does not work, which may be somewhat inconvenient for the average user. However, there is a grain of wisdom in this, and if you do not want to communicate with a computer, then you can enter data into your Google account directly through your browser mobile phone, which will be an excellent alternative.

    Instead of a conclusion

    As you can see, the ability to synchronize contacts and store data on a remote Google server is an excellent opportunity to protect yourself from loss important information. The latter happens quite often, because important contact can be deleted accidentally, as well as as a result of the loss or theft of the phone, or its failure. To prevent problems, we recommend regularly exporting your contacts and transferring them to your Google account. It will only take a few minutes and it is enough to perform this procedure 1-2 times a month, which will save a lot of nerves and time, because it is very difficult to predict the date of failure of the phone or, God forbid, its loss (if you are planning to buy new gadget, then just do an export before turning it off).

    At the same time, we recommend updating contact information in Google by adding other information in addition to the phone number. For example, the obligatory indication of a birthday will not allow you to forget about congratulations and a gift, and e-mail will allow you to quickly send a letter if necessary. At the same time the opportunity automatic search“similar” contacts in Google will allow you to put things in order notebook, getting rid of garbage in the form of identical data or the need to create two accounts for people who have several mobile phones at the same time.

    In any case, storing contacts in a Google account provides excellent flexible options that make life more comfortable and convenient. Master them once and you will thank the service for this for a long time.