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How to import Google contacts to Outlook

You can export your Gmail contacts to a CSV file and import them into Outlook. It’s essential to save the CSV file correctly to read the non-English characters of the Google contacts. If you don’t, the names will not appear correctly in Outlook after the import. In this article, we will show you how to import Google contacts to Outlook or Outlook on the Web (OWA).

Export Google contacts to CSV file

To export all our Gmail contacts to a CSV file, follow the below steps:

  1. Sign in to Gmail
  2. Click on the squares icon
  3. Click on Contacts
Go to Gmail Google contacts
  1. Click on the Export icon
Export Google gmail contacts
  1. Select Outlook CSV
  2. Click Export
Export Gmail Google contacts to Outlook CSV
  1. It will download the Gmail contacts to a CSV file

Change CSV file encoding to UTF-8 with BOM

You have exported your Gmail contacts to a CSV file. If you immediately open the contacts CSV file with an application like Microsoft Excel, the information will be incorrect. All non-English characters are not readable and look like symbols.

See the below example of the CSV file with non-English characters.

Import Google contacts to CSV with non-English characters

Note: If your contacts have non-English characters, you must save the CSV file with encoding, or you will see the above symbols. We highly recommend to save the CSV with encoding to avoid any problems when importing to Outlook on the Web (OWA).

To save the CSV file with encoding, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Right-click the contacts.csv file
  2. Open with NotePad
Import Google contacts with NotePad
  1. Click File > Save as
Import Google contacts save as CSV
  1. Save as type All files (*.*)
  2. Encoding UTF-8 with BOM
  3. Click Save
Import Google contacts save as CSV Encoding UTF-8 with BOM
  1. Open the CSV file, and the results show the non-English characters like Arabic, Chinese, etc.
  2. You can remove the contacts you don’t want to import into Outlook by deleting the entire row
Import Google contacts to CSV with non-English characters

Import Gmail contacts in Outlook

If your contacts don’t include non-English characters, you can import the contacts into the Outlook app. That’s because non-English characters will not appear correctly after the import to the Outlook app.

Important: We highly recommend to import Google contacts in Outlook on the Web (OWA) and not the Outlook app to avoid problems with non-English characters.

How to import Google contacts in the Outlook app:

  1. Open the Outlook app
  2. Go to File
Import Google contacts in Outlook app File
  1. Click Open & Export
  2. Click Import/Export icon
Import or export files and settings
  1. Select Import from another program or file
  2. Click Next
Import from CSV file
  1. Select Comma Separated Values
  2. Click Next
Select comma separated values CSV file
  1. Browse and select the CSV file
  2. Check the contacts.csv file path
  3. Select Allow duplicated to be created
  4. Click Next
Select CSV file to import Google contacts
  1. Select the destination folder Contacts
  2. Click Next
Select the destination folder Contacts to import
  1. Select Import “contact.csv” into folder: Contacts
  2. Click Finish
Select Import "contact.csv" into folder: Contacts

Verify Google contacts imported in Outlook

Let’s verify if your Google contacts are imported into the Outlook app.

In our example, we imported the Google contacts into the destination folder contacts.

  1. Go to the folder Contacts
  2. See the list of imported Google contacts

The results are incorrect because all the non-English characters look gibberish with symbols. Unfortunately, these contacts will also appear like that in Outlook on the Web (OWA) after the synchronization completes.

Import Google contacts in Outlook non-English characters

Import Gmail contacts in Outlook on the Web (OWA)

To import Google contacts in Outlook on the Web (OWA) follow the below steps:

  1. Sign in to Outlook
  2. Click on the People icon
  3. Click Manage contacts
  4. Select Import contacts
Import Google contacts in Outlook on the Web OWA
  1. Click Browse
Browse CSV file to import Google contacts in OWA
  1. Select the contacts.csv file
  2. Click Open
Select the Contacts CSV file and Open
  1. It adds the contacts.csv file
  2. Click Import
Import Google contacts in Outlook on the Web OWA
  1. Click Looks OK, continue
Check that the text looks OK
  1. Click Close
All Google contacts are imported
  1. It shows a list of your Google contacts with non-English characters written correctly
List Google contacts with non-English characters

That’s it!

Read more: Import PST file into Microsoft 365 »

Conclusion

You learned how to export Google Gmail contacts to a CSV file and import them to Outlook or Outlook on the Web (OWA). If your CSV file contains non-English characters, you must save it with encoding UTF-8 with BOM. Then we always recommend to import the Google contacts CSV file into Outlook on the Web (OWA) to avoid any problems.

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o365info Team

o365info Team

This article was written by our team of experienced IT architects, consultants, and engineers.

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