Getting Contacts Out of Your Phone, Gmail, and Old CRMs

How do you export contacts from your phone to a CRM?

On an iPhone, export a vCard file from icloud.com or the Contacts app. On Android, export a CSV file from Google Contacts. Gmail contacts use that same Google Contacts export. For an old CRM, look for a Contacts or Data section with an Export option and choose CSV. Every path ends at one file a new system can read.

Every name in that file is part of your sphere of influence (SOI): the people who already know, like, and trust you. The export itself takes a few minutes on each platform. The part that actually matters is making sure phone numbers, emails, and notes survive the move instead of arriving blank.

Two file formats do almost all the work below. A CSV file is a plain-text spreadsheet where every row is one contact and every column is one field, such as name, phone, or email. It's the format nearly every CRM import tool expects. A vCard (a file ending in .vcf) is a single file that holds one or more contact cards, and it's what Apple's Contacts app and iCloud produce natively.

How do you export contacts from an iPhone or iCloud?

iPhone contacts live in iCloud by default, and Apple documents two export paths: the icloud.com website, and the Contacts app on the phone itself. Both produce a vCard rather than a CSV, and most CRMs can still read a vCard directly during import.

Before you export, confirm your contacts are actually saved to iCloud rather than only on the device: go to Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, then turn on Contacts. If you're prompted to Merge or Cancel, tap Merge so nothing gets left behind (Apple Support, 2026).

1. On a computer, go to icloud.com/contacts and sign in with your Apple ID.
2. Click the Actions button at the top of your contacts list.
3. Choose "Select All Contacts."
4. Click the Share button, then choose "Export vCard." iCloud downloads a single .vcf file with every contact (Apple Support, 2026).

You can also export straight from your phone without a computer: open the Contacts app, tap Lists in the top-left corner, touch and hold a list, tap Export, choose which fields to include, then send the resulting vCard to yourself through Mail or Messages (Apple Support, 2026). To export iPhone contacts to CSV when your new CRM only accepts that format, import the vCard into Google Contacts first, then export it again as a Google CSV. The file converts automatically in that step.

How do you export contacts from an Android phone or Google Contacts?

Android contacts sync to your Google account by default, so the export itself happens on the Google Contacts website rather than on the phone. Confirm sync is turned on, then export Google Contacts to CSV from a computer in about two minutes.

1. On your Android phone, open Settings, then Google, then Manage your Google Account, and confirm Contacts sync is on.
2. On a computer, go to contacts.google.com and sign in with the same Google account.
3. Check the box next to any contact, click "Selection actions," then choose "All."
4. Click "More actions" in the top right, then "Export."
5. Choose "Google CSV," then click "Export." Google downloads one CSV file with every contact (Google Contacts Help, 2026).

If some contacts live only on the device or SIM card and never synced, turn that on first: open Settings, then Google services and preferences, then Backup & restore, then Google Contacts sync, then turn on "Sync device and SIM contacts automatically" and pick the account to save them to (Google Contacts Help, 2026). You can also export straight from the phone without a computer: open the Contacts app, tap Fix & manage, tap Export to file, choose the account to export from, then tap "Export to .VCF file" (Google Contacts Help, 2026).

Skip any app or service that asks you to sign in with your Google password to "speed up" the export. The built-in path above never requires a third-party login.

How do you export Gmail contacts?

Your Gmail contacts and your Google Contacts are the same address book, so the fastest export is the one described above at contacts.google.com. If you want a full backup of your Google data (contacts alongside Gmail, Calendar, and Photos), Google Takeout is the tool built for that instead.

1. Go to takeout.google.com and sign in.
2. Deselect every product except Contacts.
3. Choose a delivery method, such as an emailed download link, then click "Create export."
4. Google emails you a link once the archive is ready. Contacts arrive as a vCard file rather than a CSV (Google Account Help, 2026).

Takeout generates a complete account backup rather than a quick contact pull, so the archive can take a while to generate. For a straight CRM migration, the direct Google Contacts export above is the faster of the two.

How do you export contacts from your old CRM?

Every CRM stores the same core export somewhere under Settings, Contacts, or Data: look for a button labeled "Export" and choose CSV when it's offered as an option. Menu names and locations vary by vendor and change between versions, so check your current CRM's own help center for the exact click path if you don't see it within a minute of looking.

Before you export, open the settings for that export and make sure it includes more than just name, email, and phone. Pull tags, lead source, last-contact date, and any notes fields too. Those are what let a new CRM keep treating each person the way you already have been.

Watch for two common problems on the way out. Large contact lists sometimes export across multiple files instead of one, so check the download folder for more than a single CSV before you assume the export is complete. Special characters in names or addresses can also break during the download. Open the file right away and scan a few rows for garbled text before you move on to importing it anywhere.

Source	Native export format	Where to find it
iPhone / iCloud	vCard (.vcf)	icloud.com/contacts or the Contacts app
Android / Google Contacts	CSV or vCard	contacts.google.com
Gmail	CSV or vCard	contacts.google.com (or Google Takeout for a full backup)
An older CRM	CSV (format varies by vendor)	Settings, Contacts, or Data export

What should you clean up before importing contacts into a new CRM?

A clean export is not the same as a clean database. Before you import anywhere, remove duplicate rows, standardize phone number formatting, and keep any column that shows how recently (and how) you last talked to each person. That context is what turns a raw contact list into a working sphere of influence instead of a pile of names.

1. Open the exported file in a spreadsheet app and scan for obvious duplicates or test entries.
2. Standardize phone numbers to one consistent format across every row: either all-digits or a "(555) 555-5555" style.
3. Keep tag, source, and last-contact columns if your old export included them, even if your new CRM asks you to map them to different field names.
4. Save a copy of the raw export before you touch anything, so you always have a way back if a cleanup step goes wrong.

None of this has to happen by hand. Spreadsheet apps can find-and-replace phone formats in one pass, and most CRM import tools flag likely duplicates (by matching email or phone) before anything is saved for good.

Old phone and CRM exports often carry more business than agents expect once the duplicates are gone. See the hidden money sitting in your database for how to size that up before you import.

What's the fastest way to get your contacts into SphereSync?

You can map every column yourself during a manual CSV import, matching first name, phone, email, and tags field by field. That works fine for a few hundred contacts from one clean source. It gets slower once you're combining an iPhone vCard, a Google CSV, and an old CRM export that all label the same fields differently.

Database Rescue takes the exports above off your plate: it cleans, dedupes, and imports them for you so your sphere starts getting weekly touches on day one instead of three weeks into a spreadsheet project. If you're moving off a notebook or spreadsheet for the first time rather than an old CRM, CRM for solo real estate agents covers what to look for before you commit to one.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a special app to export my contacts, or can I do it with what's already on my phone?

Nothing extra to install. iPhone and Android both build contact export into tools you already have: the Contacts app, icloud.com, or contacts.google.com. Every path above uses a built-in feature from Apple or Google, never a third-party app asking for your login. If something asks for your Google or Apple password to "help" with the export, that's your signal to close it and use the official path instead.

Will I lose notes, tags, or call history when I export my contacts?

Basic fields like name, phone, and email almost always survive an export. Notes and tags depend on where they live: notes saved directly on a phone contact usually export with it, but activity history from an old CRM often needs a separate export step under that CRM's own settings. Check the export options before you download so you're not exporting a stripped-down version by accident.

What's the difference between a CSV and a vCard, and does it matter which one I have?

A CSV is a spreadsheet, one row per contact, one column per field. A vCard (.vcf) is a contact-card file, the format Apple's ecosystem produces natively. Most CRM import tools accept CSV, and several also read a vCard directly, so check your specific CRM's import screen before converting anything by hand. What matters more than the format is confirming your import actually pulls in the fields you care about, like tags or last-contact date, and not just name and phone.

Should I clean up my contacts before or after importing them into a new CRM?

Before, if you can manage it. A spreadsheet is far easier to scan for duplicates, dead numbers, and formatting problems than a CRM's contact list once everything is loaded and mixed with new activity. Removing obvious junk from the export first also means your new CRM starts building outreach history on a clean sphere instead of on names you were going to delete anyway.

Can I import contacts from more than one source, like my phone and an old CRM, at the same time?

You can, though each source usually needs its own import pass since the field names rarely match exactly. A vCard export uses different labels than a Google CSV or an old CRM's export, so plan to map each file's columns separately, then check for duplicate people across the combined list once everything has landed in the new system.