One of the first things people want to do with their iPad is get it synced with all of their own information such as Contacts, Email, and Photos. We have covered syncing email and photos so now we want to go over syncing your contacts as you might have them in Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or in your Address book on your Mac. Whether you are a new iPad user or a seasoned user, this will be a helpful tutorial you can bookmark and refer back to when you need it.
Sync Contacts With Your iPad
Your iPad has a built-in Address book app which is where all your contacts are stored when you sync with iTunes. To set up iTunes syncing with your Contacts, do the following:
- Connect your iPad to your computer and open iTunes
- in iTunes, select the iPad in the sidebar
- Configure the sync settings in the “info” pane
You will notice here that you can sync contacts with applications such as the Mac OS X Address book, Yahoo! Address Book, and Google Contacts on a Mac.
On a Windows PC, you can sync contacts with the Windows Address Book (Outlook Express), Windows Vista Contacts, and Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007.
If you sync with Yahoo! Address Book, you only need to click Configure to enter your new login information when yo change your Yahoo! ID or password after you’ve set up syncing.
Sync iPhone Contacts With Your iPad
If you want to sync your iPhone Contacts with your iPad, just make sure that when you plug in your iPhone, the option in checked in iTunes to sync contacts. Once you sync, the iPhone contacts will all be stored in your Mac Address book. Then, when you sync your iPad in iTunes, all your iPhone contacts will sync as well.
Contacts Being Duplicated
A lot of users report that when they sync contacts between their iPad and their Mac address book they get duplicates on the iPad. There is a fix for this and in order to accomplish getting rid of the duplicates you will need to have a MobileMe account. If you do not have one, you can sign up for a free Trial. It seems rather odd to have to do all this, but, it does solve the issue.
- Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Slide your account to OFF
- When prompted, tap Delete from My iPad
Now you will re-enable syncing and the magic will begin:
- Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
- Tap your account and slide the data type ON
- When prompted, tap Merge with MobileMe
That should take care if the duplicates issue!
How To Sync Gmail Contacts To Your iPad
This one is a bit tricky but it works great! I keep all my contacts in Google docs so I have done this a few times now. In order to do this, you have to setup your iPad for Google Sync. No problem though, it’s easy. I’ll walk you through it.
Getting Started
- Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
- Tap Add Account
- Select Microsoft Exchange
Enter Account Info
- In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
- Leave the Domain field blank.
- Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
- Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
- Tap Next at the top of your screen.
- Choose Cancel if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
- When the new Server field appears, enter m.google.com.
- Press Next at the top of your screen again.
- Select the Google services (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts) you want to sync.
- Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your iPad, select the Keep on my iPad option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.
If you want to sync only the My Contacts group, you must choose to Delete Existing Contacts during the Google Sync install when prompted. If you choose to keep existing contacts, it will sync the contents of the “All Contacts” group instead. If there are no contacts on your iPad, the latter will happen — the contents of your All Contacts group will be synced.
You’ve set up Google Sync! Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your device. You can also open the Mail, Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.
Yikes
from what is written above, it seems i can’t go directly from yahoo mail contacts to ipad if i own a PC rather than a MAC. So, am I correct in thinking that i need to transfer yahoo mail contacts to my outlook folder and then from there to ipad? i am starting to think it’ll be faster to just click on my 236 friends….ugh
Hi Gale! Glad to have you stop by. Basically, all you need is iTunes for your Yahoo contacts. iTunes can run on Mac or PC so all you would do is plug the iPad into your PC, it will start iTunes and then you can click the “Info” tab. This gives you an option to sync with Yahoo contacts and a few others as well.
So yes, you can definitely do this on a PC with Yahoo Contacts.
I purchased the Ipad 2 last Friday. Have been on the phone for over 4 hrs with Apple support. We can not get the 64 bit version of iTunes to load on either of my Windows 7 PC.s 32 bit will download but a 64 bit machine will not run the 32 bit app. We also have a NAS drive with the backup of th Outlook PST files.
Any other way to sync Outlook 07 contacts photos to ipad 2, w/o iTunes?
Unfortunately this is not the case. I have tried everything possible in iTunes and clicking the Info tab, there is no option to sync with Yahoo contacts. All the sync does is to copy my own name and yahoo e-mail to my i-pad contacts, not the entire yahoo address book.
I’m having this issue too!!
I have a first edition iPad and it used to have the contacts on it, but I once had to do a restore for another issue and since then I can’t get any of the contacts back on (while following the all the proper steps using iTunes, as I do with my phone).
Why is this happening?
Or more importantly, how does one fix this???
why don’t my categories sync?
Hi There Dawn!
When you say “categories”, do you mean the categories you have set up in your contacts?
I’d like to know the same thing….I could sync my contacts, but not the categories that I set up in my yahoo contacts….please advise
Syncing with Yahoo.
New iPad. It synced my contacts from Yahoo just fine on first try. Second time I hit sync it removed by contacts and now no matter what I do I can not get the contacts to sync from my Yahoo account. I have tried over two days now with no luck. Username and password for Yahoo is working fine.
Hey there Kevin. Well I’ll be the first to say that this is unusual! But I have seen stranger things. Here is what I would do:
1. Make sure your settings in iTunes for the contacts are set to “sync” so it’s not a one way sync which can erase things.
2. Try to do a hard reset of the iPad by holding down the home button and the on/off switch for about 10 seconds. Then slide the red slider to reset it.
3. If nothing works then do a complete reset of the iPad from within iTunes!!
Let me’ know if that helped.
I’ve tried everything after syncing for contacts through iTunes failed. I tried the w/o iTunes approach, only those contacts that I had added manually to my gmail account after the ipad purchase were added via Microsoft exchange (6 in total).
I have uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes. I’ve reset the iPad and also restored it through iTunes. I have the latest version of iTunes installed on my windows xp pc. I’ve also updated the iPad to the 3.2.2 software version. My windows address book is populated with 450 contacts and after I sync the iPad with iTunes through the windows address book option I get NO contacts on my iPad. iTunes says ‘synchronizing contacts’ – over in a jiffy and absolutely no contacts have been transferred to the iPad. Even trying to sync via iTunes for the gmail contacts is a failure.
I’ve read about how rolling back to an earlier version of iTunes might work but i’m in no mood to try that now. Is there a solution to this? Should it really be this hard to synchronize contacts onto an iPad?
Saleema. Sorry to gear about your headaches. No, it should not be this hard. Let me look around and see if I can offer up some better tips you can try to get this issue fixed. Ok?
Thanks. Much appreciated.
Saleema. I just did a new post with even more tips to help you with your issues….let me know if any of these help you
Why cannot I not sync my contacts from windows 7 hotmail to my ipad?
Hi Mark,
I think to do that you have to export your Hotmail contacts into the contacts on your computer and then sync with iTunes and make sure your iPad is set to grab the contacts….or have you tried this?
I am getting tired of not being able to acess anything flash/ adobe. How can this be resolved?
Hi Lee,
There is an app you can get that will let you access Flash sites. It is called SkyFire and it allows you to view Flash content right on your iPad or iPhone. I’ve used it multiple times now and it works great.
New ipad user – I have followed the “sync contacts” instructions for Yahoo contacts to the letter – nothing. Any suggestions?
Hi Stacy,
When you hook up your iPad to iTunes do you see the Yahoo! address book option and does it let you enter your Yahoo! ID and password? If it does let you do that, I have found that after I enter it and click OK, then I need to click “Sync” down in the lower right for it to actually start syncing the Contacts…
Hi Shane, thanks for your help. It does show me Yahoo as an option, I enter my user/password, I hit sync – the first time I did this it gave me the option to “apply” then sync, after that 1st time the “apply” option doesn’t come up now. It’ll say it’s contacting Yahoo, it’ll then say it’s sync’ing contacts, but nothing is on my ipad. I’ve rebooted my ipad – nothing. Soo frustrating!
I know…it seems so simple and yet it doesn’t work! I know a few folks that do sync with Yahoo so let me email them and find out if they ran into issues and i’ll reply back!
Thanks for checking into it Shane – I’ve tried everything I can think of – when all else fails, ask a teenager – they know more about computers and tech stuff than anyone these days! So I asked all 4 of my teenagers and they were all stumped – so you know it must be a hard issue! ha ha. I’ve contacted Apple (was told to follow the basic instructions again. Shocker – again that didn’t work) tried contacting Yahoo to see if they had any advice (no) so I am just at a loss – the idea of entering them all in manually sems a little daunting. Anything you find out, just let me know! Thanks!
Stacy,
Sorry to hear that did not work. I did a little more digging and I found this:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/contacts/basics/contactsbasics-11.html
Even though it says it’s for the iPod, don’t worry…it’s been working for the iPad as well!
IT WORKED!!!!! (happy dance happy dance) – sooo happy to have this resolved – THANK YOU!!!!!
See???? There is a reason TCGeek’s exists
I’m soooo glad this worked finally – I figured we would get this solved.
Shane, that was ALMOST helpful for me, but not quite. The website you refer to advises on iOS systems 4 and 5, but not on 6, which is the version I have. I still tried the CardDAV option in desperation but it didn’t work. Can you direct me to something equally helpful but using version 6 of iOS? Thanks
Great directions on syncing contacts from gmail to ipad
thanks
Thanks.
Thanks for the Google to IPAD contacts sync tip. Being absolutely new to Apple products, worked a trear. Keep up the good work….
Hi Shane,
I have two email accounts on my Pad and the Yahoo address keeps getting spammed using my contacts to send more spam. What I’d like to do is keep the account but delete the contacts so that they can’t be used by spammers. I haven’t been able to figure out a way to do this without deleting the entire Yahoo account. I figure my gmail is much safer.
Any ideas?
Thanks for your time.
How do I sync the contacts on my iPhone with my iPad? I have a PC and they are not all on my gmail. Thanks
I use OutlookReflex to share my outlook contacts to ipad
I have managed to sync my IPad with google contacts, but can I sync my IPad contacts with Itunes so in turn I can sync with Outlook. Can someone please help me with this
You may have noticed that Google Sync doesn’t allow you to keep your contacts organized in groups on your iPhone & iPad. Thankfully, there’s an app called “Contacts Sync With Groups For Gmail” that allows you to copy your iPad or iPhone contacts to Gmail or vice versa. Read about it at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/contacts-sync-with-groups/id454390333?ls=1&mt=8
I’m having trouble getting my iPad2 and Macbook contacts to sync with my Google contacts. I have it set up to sync on my Macbook (Address Book preferences – Sync with Google is checked and my info is filled in), but when I click the iSync “Sync Now” it spins for a few minutes but none of my Google contacts are added to my Address Book.
My goal here is really to get my Google Contacts onto my iPad (it would be nice to have them on the Macbook but I could live without that – can’t live without them on my iPad). I’ve added my Google account to my iPad. I have the option in System Settings to turn on syncing for Mail, Calendars, and Notes, all of which are working as expected. Is there a reason that Contacts isn’t an option here? I have iCloud turned OFF for Contacts, since that didn’t seem to be working, either.
I’m quite frustrated and could use some help!
I did the sync for my gmail but only a 52 of my 307 contacts came through to my ipad. How do i get the rest? Thanks!
You are awesome! Worked the first time great. Thanks much!!!
Hello,
I just recently purchased an iPAD 2 and am trying to sync contact and calendar with Outlook 2010. I believe it worked once a while ago but it is not now. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Hello,
Could you please tell me why, since syncing my Outlook 2003 POP3 email (Verizon) account to my new iPad2, that all my new incoming mail to that account arrives in duplicate? I also have a hotmail account that still works normally after syncing. How do I correct this situation? This account worked fine before I sync’d. Do I need to change any setting in Outlook or on my iPad, or do I need to do a reinstall of Outlook? Thanks.
I need to transfer my contacts from iphone 3gs to ipad. Is there any easy method please let me know
hi there, in my suggestion u should go for Mypdv site, it is so easy that u can transfer and even manage ur contacts easily.
sync contacts
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Hello, I have a PC and new ipad 2. I used my ipad to manually enter/update my yahoo contacts. They show up perfectly on the ipad. They will not sync to my ipod and my new iphone4s. In fact they will not even show up in my yahoo email when I log onto my email account via my computer. So it appears that they are somehow stuck only on my ipad in the “All Yahoo!” category. I have been reading suggestions on the internet for the past 2 days and have tried everything in multiple ways…. I’ve probably missed something but I’ve done it all multiple times and nothing has worked…. any suggestions? I’m completely frustrated. thanks!
Quick and easy fix for what appeared to be an intractable problem! Of course, you have to ask why on earth would Apple omit the Contacts from Google’s gmail? And then we can ask why Google has ignored this problem for years. So, thanks a bunch for your contribution.
The instructions have not worked whether I have chosen to sync from my iPhone-Itunes-iPad or by using the exchange server to iPad. Thoughts?
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I use windows mail , how do I sync that contact list to pad
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Good Evening – read thru the hint on adding gmail contacts but still doesn’t seem to work for me. I have an original ipad and have been frustrated with the doubling of email addresses when syncing but lived thru that. I have just purchased a new laptop and when I synced today all of my contacts vanished from the ipad (of course I didn’t have the contact button clicked on icloud). The only contacts I have on this new laptop are via google. I have tried everything for several hours today with no luck. I went thru the steps suggested above to no avail. Also, When I go to the info area on itunes it will not recognize my google information? Thoughts??
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