So you have a bunch of contacts on your iPhone and you want to get them into Outlook. They’re the kind of contacts that are located on your iPhone but aren’t part of any exchange accounts. iOS doesn’t allow you copy those contacts to a synced account, so your only option is to import them into Outlook. Here’s how to do just that:
[requirements]
[procedure]
[step 1] Open the Settings app on your device’s home screen.
[step 2] Tap the iCloud tab.
[step 3] Log in to iCloud using an existing Apple ID or MobileMe account, or create a new account from the screen.
[step 4] Ensure that Contacts are synced with iCloud by flicking the switch beside it to the “on” position.
[step 5] Download & install the iCloud Control Panel for Windows from Apple’s Website.
[step 6] Open the iCloud Control Panel and sign in with the Apple ID you created or used in [step 3].
[step 7] Ensure Outlook is closed and now place a check mark into the Contacts check box and click Apply.
[step 8] Close the iCloud Control Panel and open Outlook.
[step 9] A new Folder should have been created and added to your Outlook profile called iCloud with a single Contacts folder containing your imported iCloud contacts in it.
NOTE: If for any reason you close the iCloud folder in Outlook, you won’t be able to add it back since it is NOT a PST. I had to sign out of the iCloud Control Panel and select the DELETE option, then repeat from [step 6].
[step 10] Simply select all contacts in this folder and drag them to any other folder in Outlook.
That’s it.
–UPDATE–
Some of you have been saying that this procedure doesn’t work right on various other system configurations. I’ve tried running the above steps on Windows 7 x64 and Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007. Both behave identically in the fact that when the iCloud Control Panel is setup to sync JUST CONTACTS, an APLZOD file gets mounted in Outlook which contains your iCloud contacts as shown below:
Outlook 2007:
In the Outlook Folder list it looks like this:
Any Contact you add to this folder will automatically be added to your iCloud. So if you’re wanting to put Outlook contacts on your phone, this is how you can do it…simply copy contacts from your Outlook Contacts folder to the iCloud Contacts folder.
If you’re wanting to import iCloud contacts to Outlook, simply copy contacts from the iCloud Contacts folder to your Outlook Contacts folder.
Troubleshooting:
If you’re getting errors or no contacts are downloading from iCloud and you know you have contacts there, follow these steps:
[trb 1] On your iPad or iPhone go to contacts and select the iCloud contact group. Ensure that you have contacts in this group. If none exist there, then this is why none get imported to Outlook.
[trb 2] Try un-checking the Outlook checkbox in the iCloud control panel and click Apply. This will undo the sync between outlook and iCloud control panel. Then click sign out. Then try the procedure above again from [step 1] from the beginning.
Does this actually copy iCloud contacts to Outlook, or is the iCloud listing visible in Outlook but not actually in a file in Outlook?
Recently I added three new contacts from emails sent to me. These appear to be in Outlook but not in iCloud. I would like these to be in both Outlook (not just visible in Outlook) and iCloud.
It creates a randomly named file in your AppData\Local directory (in Windows 7):\AppData\Local\SOMERANDOMNUMBER-BA2C-SOMERANDOMNUMBER.aplzod
C:\Users\
It then adds this file as a Data file to your current Outlook profile (you can see it by modifying your account settings and clicking on the Data Files tab).
Outlook understands this file to be just like a PST named iCloud with a single Contacts folder within. That contacts folder will have all of your iCloud contacts and you can then drag and drop any or all of them to your Outlook Mailbox or Personal Folders.
David,
Thanks for posting instructions for downloading contacts from iphone/icloud to Outlook. I am unable to duplicate your steps. I’m good until step 7, but I cannot get a screen on my PC in iCloud that looks like your image directly beneath the step 7 instruction. Thus, I cannot locate how to check the Contact box to sync with Outlook on my PC. When I log into icloud on my PC I do not see the screen you have posted beneath your step 7. I am using a PC with Internet explorer version 9, and a Windows Vista: Home Premium platform. Any thoughts?
Doug,
Did you install the Apple iCloud Control panel for windows?
Download here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455
The only way to get the screenshot in [step 7] is to navigate to Start->Control Panel->iCloud Control Panel. But that’s only going to work if you’ve installed the iCloud Control Panel in the first place…see [step 6].
If you have iCloud Control Panel already installed and you still can’t get to the apple ID login screen, try uninstalling it and re-installing it from Add/Remove Programs.
Hope that helps,
David
Hallo David,
I’m trying to do your procedure but before arriving to step 7, I got a pull-up window stated “Outlook setup for iCloud” —> “Upload all your contacts to iCloud” or Upload some contacts to iCloud” ???
And this is not what I want to do, I want to upload the iCloud contacts to Outlook and not reverse.
Thanks in advance for helping me out.
Greetings, Jelle
Hi Jelle,
Good point, I have not seen this particular message, but the whole point of iCloud Sync for Windows is to SYNC the contacts between outlook and icloud. Do you currently have any contacts in Outlook? In my case it the Icloud for windows tool did not attempt to sync with any outlook contacts, it simply imported the contacts to a separate contacts folder called icloud in office 2010.
I would try clicking “upload some contacts” and see what happens (of course you’ll want to make a backup first). That’s all I can suggest. Good luck.
Me, too. I don’t want to upload to icloud. Their already there. I want to download them into Outlook and it’s not giving me a download option?
I had relatively little trouble accomplishing this–thanks!–but I wound up with a single Contacts directory on my Touch (current version and OS) in place of my ten or twelve contact categories. Is there a way to repair that? (I don’t mind starting over, if that’s involved.)
While I’m at it, here’s my larger question. I use miCal, which connects with the Apple Calendar app. I think that remnants from my Palm days are still haunting the calendar: birthdays. Some of them need alteration and some deletion, but neither is possible in the Touch itself, so I thought I could clean things up in Outlook and then re-import everything. As long as I’m whining, why wouldn’t Outlook make a provision for more information about families than just Spouse, such as spouse’s birthday, children’s names and birthdays, and the like, or is there a workaround for that? I only bought Outlook for this task and have no real familiarity with it.
Sorry to go on. Any wisdom about any of this will be appreciated. I’d settle for returning to pre-Cloud status if that’s even possible. Thanks.
I want to transfer my Outlook contacts to my iPad using iCloud. How do I accomplish this? I understand the iPad to Outlook on PC but not the reverse.
Thank you,
Nieta
Nieta,
You’ll need a Gmail account for this….I suggest signing up for a free new one just for this transaction (to avoid duplicate contacts).
[step 1] Export your Outlook contacts to a CSV file.
[step 2] Log into your Gmail account, click Contacts then Import Contacts…
[step 3] Specify the file you generated in [step 1] and click Import. You should now have a Gmail account with your Outlook contacts.
[step 4] On your iPad, click Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
[step 5] Click Add Account->Exchange
[step 6] Enter the Email address for the free account you setup, leave the domain field blank, enter the email address again as the username and the gmail account password as your password, type IMPORTED for the description. Then click Next.
[step 7] Enter m.google.com as the Server. Click Next.
[step 8] Turn only Contacts->ON, you can leave Mail and Calendar OFF. Click Save.
[step 9] On iPad click the main button to go to the Home screen and then click Contacts. You’ll now see your imported contacts from the Gmail account in a separate Contact group named IMPORTED.
Any contacts you add to the gmail account will automatically appear on your iPad as long as you leave that account setup.
Hope it helps,
David
this did not work for me – win 7 and outlook 2007 – icloud is set right, all contacts on cloud but will not display in Outlook. Bummer.
the thing is though I got really lucky – for some reason Outlook 7 died Friday night – it took all my contacts and the contacts in the phone with it – luckily I had set up icloud in October so I have a backup on icloud – and contacts are back on the phone, but not in Outlook and I am scared to ever sync again!
Hi Jeffrey,
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll run through the procedure with Win7 and Office 2007 and see if anything different happens. I’ve got lots of backups of my contacts so it’s no big deal…i’ll update the post with what I find in the next few days.
Cheers,
David
THANKS DAVID – WOULD LOVE TO HAVE MY CONTACTS BACK!
I downloaded Outlook 10, same thing – no contacts – even repaired icloud in control panel and reset, same thing, no contacts – but they are at icloud.com fine (and on the phone)
hey sorry hot mess me again – I followed your suggestion about signing out and deleting, then signing in again as I had no icloud folder in Outlook, and that did it!
No problem. I appreciate you posting it. Hopefully it’ll help someone else. I know that the iCloud control panel is a bit buggy…I’ve received lots of emails from others stating that it doesn’t work sometimes.
Thanks again for your update.
Thanks, had a very similar problem and signing out and deleting fixed it. Wish I found this 6 hours ago…waste of an afternoon.
I installed iCloud on desktop PC running Outlook 2007 using your instructions and it went fine. Then I installed iCloud on my laptop, which I forgot was running Outlook 2003, and it obviously didn’t take because iCloud does not support older than 2007.
I upgraded the laptop outlook to 2007, but it was too late as some file somewhere had been corrupted. There was no Icloud folder in my contacts; in fact there were no contacts at all. All the signing in and out, checking and unchecking in the world didn’t make a difference. I even reinstalled iCloud…no improvement.
signing out and deleting fixed everything. I now have an iCloud folder in contacts showing the same content as my PC.
You should post on the Apple forum…I read everything and there are alot of dead ending threads…Apple has not provided an answer.
I’d gladly post the instructions there…You got a link for me on where I should put it?
I am having a similar problem as some of your other posters. I am trying to get the iCloud Control Panel to set up syncing contacts and calendar between my Outlook 2010 (32 bit)and iCloud. I am running Win7 64 bit. When I run the control panel to sync contacts and calendar, the process stops near the end and kicks out an error message “Your setup couldn’t be started because of an unexpected error.” I can see, when logging in icloud.com, that the contacts and calendar are transferred to iCloud. When I open Outlook it does not show any iCloud calender or contacts choices on the left side of the navigation pane when either contacts or calendar is chosen.
The problem seems to be that the process does not create a data store in Outlook of the type that ends in .aplzod
Do you have any ideas David on how to get this data store created?
John,
Unfortunately I don’t know how to add the applzod file to outlook. I guess you could search your hard disk for it and try adding it manually from within outlook. I would try setting up the iCloud control panel to sync just your contacts only and see if that works by itself first.
Then try adding calendar sync. I have not personally tried the calendar sync option with iCloud control panel.
I had iCloud installed on Outlook 2010 and my 3gs with IOS5. All of my contact lists were uploaded to my phone. When IOS5.2 came out a few weeks ago, it wreaked havoc on my Outlook and iTunes, so I had to back out and restore the previous version of IOS5. I turned off iCloud on Outlook because I could no longer access the contact lists on the icloud secton in Outlook 2010. Now I have an issue where I’ve screwed up one of my contact lists (long story,but it involves Publisher 2010), so I would like to restore the still good contact list on m iPhone back into Outlook. All of the contact records are still on Outlook, but they are all missing the email address – which is still on the iCloud records. I need to merge the two. I followed the steps above, but the only option that I get is to upload FROM Outlook to the iCloud, not the other way around. If I do that then I am assuming that I will lose all of the emails address that I’m trying to restore, since the email field in the from file (Outlook) is blank. I’m using Win 7 Pro 64 bit, Outlook 2010. I’ve managed to get around this by reseting up icloud, telling it to NOT upload by unchecking the boxes for all contact lists and tasks and calendar and pointing to the icloud contact list to send my emails, so it downloaded from icloud only – but I know have TWO versions of the contact list in outlook. One is the outlook version without the email addresses and one is the icloud version with the email adddresses. I renamed the icloud version so that when I select which files to send to I can tell which one is the icloud version. But I sure would like to be able to get ONE version that is synced. I hope that I didn’t lose you in all of this attempt to explain my issue!
In my experience with iCloud control panel for windows, when working and properly integrated with windows, you’ll just see a folder called iCloud with a single Contacts folder in it. It doesn’t actually synchronize with your outlook contacts after installing the iCloud control panel…the only thing that could be doing that is iTunes.
When you’re using the iCloud Control Panel for Windows, that iCloud->Contacts folder in outlook is always in sync with your iPhone/iPad. That means when you create a new contact in the iCloud contact group on your iPhone, it’ll show up in iCloud->Contacts in Outlook. Conversely when you copy a contact to the iCloud->Contacts folder in Outlook, it’ll appear on your iPhone in the iCloud Contacts group.
I know this can get confusing especially with all the mentions of iCloud and contacts folders. Hope that helps.
in my outlook address box the contacts list is now empty – everything is in icloud and it is sharing well with my iphone and ipad BUT when Im sending email from my pc, it is not autimpatically picking up the contact addresses and adding them as I type in the names.
If I get an email from someone new, I can select to save that contact – in my contacts folder – not my icloud contacts
the whole system is v messy – basically I want to get all my contacts out of icloud and back into outlook contacts then turn off the icloud contact sharing account all together
can you help me please
The iCloud control panel does not move contacts from outlook. You must have done that yourself somehow. All the iCloud control panel does is mount a folder in the “Folder List” in Outlook with one Contacts folder that contains all of your iCloud contacts in it. You can select all of these contacts and copy them anywhere in Outlook (that is any other folder in your Folder list – including your default contacts folder). Just be careful when dragging and dropping contacts. You’re likely moving them when you drag and drop. The old CTRL+A (Select all), CTRL+C (Copy) and CTRL+V (works best) if you just want to copy your iCloud contacts back to your default outlook contacts folder.
You ARE THE BOMB , THANKS!!!
TNX a billion! A really good guide!!!!
Hi, I have tried following you steps to sync contacts and calendars to outlook, but I cant seem to get it to work. Mail syncs fine, but i cant get contacts and calendars to sync
Hi Daniel,
The article doesn’t explain how to sync your contacts to outlook, it simply explains how to get your icloud contacts into Outlook (but not your default contacts folder) and keep them synced once they are there. The problem with the iCloud sync tool from Apple is that it doesn’t do anything with your existing Outlook contacts. It simply creates a folder in the Outlook Folder list (click it to expand all your outlook folders) called iCloud, then to make matters more confusing, it creates a folder called Contacts within the iCloud folder. This folder contains all of your iCloud contacts and acts like a synced extension of your iCloud contacts. Copy contacts to this (iCloud->Contacts) folder from your default Outlook contacts folder, and the contacts will appear on your iPhone/iPad and vice versa.
Hope that helps,
David
Great posting! It solved my problem.
Also very well explained
Hi, after reading all of the above I’m the only one with the following problem.
After running the iCloud installer and select all sync options (Email, Contacts, etc) I pressed Apply, just like in “Step [7]” iCloud started configuring BUT instead I received and error message telling me something about the process was incomplete, I selected retry and the process was completed.
My ME account was added to Outlook, the Photo Stream, favorites Sync works fine, But no contact or Calendar sync with Outlook. Also I don´t see the Icloud folder with the contact subfolder.
I tried everything like: Uninstalling (Outlook, iCloud & Itunes) and installing everything again, deselect the contact option on iCloud and select it again, etc, etc.
Any ideas?????
Running on Windows 7 64 bit, Outlook 2007.
Andres