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.
worked like a charm for me from my new iphone!!! this ended up being the only way I could FINALLY!
“export”my contacts from my iphone to my outlook 2010 on my laptop
this worked slicker than deer guts on a door knob!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks!!!!
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
Thank you SO MUCH!
My hard drive died so I only had my extensive contacts list on my iphone and could not work out how to get them back. This worked so well
Very helpful indeed, many thanks for your efforts
Super!!! Thanks a lot
hello when using icloud control panel to send my contacts to outlook im getting this message ‘your setup couldnt be started because of an unexpectecd error’
im using outlook 2010 64 bit
thx for helping
I would try:
1. close outlook.
2. click start->control panel->icloud and sign out.
3. uninstall icloud control panel.
4. install icloud control panel again (make sure it is the latest version).
5. start outlook and try again.
David
Is there an iCloud control panel that will work in Windows XP
iCloud control panel should work on windows 7 and XP
Thanks David for your quick response. Sad to say the iCloud Control Panel will only work on Windows VISTA and later versions. XP is NOT SUPPORTED.
Carl,
Thanks for clarifying. Honestly, I had never tried it on XP, and just assumed that it would work…so that’s good to know and thanks for the update.
David
Thanks a lot, it worked.
Rajan
So what you are saying is that it is impossible to SYNCH the contact folder in Outlook 2010 64 bit with iCloud or vice versa… what on earth is the use of that?
I did all the above and my Outlook Contacts Folder was emptied into the iCloud Contact Folder that magically appeared. So now I have an empty Outlook Contacts folder. Similar with the Calendar application, if I want stuff to appear in iCloud so it is available on iPad and iPhone then it has to be added in iCloud since Outlook Calendar sullenly refuses to transfer stuff to iClould after the first transfer via the Control Panel.
So it is no good when using Outlook to generate business activity which what it is supposed to be there for as activities and other diary entries default to the Outlook Calender NOT the iCloud calendar of course – unless there is a way to make Outlook default to iCloud Contacts and Calendar – is there…??????
Surely someone has told Apple about this?
Surely I’m not the only Outlook user using 64 bit (which all new machines come built as) who finds themselves inconvenienced like this?
Rex,
You are correct about there not being a way to sync the default outlook contacts folder with the iCloud control panel. Your contacts should not have been automatically removed from the default outlook contacts folder simply by installing the iCloud control panel. This did not happen in any of my test cases.
There is a valid reason the iCloud control panel does not sync your default outlook contacts:
If you are using exchange, your iPhone or iPad can sync your default contacts via active sync…so you wouldn’t want iCloud to interfere with that or create duplicates.
If you want continuous synced contacts between your email and phone, try gmail.
my outlook 2007 on my pc did remove all my pst files default contacts folder and created an icloud …contacts in icloud folder. Problem is: i had 3 contact groups in OUtlook…one for xmas card 2009, xmas card 2010, and main contact folder. When i went to the cloud with contacts it added all of contact groups…so 70 some contacts are now in triplicate. I tried deleting the i cloud xmas card 2009 contact group from the outlook list…the list title was gone but not the contacts..still all there. Then i went to tools…address book…chose xmas card 2009 list from drop down and selected all in the group and deleted them. In tools.address book.now xmas card 2009 appears empty. BUT i can still search in the address search field in outlook and the 3 new icloud contacts are there for everyone originally in my xmas card groups…It’s a mess…..can i turn off “contact to icloud” on my pc and restore my contacts with my old blackberry destop manager? And then can i icloud my iphone and ipad….and update outlook by connecting either ipad/iphone direct to the computer to update my contacts…thus keeping them in the .pst file format??? It’s Easter and i’m freaking out
Sarah,
Before you do anything, duplicate contacts in the address book is an issue that is easily resolved and it has nothing or little to do with the iCloud control panel. By default the iCloud control panel is added to the address book and so you may see duplicate contacts because some of the contacts on your iPhone already exist in outlook. To resolve this issue, please do the following:
1. Go to outlook and open your address book.
2. In the address book click Tools->Options.
3. In the Addressing Dialog notice how several sources for addresses are listed! You can select the custom radio button here and add or remove any sources you’d like here. Additionally you can also select the order of preference for any source…so if your iCloud contacts folder contains duplicates, just remove it from this list…boom done.
Other than that, you are the second person to mention that after installing iCloud control panel, contacts from the default contacts folder were automatically moved to the iCloud contacts folder. In my testing this has not been the case, but there could be a new version of iCloud contacts that does this that has been released since I’ve done my tutorial.
Long story short, to get back to where you left off, will be a somewhat complicated procedure. First off, you’ll need to make sure that your default contacts folder has all of your contacts (still or again by copying them back from the iCloud contacts folder). Additionally you’ll want to make sure you have all of your contact groups in the default outlook contacts folder…i.e. please check to make sure that outlook still contains all of your contact items and contact groups (the address book pulls from default contact folders in outlook). When you’ve verified all that:
1. Go to control panel and double click the iCloud control panel icon there…it may take a minute to come up.
2. Uncheck the box next to contacts and click Apply.
3. Click the Sign out button.
4. Uninstall iCloud control panel from Add/Remove programs.
Now you should be back where you were before the iCloud control panel was installed. Your address book should no longer have the iCloud source so you will probably no longer see duplicates. If you do, then your default contacts folder had those duplicates or you are including another contact source in your address book that is causing this. See my instructions for cleaning up the address book above.
Cheers,
David
Hi David
Google lead me to your info on how to sync contacts from iPad/iCloud to outlook. I followed the steps to upload this to my new laptop keeping fingers and toes crossed as all other backups had died with the old computer. For a second I was thrilled – all contacts appeared in outlook. When I copied them from the iCloud folder in outlook as suggested the copying seemed to go fine and the all contacts disappeared. they are no longer in iCloud neither can I find them on my computer! Devasted!! Can you help??
P.S. also since i copied the files, outlook will no longer send/receive on my laptop – have tried resetting mail account to no avail
Hmm. Well if they were present but now are not, perhaps they did copy but somehow now you are not authenticating with the iCloud properly. Try signing out and back in.
Hi David,
Thank you for the continued postings! I read through all of them. Mostly seems pretty straight forward re: copying icloud contacts back into the outlook contacts file so that all contacts appear on icloud devices (e.g. iPad, on servers in the icloud itself, in the icloud folder on the PC) AND on PC devices (e.g. in the main outlook folder, on devices synced with it such as blackberries). But once this is done statically (i.e. one shot deal), how do you maintain synchronization?
In other words, it is easy to see how adding or deleting a contact(s) from any icloud device will be synchronized with other iPad devices. And similarly, it is easy to how contact(s) among “PC devices” can remain in sync. But do you have any recommendations of how to maintain synchronization between the two disparate systems (iCloud and PC devices)? It seems that a tedious process is to make note of every change and manually move over that change from one system to another. On the other extreme would be to do a mass copy of the contact DBs in both systems back and forth, but I fear that this would create mass duplication of contacts.
Recommendation(s) appreciated. Final question: to your knowledge, does all of the same apply to handling calendar events as well?
Thanks,
Bob
Hi Bob,
Contacts and keeping them organized and in sync can get complicated fast and iCloud + iCloud sync isn’t necessarily your answer.
The iCloud control panel is simply one way to get contacts from your computer (outlook) to your mobile device (iPhone or iPad) but you are correct, that it does not keep synching contacts with your default outlook contacts folder. Only the iCloud contacts folder in outlook is kept in sync. This is a problem if you’re expecting new contacts to be available everywhere once you create them in your default outlook contacts folder.
The question you want to ask yourself is, where do you create your contacts most often? If the answer is directly on your mobile device, then Gmail may be the answer. If the answer is Outlook, then we’ll need to get more creative. There is at the moment no utility from Apple or Google that will sync outlook contacts to your mobile device over the air continuously…even blackberry needs the desktop manager for this.
One option if Outlook is your primary contact creating platform is Contact Sync http://www.pppindia.com/contacts-sync/ (free software I used years ago). This may work for you, but you’ll need to do some research into how it works and if it can work for you.
If you create lots of contacts on your mobile device and just want to have them synced amongst other devices, then gmail or iCloud may be your best bet.
Gmail accounts can be added to your iPhone and iPad and Blackberry device using an exchange (or activesync) profile (see my tutorial on that here: http://davidvielmetter.com/tricks/howto-sync-gmail-contacts-and-calendar-on-the-iphone-or-ipod-touch/) and once added, any contact or calendar event added from:
1. your iPhone or
2. your iPad or
3. your Blackberry or
4. your Gmail or GCalendar account
will be available immediately on all devices.
Hope that helps,
David