How to Sync iPhone With Yahoo and Google Contacts

Sync your contacts and deal with duplicates

What to Know

  • Sync Google Contacts to iPhone by going to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Gmail and toggling Contacts to On.
  • Sync Yahoo Contacts to iPhone by going to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Yahoo and toggling Contacts to On.
  • To resolve duplicate contacts in Gmail, select Contacts and tap Duplicates. For Yahoo, select Contacts > Fix Duplicate Contacts.

Apple built features into the iOS that make it easy to automatically sync contacts between the iPhone, Google Contacts, and Yahoo Contacts. Set it up one time, and contacts sync automatically in the future.

Sync Google Contacts to iPhone

Sometimes contact lists are stored in different locations such as a computer's address book and an online account from Google or Yahoo. Using iCloud and other web-based syncing technologies, the settings you need to sync your address books all exist on your iPhone.

To sync Google Contacts to your iPhone, make sure your Gmail account is set up on your iPhone. After you've done that, or if you already had it set up, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Settings app on the iPhone Home screen.

  2. Scroll to Passwords & Accounts.

  3. Tap Gmail.

  4. Turn on the Contacts toggle switch.

    Passwords & Accounts, Gmail, Contacts toggle ON
  5. You may see a message that says Turning on Contacts. When it disappears, syncing is set up.

Any addresses you add to Google Contacts sync to your iPhone. And, changes you make to those contacts on your iPhone automatically sync to your Google Contacts account. Syncing of changes doesn't happen instantly, but changes show up in both locations in a minute or two.

If you move the Contacts toggle switch to the Off/white position, your Google Contacts are removed from your iPhone, but any changes to contact details that were made and synced to your Google account are saved.

Sync Yahoo Contacts to iPhone

Syncing your Yahoo Contacts to your iPhone requires first setting up your Yahoo email account on your iPhone. After you've done that, follow these steps to set up syncing:

  1. Open the Settings app on the iPhone.

  2. Scroll to Passwords & Accounts.

  3. Tap Yahoo.

  4. Turn on the Contacts toggle switch.

    Passwords & Accounts, Yahoo!, Contacts toggle to ON
  5. You may be asked to enter the password for your Yahoo account.

  6. You may see a message that says Turning on Contacts. With that done, syncing between the two accounts is set up.

Any addresses you add to your Yahoo Contacts or changes you make to existing contacts are automatically added to your iPhone. Changes aren't synced instantly, but you should see changes show up in a few minutes.

To turn off syncing, move the Contacts toggle switch to Off/white. This deletes your Yahoo contacts from your iPhone, but any changes you made while contacts were synced are saved in your Yahoo account.

Resolve Conflicts When Syncing Contact Information

In some circumstances, there are sync conflicts or duplicate address book entries. These arise when there are two versions of the same contact entry, and Google Contacts and Yahoo Contacts aren't sure which is correct.

Resolve Duplicate Contacts in Google Contacts

  1. Go to the menu icon located in the upper-right corner of Gmail, then choose Contacts.

    Contacts icon in Gmail
  2. Select Duplicates to determine if there are any duplicate contacts.

    Gmail duplicate contacts screen showing no duplicates
  3. If you have duplicates, select Dismiss to skip it or Merge to combine the contacts.

  4. Repeat this process for all duplicates until none are left.

Resolve Duplicate Contacts in Yahoo Contacts

  1. Go to Yahoo Contacts.

    Yahoo! contacts
  2. Log in with your Yahoo account if prompted to do so.

  3. Select Fix Duplicate Contacts.

    Fix Duplicate Contacts button on Yahoo!
  4. Yahoo Contacts displays the duplicate contacts in your address book (if any). It also lists where the duplicates are exact (have all the same information) or are similar (same name, but different data).

  5. Choose Merge All EXACT. Or, to or review each duplicate, select it and decide what you want to merge.

  6. Repeat this process for all the duplicates until none are left.

    Yahoo duplicates screen showing no duplicates.
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