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Sync Mac contacts with Outlook

Best methods to sync iCloud contacts with Outlook for Mac

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SyncMate

4.5 Rank based on 795+ users, Reviews(476)

Of course, you can sync Outlook contacts with iPhone or your Mac computer. It doesn’t have to be a complicated process either since there are plenty of programs out there that can help you do so. There's a little secret to buying an Apple computer, one that you may not learn until it's too late: Apple actually wants you to use exclusively their own services, not any similar programs developed by third parties.

Sure, there are Google and other online services that enable data access via a web interface. However, using them is not always convenient and reliable. This is why this article focuses on software solutions as an alternative to syncing Outlook for Mac. They’re simpler, more user friendly, and take much of the complications out of syncing two different kinds of operating systems. Below you’ll find our reviews of the best Outlook sync software out there.


1. How to sync your Outlook contacts with Mac using SyncMate

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Requirements: macOS 10.13+. 60.62MB free space. Version 8.7.527. (5 Dec, 2023). 4.5 Rank based on 795+ users, Reviews(476)
Category: Utilities

Synchronizing Outlook and Mac is quite straightforward, difficulties arise when we talk about automatic synchronization - simply because there is no such thing.

Outlook sync

This is when you need SyncMate, it allows synchronizing not only Address Book, but also other vital data in your Outlook online account. You need to setup SyncMate just once and all further syncing sessions happen in the background, you do not even need to be in the picture!

SyncMate is a universal solution for syncing Mac with various devices and online accounts. You can easily synchronize any data with your online storage accounts, MTP, Mounted, Android, and iOS devices, as well as Microsoft services.

Due to macOS limitations, SyncMate only syncs with online Outlook accounts; sync with desktop Outlook app for Mac is not supported at this time.

We strongly recommend you to do a backup before your first synchronization.

  1. Download and install SyncMate on your Mac. Once the installation is complete, launch the application.
  2. In the main window displayed in the left pane click ‘Add New’ link. Wizard will assist you, make sure to click Microsoft Services button to choose Outlook.
  3. sync Outlook with Android

  4. Log in using your credentials.
  5. Specify synchronization parameters.
  6. Click ‘Sync’.

Outlook for Mac

SyncMate provides flexible settings for synchronization. Thanks to autosync, backup Mac, and other useful options all the data you need is always up to date.

SyncMac

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Mac to Android
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macOS 10.15+
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Get SyncMate for Mac
Try out Free Edition

2. Use Apple Mail to transfer Outlook contacts to Mac

Are your iCloud contacts not syncing to Mac, automatically? So, you’d like to transfer your contacts on Apple Mail to your Microsoft Outlook account on your Mac? It seems like a big ask, right? Here, we’ll explain how to do so using Apple Mail and Outlook for Mac, both on your Mac computer. This means manually transferring your contacts using a .VCF file. For this method, you’ll need to have Outlook downloaded onto your Mac computer.

Here’s how to sync iCloud contacts with Outlook for Mac:

  1. On your Mac computer, create a file called “Outlook Contacts” or whatever you’d like.
  2. Assuming you already have Outlook for Mac downloaded onto your computer, open Outlook and select “People”.
  3. Select the contacts you’d like to transfer or just press “command” + “shift” to select them all.
  4. Drag these contacts into the folder you made in the first step. They will then be stored in as VCF.
  5. Now, we need to import these contacts into a file format Mac can work with.
  6. Open “Contacts” on your Mac and simultaneously open the “Outlook contacts” folder you created at the beginning of this process.
  7. Select all of your contacts by pressing “command” + “A”.
  8. Drag these files into the macOS Contacts app to sync Mac contacts with Outlook and Google.
  9. The newly imported contacts should now appear on your Mac contact list!

As you can see, this process involves a lot of steps and time, but if you’re a stickler for doing things the old way, it works!

3. Sync your Outlook contacts to Mac Address Book manually

Are your Outlook contacts not syncing with your iPhone? Well, that’s normal. If you’d like to transfer and sync your Apple Mail contacts with your Outlook address book on your Microsoft device, there is a way to manually do so. You will be converting your Apple Mail contacts to Outlook using the .CSV file format. This is not a simple process, which is why we firmly believe that downloading an application such as SyncMate is your best bet when syncing between these two programs.

Here’s how to sync Outlook contacts with iPhone:

On your Windows/PC device:

  1. First, you’ll need to save and export your contacts in the .CSV file format on Outlook. You can do so by opening Outlook, clicking on “File” -> “Open & Export”.
  2. Next, you’ll need to click on the “Import/Export” option, then choose “Export to a file” on the prompt that follows.
  3. Select the .CSV or comma separated values format, then click “next” in the following prompts, and save this file onto your Google Drive or iCloud.

On your Mac device:

  1. Open the “Contacts” application on your Mac computer.
  2. Select “File” from the menu above and choose “Import”.
  3. Download the .CSV file that you previously saved onto your Mac computer and double-click it.
  4. Check “Ignore first card” at the bottom of the prompt to ignore the headers in your file.
  5. Ensure that all of your contacts are in the correct format. IE, your phone numbers are in the appropriate space, your email addresses are in the appropriate space, etc, and click “OK”.
  6. You should be set!

As you can see, this process is not a simple one, especially if you’re not an experienced computer user. This is why we recommend an application to assist you with such a task.

4. How to automatically sync Google contacts with Outlook

Microsoft’s Outlook and Google’s Contacts have separate address books, which means that when you update one app, the other app is not updated at the same time. There are some programs that can assist you with this task, but here’s how to do so manually.

  1. First, sign into Gmail on your internet browser and click on the “Contacts” link under the top-left “Gmail” logo.
  2. Once you’re on this page, go to the “More” option on the menu, and select “Export contacts”
  3. A “save as” dialog box should pop up, asking you to name this file and save in the .CSV format. Choose a file name and a location and press “save”.
  4. If you’d like, once your file has been saved, you can double-click it to open it up in Excel or a spreadsheet application. This is for if you’d like to add or delete contacts, organize them, make them more consistent, etc.
  5. Now, let’s import this file into Outlook.
  6. In Outlook, click the “File” -> “Open/Export” tab. From there, click on “Import/Export”.
  7. Next, a new window will appear. Select the “Import from another file” option in this window, then choose the format. In our case, it will be: Comma Separated Values, or CSV format.
  8. Next, you’ll be prompted to select a file to import, so click “Browse”, and then find and choose your file wherever you saved it and click “Import”.
  9. You’ll then be asked to choose a destination for this file. Select the “Contacts” folder and click “Next”.
  10. You’ll then be prompted as to whether or not you’d like to customize. For our purposes, just skip this and click “next”.
  11. Click “Finish”, and you should be good to go!

This process definitely isn’t an “automatic” one — it takes some time and brainpower to sync your Google contacts with Outlook, but if you follow the steps above, you can do so, for free!

5. Try Syncios to sync Outlook contacts with iPhone

Syncios is a downloadable application for your computer that allows you to easily and quickly transfer your Outlook contacts with those on your iPhone device. You can also utilize your Google Drive to sync your Google contacts with Outlook, via this program.

Syncios Data Transfer


Before you begin using Syncios, make sure to back up your Outlook .pst file. You’ll also need to have the iCloud control panel installed on your Windows computer.

  1. Run iCloud on your PC and sign in with your Apple user ID and password.
  2. Copy the default .pst file (from Outlook) and then set iCloud pst as your new default format.
  3. A menu with different programs on which your contacts are saved will pop up. Choose the “Contacts with Outlook” option, and click “Apply”.
  4. On your iPhone, go to Settings -> iCloud. Sign into your account and then turn on Contacts to enable the syncing process with Outlook.

The method described above utilizes iCloud to sync your contacts between your two devices. Syncios does allow a couple of different methods to do so, too, such as utilizing iTunes or Microsoft Exchange. We believe that the method described above is the most efficient, though.

6. FAQ

Because you want all your devices to be up to date regarding any personal or business information. And rather than just doing it manually across all your devices, you can use SyncMate to keep everything up to date between all your accounts or devices. It’s a time-saving software that will make syncing data a walk in the park.
There is a difference between the two operations, yes. While data transfer only refers to moving data from one place to another and from one device to another, the synchronization process allows you to equally update each device with the same amount of information and organization of files, contacts, notes, and media files. So it’s like cloning your Mac on your smartphone.
You can use SyncMate with as many devices and accounts as you see fit. There is no limitation in place when it comes to syncing Mac OS X through this iOS sync Mac tool. It gives you the possibility of having the same data and information and all your devices, Android, or iOS.
The app enables you to synchronize Mac with other accounts and devices over several means of communication. You can use Wi-Fi while online or Bluetooth and USB when offline to share Outlook calendar Mac.

As you can see, there are a plethora of different ways to sync Outlook contacts with your Apple contacts and vice versa. Some are much more time-consuming and difficult than others. Mac’s content manager is great for managing your contacts between your Apple devices, but not so good at doing so with Microsoft/Windows devices. This is why we recommend downloading an application such as SyncMate. Such a program will allow you to sync contacts between devices with just a few clicks, rather than going through 10+ steps to do so. If you’re all about saving money, though, the methods above should prove useful!

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