How to Move Verizon Backup Assistant Contacts to Gmail

7-6-13

I have been wondering how to do this for some time now – brooding over it actually – and today I figured it out. Way easier than I had anticipated, given my previous attempts last year online. I wanted to share the process.

You are approximately 10 minutes from contact freedom!

Click on the images to open them full size in a new tab.

Log in to your wireless account at www.verizonwireless.com.
Scroll down until you see something like this. If you are the primary account holder, click “Manage my Device.” If not, skip to step 3.
Click Manage My Contacts
If prompted, sync your Backup Assistant contacts to the cloud. You will have the option to add in contacts from other email accounts. When it gives you the option, click that you are done setting up.
Next you will see your Verizon Contacts page. Click “Select All” or manually select the contacts you want exported.
Then click the Gear icon for the dropdown settings menu and select “Export Contact.”
This popup will appear. Select “Export my contacts to an email service…” Then click “Export.”
Another popup will appear asking you to name the file you are saving & pick a destination. Then click “Save.”
Next, log in to your Gmail email account.
Choose Contacts from the Gmail dropdown menu on the upper left.
In the center of the page, click the “More” dropdown menu and select “Import.”
When prompted, choose the file you saved earlier and click “Import.”
All of your contacts in the saved file will be imported to your Gmail account under a new label. You can rename this label by clicking on the label name in the list of labels on the left, then choosing “Rename Label” under the More dropdown menu.
You may be prompted to merge duplicate files automatically. If not, you may do this from the More dropdown menu. If you do not like how the files were imported or want to undo them for any reason, select “Restore Contacts”

Your Verizon Backup Assistant contacts will now be available in your Gmail account and any synced Android device. A copy will remain with Verizon but your contacts are now yours. Congrats!

41 thoughts on “How to Move Verizon Backup Assistant Contacts to Gmail”

Do you know what the arrows going left and right under the contact means?

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writingtowardshappy on September 9, 2013 at 11:20 am said:

I’m not sure. I am trying to log in to my account to see but it’s not letting me right now.

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William f. Greene on January 4, 2014 at 4:14 pm said:

I have a simple Samsung Verizon cell phone, NOT a smart phone. No arrows show. I want to get my Verizon email contacts into my new gmail account, and can’t understand any gmail instructions. JollyBill3@gmail.com

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Thank you sooo very much. These are the best instructions I have ever followed. You did a super job!

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writingtowardshappy on March 20, 2014 at 10:15 pm said:

You’re welcome! I’m glad they helped.

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After spending 2 hours trying to do this, I came across your page. What a godsend! Thanks for putting in the effort!

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writingtowardshappy on May 20, 2014 at 11:37 am said:

You’re welcome! I’m so glad it helped. I’m working on another post about how to get your saved voicemails off the Verizon system and into mp3 format. :)

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I second the opinions expressed above…Your explanation was clear, concise and easy to follow. My contacts are now in Gmail. But, one question, I have my verizon phone set to sync with Google, and it shows that it is syncing with Google, but contacts, calendar, etc (all showing time/date of last sync) are not showing up in Google. Do you know if I will have to export on a periodic basis, or is there something I can do to make the sync process actually work?

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writingtowardshappy on May 30, 2014 at 10:35 am said:

Thanks. :) I’m not sure about the sync process. Do you mean that when you enter info into your Google calendar on your phone it doesn’t show up on the computer?

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Great instructions, but it doesn’t pull address information from Verizon into that csv – only name and phone. Am I missing something?

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zuhloobie on January 9, 2015 at 12:59 pm said:

Verizon just told me that I have to manually enter any other fields aside from name, phone number, and email address. They don’t come with the export. So that sucks.

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Darryl L Brown on January 10, 2015 at 8:36 pm said:

That’s interesting. i did this today and got my email addresses. Open the csv file in Excel and check columns BE thru BM

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kb on April 8, 2015 at 2:22 am said:

Check out my post (4/8/2015) to see if it works for you.

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Excellent instructions and made it super easy! Thank you so much.

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writingtowardshappy on March 23, 2015 at 10:44 am said:

You’re welcome!

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I haven’t been using the Cloud for syncing. My Samsung Galaxy SIII’s contacts automatically sync with my Gmail Contacts. I can make a change in Gmail Contacts or phone Contacts and the other is sync’d within 2 or 3 minutes. For each contact, Email address(es), phone(s), address(es), website, notes, and birthday are all brought over.

If you open “Contact” on your phone, then bring up Settings, then Accounts, make sure your Gmail account shows up. (If not, add it.) Select the Gmail account and then make sure Sync Contacts is checked. That should sync the phone and Gmail contacts automatically.

(My SMS and Call Log used to sync automatically to Gmail, too, but that suddenly stopped working around 2/14/2015…..)

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Thank you for taking the time to post this. Saved me a hug headache!

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You Rock! Well done… :)

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Reblogged this on GEEKinSTL and commented:
This is a couple years old now, but was very useful when I found it last year, so I thought it was worth a reblog.

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These instructions worked perfectly–after Verizon’s own transfer help looked at my old basic phone and new Android phone and said, “Sorry–can’t be done.”

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