How to Transfer Contacts from iPhone to Mac: 3 Ways

Why Transfer Contacts from iPhone to Mac?

I just got a new Mac. My iPhone contacts are extensive and complete. I want to transfer or import contacts from iPhone to Mac computer. Is there a clear way to do this? Thank you for any help!”

- Question from MacRumors

Transferring iPhone contacts to Mac has been a popular solution to back up important iPhone contacts to avoid unexpected contact loss when your iPhone is lost or damaged. Besides, another obvious benefit is that you can scan or use those contacts on Mac as well.

But how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Mac? Below we will discuss how to do that with and without iCloud/iTunes respectively.

In general, most users will choose iCloud or iTunes to transfer or sync contacts from iPhone to Mac computer or other IOS devices. See how to do it via those two different methods.

◆ Methods in this guide apply to MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, iMac Pro, etc.

#1 How to Sync Contacts from iPhone to Mac Using iCloud

iCloud stores your content safely and keeps your programs up to date across all your devices. So, all your stuff including photos, files, messages, mail, contacts, calendar, note and more will safe and accessible anywhere. It only comes with free 5GB storage and you need to pay for more extra storage. To transfer contacts to Mac from iPhone, take following steps:

Note: please make your device stay connected to your Wi-Fi during the entire process; otherwise, it will fail.

Steps to Sync Contacts from iPhone to Mac Using iCloud

Step 1. Connect your device to a valid Wi-Fi network.

Step 2. Go to “Settings” on your iPhone, input your Apple ID, and tap on “iCloud”.

Step 3. Make sure that you have turned on the sync option for Contacts by switching the toggle button on. To transfer photos from iPhone to Macbook, turn on the sync option for Photos.

Step 4. Once you have synced your contacts to iCloud, visit iCloud.com on your Mac and log in your iCloud account.

Step 5. Click the contacts icon and then click the gear icon (“Settings”) at the bottom left corner. Select all and choose “Export vCard” option to export the selected contacts to a vCard file on your Mac.

#2 How to Backup Contacts from iPhone to Mac with iTunes

iTunes is initially conceived of as a simple music player since it was introduced in 2001. But over time, it developed into a sophisticated multimedia content manager, hardware synchronization manager, and e-commerce platform. With it, you can synchronize content with handheld devices such as iPod, iPhone and iPad via USB connection. See how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Mac with iTunes below:

Steps to Backup Contacts from iPhone to Mac with iTunes

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac computer via USB connection.

Step 2. Open iTunes on your Mac and your iPhone will be automatically it.

Step 3. Click the iPhone device button in the upper left corner within iTunes interface, and expand “Summary” tab.

Step 4. To copy contacts from iPhone to PC, click on “Back Up Now” button under the “Manual Backup & Restore” section on the right side.

This will manually back up your iPhone data, including your contacts from iPhone to Mac.

Sync Contacts from iPhone to Mac Using iTunes

Or you can choose to only sync contacts from iPhone to Mac.

Step 1. Run iTunes and plug in your iPhone.

Step 2. Click the Device tab.

Step 3. Click "Info" > Choose "Sync Contacts" > Click "Apply" to confirm.

In iCloud, you can choose to sync contacts, photos, notes, messages, better than iTunes, but it does not allow you to make a further choice in each folder. Namely, you can decide to sync Contacts only, but still cannot choose which contacts to sync with other Mac devices. Besides, iCloud only provides 5 GB of storage space for free, and extra space needs payment.

Moreover, some users reported that iPhone contacts are not syncing with iCloud, such as the below one:

So, many users are asking the ways to transfer contacts from iPhone to Mac without iCloud/iTunes. The next section gives you the solution.

#3 How to Transfer Contacts from iPhone to Mac without iCloud/iTunes

To get around the iCloud and iTunes’ disadvantages or limitations, you can try dr.fone –Transfer (iOS). It is a desktop app, and provides an easy way to transfer all kinds of data including contacts, photos, SMS, music, etc between iOS devices and system.

Step 1. Download and run dr.fone-Transfer (iOS) on your Mac computer. And select the “Transfer” option from its home screen.

Step 2. Connect your iPhone to your Mac and wait for it to be recognized and ready to transfer contacts to Mac.

Step 3. Once it is ready, you can find the information tab in the navigation bar.

Step 4. Then you will see all saved contacts on your iPhone. Then choose the contacts you want to transfer.

Step 5. Now, you can click on the Export icon on the toolbar. You can export your contacts to vCard, CSV, Outlook, etc. Since Mac supports vCard, please choose “to vCard File”.

Then all your contacts would be saved on your Mac in the form of a vCard file.

Summary

Now, you would know how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Mac. For Windows PC users, it would be much easy to transfer iPhone contacts with AOMEI FoneBackup.

It is worth mentioning that AOMEI FoneBackup supports “Full Backup” and “Incremental Backup” to transfer contacts from iPhone to Windows PC. If necessary, you can also use it to transfer contacts from iPhone to iPhone.

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