How do I get my Google contacts in Gmail on my Gmail app on the iPad?

Question

I don't have a Mac or Exchange (which seem to be two ways of doing this.)

When I open the iPad Gmail app (from Google) there are no Contacts and the email "to" field doesn't autocomplete. I effectively can't email unless I've memorized the email address.

Answer 1

I don't know why everyone seems to over complicate this, you don't need to export contacts and import them somewhere else nor do you need exchange. Steps to sync contacts with your iDevice are as follows:

1. Plug your device into your computer and open iTunes
2. Select your device in iTunes and click the "info" tab
3. Check "Sync Contacts" and then "Sync Google contacts"
4. Enter your google login info

Done! Contacts will sync with gmail.

Answer 2

Here is how to export your Gmail contacts to your iPad Contacts list, so they will autofill when using the Mail app.

1. Navigate to your contacts page and choose "Export…" under the More menu.
2. Choose All Contacts, and use the vCard format.
3. Open the downloaded file.
4. When Address Book asks if you're sure you want to import them, choose yes, and quit Address Book when it's done.
5. Select your iPad in iTunes and navigate to the Info tab.
6. Turn on Sync Address Book Contacts if it isn't already, and customize the settings how you like.
7. Sync your iPad with iTunes.

Done! I did notice from your question, though, that you're using the Gmail app. This fix will only work if you use Mail.app; for more information regarding setting that up, see this Apple help article.

Also: if you're running Windows, replace steps 3 and 4 with the instructions on this page.

Answer 3

You don't need to have Exchange.

You have to add an Exchange Account in the Mail-Settings with your GoogleAddress and password.

1. Add an Exchange Account
2. Username is usernamen@googlemail.com, password is password, Server is: m.google.com and Domain is empty
3. Now you can sync your Contacts and Addresses to the iPad, too.

Your GMail App takes the contacts from the address book, and the address book gets its contacts now from Google.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and didn't want to sync the contacts since its a shared ipad. If you just need an occasional contact, you can access your contacts directly via this link: https://www.google.com/contacts/#contacts