Move all "All on My iPhone" contacts to "All Gmail" group

Question

I have been syncing my iPhone and Gmail contacts for years and consistently run into this problem. Some of my contacts were created in the group "All on My iPhone", always without my knowledge, instead of the Gmail group. Contacts in this group will not sync to Gmail. I have learned how to set my default account to Gmail so hopefully I will stop creating iPhone only contacts, but this doesn't fix the problem with the 100+ contacts I already have in this group on two different phones. Is there a way for me to force ALL contacts from the iPhone only group into the Gmail group? Is there a way for me to export just the iPhone group so I can then import them to Gmail using the web interface?

An even better solution would be a way to permanently disable the iPhone only group. I have absolutely no need to have different contact lists. I would love for all my contacts to sync seamlessly across all devices without any "controls" to complicate the process.

Thanks for any advice!

Answer 1

There is no easy way to move contacts between accounts. No company wants to make it too easy. The only option on iPhone would be to merge the On My iPhone contacts with an iCloud account (turning Contacts on and off if necessary under Settings > iCloud).

From there you can log into iCloud.com > open the contacts web app > click the gear at the bottom left and select all > Click the gear at the bottom left and export vCard

Then you can import that vCard into gmail.com

Finally turn off the Contacts for iCloud and it will offer to delete.

Under Settings > Mail, Contacts and Calendars if there iOS a default account listed under contacts make sure it says gmail.

Alternately - type lots.