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Written By
Suman Rawat -
Approved By
Sonika Rawat -
Updated on
August 21st, 2025 -
Read Time
5 minutes
Directly Import Gmail Contacts to Thunderbird in Easy Steps
Tracking contacts across multiple platforms quickly becomes a repetitive and lengthy process. Many professionals use Gmail to communicate personally and use Thunderbird for business workflows. This creates one consistent challenge: “How to import Gmail contacts to Thunderbird in an efficient manner.” There is no way around it. You cannot just sit and retype 100s of addresses. In this blog, we provide manual steps and a Gmail Backup Tool so you can handle relationships in one manageable place.
Furthermore, emails are often the primary focus when people talk about migration. Yet, contacts are the richest part of communication efficiency. A set of Gmail contacts that isn’t properly imported or synchronized into Thunderbird will:
- Take longer to compose emails, schedule meetings, or share resources
- Be more error-prone and
- Can leave clients with incorrect or missing details
So, for teams using large client databases, even missing details can become a liability. Hence, there is a crucial need to import Google Contacts to Thunderbird.
Top-Notch Ways to Import Gmail Contacts to Thunderbird
Generally, Gmail stores its contacts in the CSV file format. So when you choose to move contacts from Gmail, you need to first export the CSV from Gmail and then import it into Thunderbird. But this is the long manual process, which we will discuss briefly below. Other than this, we also have a dedicated tool that makes the import much easier and speedier as compared to the manual process.
Manually Import Contacts from Gmail to Thunderbird
If you prefer not to introduce a tool, you can also take advantage of Gmail’s export CSV or vCard. Later, import the contacts into Mozilla Thunderbird. Here are the steps:
- Start with the login to your Gmail account. Navigate to Google Contacts.
- Then, click on Export in the sidebar.
- Further, pick (vCard (for Thunderbird/Mac) or CSV (for Thunderbird/Windows)).
- Next, save the file to your computer and open Mozilla Thunderbird.
- Now, open Address Book (or Contacts if you are on a newer version).
- After that, press Import Gmail contacts to Thunderbird at the bottom.
- Select the vCard/CSV file you exported from Gmail. Click Continue.
- Later, map the fields properly (like Name, Email, Phone, etc.) and press Continue.
- Furthermore, choose where you want to import the address book file.
- Click Continue and at last, press Start Import to save the calendar data.
This method should work for you if you want to take all of your contacts over to Thunderbird. But you may have to manually map the fields yourself when you sync Google Contacts with Thunderbird. If you have a larger contact list, sometimes there will be occasional mapping mismatches or duplicates you may want to be aware of.
Tip: For emails, calendars, and other Gmail data, read here: Import Gmail to Thunderbird.
Though this method is quite simple, it involves a two-way process: Export and Import. Also, users need to have Mozilla Thunderbird and some basic application knowledge. So, for more easy and simplifies process, let’s head over to the tool.
Professional Tool to Import Gmail Contacts to Thunderbird
For users managing multiple Gmail accounts or 1000s of contacts, the manual method can be hard and possibly error-prone. An expert solution offers one-click migration. It connects directly to your Gmail account, pulls all contacts, and saves them into Thunderbird without any CSV or vCard conversion. You also get fully automated field mapping, duplicate removal, batch import, and data security.
How to Import Google Contacts to Thunderbird?
- Launch Gmail Contacts Export Tool and click Google Workspace.
- Then, sign in to your Workspace account by entering the credentials.
- After that, select Contacts from the options on the screen.
- Further, click Save Path to select the Thunderbird location for the Gmail contacts.
- Finally, tap Download to complete the process and import contacts from Gmail to Thunderbird effortlessly.
User Success Story:
A small IT consulting firm with over 8,000 Gmail contacts used the Gmail Import Tool. Rather than spending hours mapping fields manually, they completed the migration in a few hours. All of the contact details were intact, including phone numbers, job titles, and secondary emails, and this brought immediate productivity gains for their sales team and support staff!
Conclusion
Importing Gmail contacts to Thunderbird is all about communicating efficiently. The manual method may be sufficient for lists of a few contacts. However, teams with large shared databases need professional alternatives that ensure accuracy, speed, and security in their data. So if you import Gmail contacts to Thunderbird for your daily workflows. Do not leave your contacts behind; put them in step with the right migration!
FAQ
Q. Will manual import preserve contact groups or Gmail labels after import?
Ans- No, manual CSV/vCard export does not preserve the contact groups and labels. But if you use the Gmail Email Backup Tool, then all the data and labels remain intact.
Q. Can I import other Gmail data items, too, along with the contacts, to Thunderbird?
Ans- Yes, using the Gmail Backup and Restore Tool, you can sync Google Contacts with Thunderbird as well as transfer other data too. It is supportive for emails, contacts, calendar, drive, and photos from Gmail or Google Workspace.
About The Author:
Suman Rawat is a technical content writer and expert in the fields of email migration, data recovery, and email backup. Her passion for helping people has led her to resolve many user queries related to data conversion and cloud backup.
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