How-To: Sync Your Gmail Contacts to Your Verizon Dumbphone

Perhaps you're like me: You're in a perpetual state of waiting for the perfect smartphone to buy. Maybe you can't afford a smartphone. Maybe you think "the man" wants to force you to get a smartphone, and so you are rebelling against the system. Way to be, man.

Whatever the reason, it's irritating that you don't get cool features like syncing your contacts with your Google Contacts. Fortunately, by using Verizon's Backup Assistant and Google's Export feature, you can quickly and easily put your Google Contacts on your phone.

Before you get too carried away, start by installing the Backup Assistant program on your phone. You'll find it in Get It Now, often under a category called "Tools on the Go." Load it up and make sure your contacts are synced to the web.

Most likely, not all of the phone numbers you have loaded in your phone are repeated in your Google Contacts. So, we should merge your existing phone contacts with your Google Contacts so you don't lose any of them.

1. Log on to your "My Verizon" account. Find "Backup Assistant." Right now, you can get to it from the My Verizon menu, and then it's listed under "My Device."
2. In Backup Assistant, you should see the list of contacts which are on your phone. If you don't, load the program on your phone and re-run the program. Also make sure the correct phone number is shown at the top.
3. Press the "Select All" button. Click "Actions," then "Export Contacts." The option exists to export to "Export to an email service." Yep, that's what we're here for! Press "OK" and the file will download automatically. This also serves as a backup for your phone contacts, should something go wrong.

Alright! We've got our Verizon contacts. Now, for the Gmail part!

1. Pull up your Gmail contacts. If you'd like to back up your contacts, now is the time to do so. Press the "More" button and then press "Export." Make sure "All Contacts" is selected. In the section below, Google CSV format is fine. Press the big "Export" button, and it'll download the contacts to your computer.
2. Now that you have your Gmail contacts and your Verizon contacts, let's put them together! From the "More" menu, select "Import," then in the window that appears, click "choose file." Find the file which you downloaded from Verizon. (By default it's called MyContacts.csv). Press "Import."
3. Woah. What just happened? There is like two of everyone. Yep. That's to be expected. Fortunately, Google has just the thing for you. In the "More" menu, select "find and merge duplicates." Gmail will automatically merge people whose names are identical.
4. Not all of my contacts merged automatically! Yeah. That happens. Like I said. Identical names. Now you have to do some work to get things merged. There are two ways to do this. You can either rename contacts so they are named the same, or you can merge manually. The second method is probably a little  more foolproof. Check two contacts and find "Merge" under the "More" menu. Gmail will merge them together for you.

Fabulous! After some work, you've got all your contacts in one place. Let's move them to your phone!

1. Press "More," which by now should be your favorite button. Click "Export" and make sure "All Contacts" is selected. In the bottom section, select "Outlook CSV." Press the big "Export" button and Google will download your contacts to your computer.
2. Pull up Backup Assistant in My Verizon. Now, press "Select All," then "Actions" and "Delete." Confirm that you want to delete all your contacts.
3. Press Backup Assistant's "Import Contacts" button. Select your contacts.csv file that you downloaded from Google. (If you backed up your contacts, it may be named contacts (2).csv or similar. Use the highest numbered one.) Go through. It'll ask some strange questions. The default options are fine. It may also say something about empty data in some of the contacts. That's fine, too.
4. Ta-da! Contacts in Backup Assistant! We're almost done.
5. On your phone, delete all contacts from your address book. This will make sure Verizon doesn't get confused when you try get your new contacts.
6. Run Backup Assistant. Once it completes, you'll find that your phone now has all your contacts!

Horray! This is a great way to keep all your contacts with you at all times, regardless of how old your phone is.