Can I import contacts to Facebook?

Yes, you can import your contacts to Facebook. This allows you to find friends who are already on Facebook and invite friends who aren’t yet on Facebook to join.

Why Import Contacts to Facebook?

There are a few key reasons why you may want to import your contacts to Facebook:

• Find friends already on Facebook – Importing your contacts allows Facebook to match your contacts to people who already have Facebook accounts. This makes it easy to find and connect with friends you already know on Facebook.
• Invite friends to join Facebook – If you have contacts who aren’t on Facebook yet, importing your contacts allows you to easily invite them to join.
• Expand your network – The more friends you have on Facebook, the more you can maximize your network and connections on the platform.

How to Import Contacts to Facebook

Import from Your Phone Contact List

The easiest way to import contacts to Facebook is directly from your phone’s contact list:

1. Open the Facebook app on your iPhone or Android phone.
2. Tap the three-line menu icon in the top right corner.
3. Go to “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings” and tap “Contacts”
4. Tap “Find Friends” and then “Invite Friends.”
5. Tap “Import Contacts” and select which contacts you want to import to Facebook. You can import all contacts or make a selection.
6. Tap “Done” once you’ve made your selections.

Facebook will now match the contacts you imported with existing Facebook users to help you find and connect with friends already on Facebook. For contacts without a Facebook account, you can invite them to join.

Import from Your Computer

You can also import contacts from your computer desktop using Facebook’s contact importer tool:

1. Go to Facebook.com and log into your account.
2. Click on the down arrow at the top right and select “Settings”.
3. In the left column, click “Contacts”.
4. Click “Find Friends” at the top.
5. Click “Import Contacts” and select the contact file you want to import. This can be a .csv file from your email provider, macOS contacts, Windows contacts, etc.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to upload and import the contact file.

Once uploaded, Facebook will match your imported contacts like when importing directly from your phone.

Import from Google Contacts

You can import your Google Contacts directly into Facebook:

1. Go to Contacts.Google.com and log into your Google account.
2. Click the More Options icon (3 dots) in the left sidebar.
3. Select “Export” from the menu.
4. Under “Select contacts to export” choose “All Contacts” or “Selected Contacts”.
5. Under “Export format” choose “vCard” format.
6. Click “Export” and save the .vcf file somewhere on your computer.
7. Go to Facebook.com, click the down arrow > “Settings” > “Contacts” > “Find Friends”
8. Click “Import Contacts” and select the vCard .vcf file you exported from Google.
9. Select which contacts to import and click “Done”.

This will import your Google contacts so you can connect with friends on Facebook.

Tips for Importing Contacts

• Import all your contacts – Don’t worry about spamming anyone, Facebook will only send invitations to join to contacts who are not already on Facebook.
• Check back later – It can take some time for imported contacts to match up with existing Facebook friends. Check back after a day or two to find more friends.
• Update your contacts regularly – Don’t just import your contacts once. Update your contacts on your phone, Google, etc and re-import periodically to find new friends.
• Manually invite friends – If you have contacts you’d like to personally invite to Facebook, send them an invite after you import your contacts.
• Turn on contact syncing – In Facebook’s Contacts settings, you can enable automatic continuous syncing with your Google or phone contacts.

Facebook Contact Import Issues

While the contact import process typically works well, sometimes you may encounter issues like:

• Imported contacts not matching Facebook friends – This is usually because those friends may not have their contact info updated on their Facebook profiles. Encourage them to add their contact details to help matching.
• Duplicate contacts – Facebook may show duplicates if you import contacts from multiple sources. You can delete duplicate entries.
• Imported contacts going to Message Requests – If any imported contacts are not your Facebook friends already, they may go to your Message Requests folder rather than your friends list.
• Contacts refusing friend requests – Your imported contacts have the option to accept or ignore any friend requests resulting from the import.
• Large number of contacts failing to import – Facebook limits how many contacts you can import in one go, usually around 5000 max.

Overall the contact import process works well for most people, with occasional minor issues like those above. The benefits of finding and connecting with more friends generally far outweigh any small import problems.

Conclusion

Importing your contacts is one of the best ways to maximize your friends and connections on Facebook. Take advantage of tools to import contacts from sources like your phone, Google, and email providers. The process is easy and you’ll find Facebook quickly matches many of your contacts with people you already know on Facebook, while letting you invite the rest. With hundreds of millions of users, chances are your contacts will lead you to all sorts of friends near and far that you can reconnect with on Facebook.