3 Ways to Transfer Contacts from Mac to iPhone X/8/8 Plus

Question: “I am wondering is there a straightforward way to transfer the contacts on my MacBook Pro to my new iPhone 8 as the contacts are important to me and I can't lose them? Thank you!”  - A question from Apple Discussions

When we are talking about how to transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone, including to the latest iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X, we usually can refer to two free ways to make it by using AirDrop and iTunes. The former one is a wireless solution and the latter one is the most common way. We will demonstrate how to transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone X/8/8 Plus with these two ways in below texts, choose the one fits your needs better. What's more, one more method is also provided at the beginning of this blog post to transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone with a FREE iTunes alternative. Read on to get the details.

Method 1: How to transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone X/8/8 Plus with free iTunes alternative

If you don't want the data syncing that will be caused while using iTunes to sync contacts from Mac to iPhone, you can use the completely free iTunes alternative, EaseUS MobiMover Free, to transfer contacts from Mac to your iPhone X, iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus. As an iTunes alternative, MobiMover can help you to transfer files from one iOS device (iPhone/iPad in iOS 8 or later) to another, from iOS device to computer (Mac or PC) and vice versa. Contacts, messages, photos, videos, audios, calendars, books, and more can all be transferred to or out of your iDevice. No matter you want to put music to iPhone without iTunes or back up iPhone text messages to computer, you can use MobiMover to get things done. Follow the steps below to have a try.

Notes: MobiMover is compatible with Mac running macOS 10.12 (Sierra), 10.13 (High Sierra), Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.9 (Mavericks), and 10.11 (El Capitan).

Step 1: Unlock your iPhone, connect your iPhone (iPhone X, iPhone 8/8 Plus, iPhone 7, or other iPhones running iOS 8 or later) to your Mac, and then launch EaseUS MobiMover Free. After the connection, a prompt will pop up on your iPhone asking you whether to trust this computer. Tap on Trust to continue.

Step 2: Click the select box under the iPhone image to choose your Mac as the device that you want to transfer contacts from. Tap the three dots and choose to sync contacts by folder or by file.

Step 3: Choose the folders or files on your Mac that you want to transfer to your iPhone. To transfer contacts from Mac to your iPhone successfully, you need to have the contacts saved as the HTML file on your Mac.

Step 4: After the selection, MobiMover will show you how many items you have selected. As you can see from the image below, you can transfer contacts from Mac to your iPhone as well as other file types all at once.

Step 5: You can continue to add more files to transfer by clicking Add, or begin syncing contacts from Mac to your iPhone by clicking Transfer. When it has completed, you can go to the Contacts App on your iPhone to check the transferred contacts.

Method 2: Transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone X/8/8 Plus with AirDrop

AirDrop is the pre-installed utility on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, which allows transferring data between two iOS devices wirelessly and quite convenient. However, AirDrop only enables you to transfer files one by one, if need to repeat the process patiently if you have multiple contacts to be synced.

Step 1: Turn on AirDrop on iPhone and Mac as well as Wi-Fi connection and Bluetooth.

Step 2: Open the "Contacts" app on your Mac and find the certain contact you want to sync to your iPhone 8/8 Plus/X.

Step 3: Go the right lower corner and find the "Share" button, click it and choose "AirDrop".

Step 4: Choose your iPhone device in the AirDrop available lists, and begin to transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone in one-click. Next, go to your iPhone screen and tap "Accept" to receive the AirDropped contacts from Mac. 

More AirDrop transfer: How to transfer contacts from one iPhone to another with AirDrop

Method 3: Transfer contacts from Mac to iPhone X/8/8 Plus with iTunes

iTunes is not only the smart iOS Music manager but also a helpful tool to sync data between iPhone and Mac/PC. You can back up your iPhone with iTunes and restore back with a backup file.

Step 1: Open iTunes and update to the latest version.  

Step 2: Connect your iPhone 8/8 Plus/X to the Mac, and click the iPhone "Device" button within iTunes. If you have found the iPhone in iOS 11 can't connect to iTunes, fix it by your own by following the online detailed guide.

Step 3: Click "Info" and check "Sync Contacts". Finally, click "Apply" to transfer all backed up contacts from Mac to iPhone 8/8 Plus/X and wait for the process completion.