Want to know the easiest way to send secure messages to any contact in your email account?

You probably have a bunch of contacts who you have been emailing from a web based email account such as Gmail or Outlook.com, from your mobile device (iPhone, Android), or from a desktop email program such as Outlook or Thunderbird.

You can import all those contacts to your Encyro account. Then, you can send them secure messages or files from your Encyro account. If you do not have an Encyro account, just sign up for free.

First, export your contacts to a CSV of VCF file and then import into your Encyro account. Here’s how.

Export Contacts

Where do you want to export from?

Internet email accounts: Gmail Outlook.com Yahoo! Mail

Mail Applications: Microsoft Outlook Thunderbird Apple Mail (Mac Mail) iOS (iPhone, iPad) Android

Other Sources: Obtain the contacts in CSV format and import. See detailed instructions.

Internet Email Accounts

Gmail

You can import directly from Gmail by click the button ‘Import from Gmail’ in your Encyro account Contacts area. The instructions below are only required if you wish to export your Gmail contacts to a file and then import form the file.

To view the instructions directly from Google, click here, scroll down to Restore or export contacts and then click Export Contacts. In short, the steps are:

Go to Google - Other Contacts.
Sign in if you are not already signed in.
Hover over the photo or letter icon next to the first contact name and click the square box that shows up to Select the first contact.
A menu bar appears near the top showing a square box and ‘1 selected’. Click the square box in the top bar to select all contacts.
In the left pane, select More.
Among the options that show up, click Export.
If prompted to export from the old version, select ‘GO TO OLD VERSION’.
- Click More in the top menu bar and select Export.
- In the dialog that opens, under Which contacts do you want to export? select the option All Contacts.
- Under the question Which export format?, choose Google CSV format.
- Click Export.
If not prompted to export from the old version:
- For the format option, select Google CSV.
- Click Export
- Repeat the above steps for top level contacts.

After you have saved the exported file (or files) from the above steps, proceed to your Encyro account and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. Here, select the file that you saved above. If you saved multiple files for different contact lists, select one of the files and when that is completed, repeat Import from File for the other files.

Outlook.com (previously: Hotmail, Windows Live Mail)

Microsoft’s instructions for different versions are available here.

For the latest version, the steps are:

Go to your outlook.com account. If not signed in, go to Outlook.com and click Sign In.
Once signed in, click on the People icon near the bottom left.
From the top menu click Manage.
From the options that show up, click Export contacts.
Choose to export all contacts. You may also select a specific folder if desired.
Click Save and contacts.csv will be saved by your browser, typically to your Downloads folder.

Now go to your Encyro account and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. Here, select the CSV file that you saved above.

Yahoo! Mail

The instructions may vary slightly depending on the version of Yahoo! Mail you are using. Yahoo!‘s instructions are available here. Briefly, the steps are:

In Yahoo Mail, click the Contacts icon. In the older Yahoo! Mail, this may appear near the top left and look like a person’s head shot on an address book. In the new Yahoo! Mail, this appears at the right of the message list and looks like a small address book.
Click Actions near the top of the contact list.
In the options that show up, click Export.
In the dialog that opens, select either Microsoft Outlook or Yahoo CSV as the format to export (both these are CSV formats that can be imported to Encyro).
Click Export Now and wait for the download to start.
A file named yahoo_contacts.csv or similar will be downloaded, typically to your Downloads folder.

Now go to your Encyro account, and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. Here, select the CSV file that you saved above.

Desktop Applications

Microsoft Outlook

Open Microsoft Outlook on your computer. The instructions below assume Outlook 2016 but the steps are similar for other versions. Microsoft instructions for different versions are available here.

In Microsoft Outlook, click File in the top menu bar.
Click Open & Export.
Click Import/Export.
In the dialog that opens, choose Export to a file and click Next.
Choose Comma Separated Values or CSV.
You should now see a dialog to ‘Select folder to export from’. Scroll and select Contacts under the email account from which you wish to export. Click Next.
In the dialog to save the file, select a file name and ensure that the file type is shown as Comma Separated Values.
Note the location where the file is being saved and click Next.
Click Finish and wait for the progress bar to finish.

If you have multiple email accounts in Outlook that you wish to export contacts from, simply repeat the above steps for each such account.

Now, proceed to your Encyro account, and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. When asked to select a file, select the CSV file you saved above. In a few moments, your contacts will be available in your Encyro account.

Thunderbird

Open Mozilla Thunderbird on your computer and click on the Address Book item in the top menu bar.
In the Address Book window that opens, click on Collected Addresses (which contains all email addresses thatyou have sent to) or the name of the address book that you wish to export. This will cause the address book to be selected and the contacts from that address book will be shown on the right.
With the address book selected, click on Tools in the top menu bar.
From the options that show up, click on Export.
You will now be asked to select the file name and file type. Ensure that the file type is set to Comma Separated (System charset) ((.csv) or Comma Separated (UTF-8 charset) (.csv) or VCF.
Click Save.

Now that you have saved the exported file, proceed to your Encyro account, and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. When asked to select a file, select the CSV or VCF file you saved above. In a few moments, your contacts will be available in your Encyro account.

Apple Mail (Mac Mail)

Apple Mail (or Mac Mail) addresses can be exported from your address book, from your iCloud account, following the [same steps as for iOS](# ios). However, your Apple Mail contacts may not be in your Address Book* or Contacts app. To save your Mac Mail remembered addresses to the Contacts app:

Open the Mail application on your Mac.
Select Window from the top menu bar and click on Previous Recipients.
Select all contacts. One way to do this is to click the top most contact, then while holding down the shift key, scroll down to the bottom-most contact and click that.
Click on Add to Contacts.
Now follow the [iOS instructions below](# ios) to export from iCloud. Alternatively, you may use Apple’s instructions to export from the Contacts app - make sure to choose the VCF option.

iOS Mail (iPhone, iPad)

Your contacts from your iPhone or iOS device are best exported from your iCloud account. If you are familiar with iCloud contacts, use Apple’s instructions directly. The following steps make it easier:

Go to your iCloud account from a browser. This could be from any computer or mobile device (need not be on the same device as you are exporting from).
Sign in using your Apple ID, the same one you use to activate your iOS device or to purchase apps (no purchase is necessary for this step).
Click on the Contacts app icon on the webpage. A list of your contacts will display shortly.
Click on the gear cog like Settings icon in the bottom left.
From the menu that opens, click Select All. The list of contacts on the right will turn light blue, to indicate the contacts are selected.
Again click the gear cog like Settings icon in the bottom left.
From the menu that opens, click Export vCard…

This will result in a VCF file (named iCloud vCards.vcf or similar) to be downloaded. In most browsers, this will be downloaded to the Downloads folder on your computer.

Now proceed to your Encyro account,and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. When asked to select a file, browse to the location (such as the Downloads folder) and choose the VCF file you saved above. In a few moments, your contacts will be available in your Encyro account.

Android

Google’s instructions to export your contacts from your Android device are available here. In short, the steps are:

On your Android phone go to the Contacts app (or People app), or select the “Contacts” tab in the Phone app.
Tap the menu button in the app. On some Android devices it may be the device menu button while on others it may be accessed by clicking the overflow menu icon with three dots within the app).
Click Settings or Import/Export.
Choose the Export option. On some devices, this may be called Export to SD card or Export to USB Storage.

This will save your contacts to a VCF file (named something like 0001.vcf) on the SD card or on the USB storage.

From the same Android device, go to your Encyro account, and in the Contacts area below your message folders, click Import from File. When asked to select a file, browse to the SD card or the device storage and choose the file you saved above. In a few moments, your contacts will be available in your Encyro account.

Send Secure to Imported Contacts

To send a secure message to any of the imported contacts from your Encyro account, you have two options:

Click on that contact name in your Documents view, OR
Start composing a message and when you start typing a contact’s name or email, you will see a list of matching contacts to choose from.

Export Contacts: Make it Easy to Send Secure to Any Email Contact