that's better, i never liked giving my password away

Congratulations guys!

Nothing uploads after I select my csv file from my computer. Cleared cache on Chrome, etc still nada.

Darin Ferraro -- we're watching results of imports so if you have a problem file (which sometimes happens) we'll adjust.

If you could let us know how you generated it we'd appreciate it. Either fill in feedback or leave us a note.

Also, almost forgot... for folks that use LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/addressBookExport

This one was a download of my gmail contact list :) It does have quite a few contacts (maybe 8000?) but it doesn't even seem to upload anything, once I select the file and click open it just jumps back to the circles page.

Nice! Will give it a try Paul Lindner. ... And thanks for sharing this info. =)

Darin Ferraro -- browser version? Which format of GMail CSV did you export?

Wait..... People have address books outside of their Google Contacts list? Holy Cow!!!

Killer addition - thanks...

Paul Lindner Chrome Mac 12.0.742.122, used outlook csv.

Darin - thanks for the feedback!

I also noticed the https on the browser goes from green to having a small yellow symbol for mixed security as well. Hope this helps: Your connection to plus.google.com is encrypted with 128-bit encryption. However, this page includes other resources which are not secure. These resources can be viewed by others while in transit, and can be modified by an attacker to change the look of the page.

The connection uses TLS 1.0.

The connection is encrypted using RC4_128, with SHA1 for message authentication and RSA as the key exchange mechanism.

The connection is not compressed.

nice one!

I can't get this to work... nothing happens when I select upload. Also is there an option to exclude certain people once I've done the upload? I'd hate for everyone in my address book to instantly get an invite - it would be good to say 'we've found 100 people in your address book to invite... select the ones you want to invite and press submit' or something like that.

Will Healey - leave feedback with details (browser, addressbook file type) or post them here.

Address book files come in so many varied forms, so we're watching for errors and will make adjustments as we go.

Thanks everyone for being part of the Field Trial. The problems you find for us will make Google+ better for everyone that follows.

Sorry Paul... I am running an up to date version of 10.6.8 OS X. I did an address book export 'Export Group Vcard'. I wasn't given any further options to this. My file name is vCards.vcf.

Thanks

Paul Lindner Really good job of programming this function!

why do I need to download another google account? Can't you just OAuth me in?

it would be sooooo good to be able to import contacts from other social networks. Like Instagram, which gives me the ability to even see, which f.e. twitter-contact is using Instagram and letting me add hiim/her instantly. would make things amazingly easy, so I'm really looking forward to see something like that sooner or later :-)

The export command in Outlook 2010 is a bit more hidden:

File

Open

Import

Export to a file

(and from here on it's straightforward)

Thank you Paul for sharing!

I noticed that after you imported them, they only stayed available for that browser session. Once you closed your browser and went back, the imported contacts were no longer available in your "Invite" list. This probably makes sense since you only need them to invite them in the first place. Once you get past that, you don't want to have your normal contacts all cluttered with extras.

Paul, what format should I select when exporting from LinkedIn?

Michael -- I've used LinkedIn vcf and csv formats successfully. Generally the LinkedIn exports are pretty good, although we've seen some issues with character encoding.

Hello, I tried it with my Apple Adress Book. I did everything the way you said - but nothing happened as I tried to upload it...

Paul, 'LinkedIn' isn't one of the dropdown options. I see Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo! Mail, OSX Address Book, and vCard. These are all csv and vcf formats, so are you saying they should all 'just work'?

outlook for mac 2011 only gives options for tab delimited or .olm... took a couple of attempts, but the tab delimited option finally worked. Great job!

I'd be interested in loading a custom CSV. Anything like API doc for this?

Ooohh!! Great idea!!! Thanks a lot. ;)

Paul Linder I tried using the "Upload address book" feature to export one of my Circles (a consolidated list of Photographers from https://plus.google.com/112416945907493718478/posts/VGeMDJxpbAM) and allow someone else to import it, but that didn't work. The "Download your Circles and Contacts" VCard format currently does not include the contact's e-mail address, and it seems the "Upload address book" requires the e-mail address, otherwise the imported contact does not appear. Could either the e-mail address (EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:) be included on the "Download your Circles and Contacts" or else the "Upload address book" recognize contacts by their Google profile (item1.X-ABLabel:PROFILE, item1.URL:) when an e-mail address is not included? Thanks!

Ooh. Yes, I second Robert's suggestion to enable round-tripping this data.

Robert Simpson I do not want to rain on a potentially good thing - but could not the easy export of all this great data be a boon to every marketer I do not want adding me to any circles at all... I know even the list we all have already contributed too I am sure is already in the hands of every major photography related marketer out there... I guess there is no stopping this but I think in all of our uproar of how great everything is here and what a great community we might all be sharing our data with many that we do not want to by going outside of the community with lists that are not controlled in even the most basic of ways....

As with everything - good - bad can it be used for....... that said - everyone has my info already - but I would much rather see a way to internally share circles with other people than need to maintain lists of external information that can be much more easily exploited...

If they want it, a marketer will just pay a code-monkey to scrape it. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple of dozen projects like that already (beyond the publicly visible ones like findpeopleonplus.com). And, Google will likely provide this data via an API, making such projects even easier. What's wrong with making it work right directly in the web UI?

Michael Bernstein sad but true....

Brent Burzycki I'm assuming the primary concern you are bringing up is allowing them to comment on your post, since I don't think they can contact you in other ways unless you add them back. I don't think in any world you would be able to control who adds you. (Someone could add your name to the contact list in their cell phone, but if they don't have your phone number or e-mail address, they can't contact you.) And if there is an issue, such as unwanted comments, I believe that you could "Block" that person, which would prevent them from seeing your posts and commenting on them. Michael Bernstein Good point. The serious hackers will usually find a way around any obstacles, so the best approach is to make it as easy as possible to use for legitimate purposes while trying to prevent causal misuse.

Robert Simpson well sort of... I personally am not worried.. I gave up trying to hide when on the internet years ago - that said - its more about information control. Willingly putting yourself on a list is very different than being scraped for a list etc...as stated...

Its just one of these issues that in the end Google will probably get blamed for sadly... enabling great features like this always leads to some jerk abusing them and then all of us paying for it...just a sad state of the reality of the net ...

Shared circles would solve this in many ways - I would keep the lists etc internal to G+ - I could share my photo circle and people could add people from that circle etc... vs. having the need to maintain external lists of this information.

As I can tell - anyone can contact me via my profile page that then emails me to my gmail acct...so unless you disable this - anyone can contact anyone - but anyone cannot have a full excel sheet of targeted contact info.... In the end the list is hours and hours of work for a marketer to put together...

Do not take it wrong - I have no issues with it... I want to be on every photographer list out there..and feel free to follow me and my work - that said - I have been thinking about these features more lately in relation to overall internet security etc... I run a site called www.coptalk.info - we get questions all the time related to internet social sites and staying safe etc... it's just an interesting problem overall and thus a topic to discuss more in depth....

Brent Burzycki Shared Circles wouldn't solve it, since I suspect they could be exported as easily as you can now export your private Circles. Thanks for the input. Personally I would like to see Google recognize Plusher's profiles in the "Upload address book" so I don't have to deal with the e-mail addresses or worry about being blamed for exposing them. We probably should have taken this to a stream of yours or mine to avoid cluttering up Paul Lindner's stream. (Still trying to figure out the etiquette here; maybe I'll think of that ahead next time :-)

Robert Simpson no the problem actually is shared circles would solve it if we were not allowed to export data.. its the combo of the two that potentially leads to the added issues.. how do you protect info and allow for backup and export of data you daily put into the system... I will take the ability to import and export anyday over being locked down...

Thanks for all the feedback.

Allowing for end-to-end fidelity for circle data sounds like an especially good idea. We will have to weigh that against potential abuse vectors that matching contacts by public profile URL may entail...

I can't upload my facebook friendlist though.

Khai No (Thang Lam Khai) That's because Facebook supposedly does not allow exporting them - see http://www.Wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/google-facebook-export/ and http://www.Facebook.com/group.php?gid=2486255043

Paul Linder Re: We'll have to weight that against potential abuse vectors...

Since the Google profile IDs are already exposed in various ways, including the exports and the APIs, I think I'd prefer to see the second option, allowing Plushers to import into their circles rather than exposing the e-mail address in the exports. That just adds a legitimate use for the info that's already exposed.

Folks that had problems with address book imports should give it another try. Especially if you did not receive any feedback from the upload.

https://plus.google.com/circles/find

thanks!

hi Paul, I've have already created different categories in google contacts like college mates, acquaintances, association friends. The question is can I import only those categories to circles named exactly like that rather than import everything and add the respective contacts by creating again the circles? pls suggest.

Problem: VCF file generated by phone (HTC Legend). When i try to upload the file from my computer: Sorry, we weren't able to load that file, it may be too large. I have about 95 contacts in that file.. ?

Hi Paul,

I'm also having trouble importing the address list...I initially was going from Outlook with a .csv file...this got the can't recognize the format or too large message. I then imported this to my gmail account just fine and then did a gmail .csv export...this got the same message???

cant upload...the link doesnt open anything!

Same problem here - no actual response to the link for uploading from Outlook.

For those of us with "other" address books, it sure would be helpful if you'd tell us what you are looking for in a CSV file. "We'll figure out out for you" just doesn't cut the mustard.

I'm having the same problem. It says that my apple vcard is too large :s

Same issue with me. Says vCard is too large. It isn't...

"Upload address book" button still doesn't do anything at all.

is it asking too much that the upload feature actually work? what is the size limit on lists to upload? what is the problem with this feature? does google NOT have enough money to get this working?

This is an interesting way to import your Facebook contacts to Google+

How to transfer your Facebook friends to Google+ all at once

Apologies for the radio silence on this thread. There are some issues we've encountered with importing specific files. We'll have some fixes as part of a larger change in the near future.

Thanks for your patience. And as an alternate you can also use a more robust contact importer at http://www.google.com/contacts for the moment.

So after you select the file to upload nothing happens..?

There is also a scrolling issue (I'm using Mac Lion and Chrome) in Google +: you can't scroll down to the bottom of the page a lot of the time so half of your circles aren't visible or can't be selected to share with.

Hi Guys,

I had problems with downloading vCard to google plus as well but found a solution.

I'm using MacBook with Lion.

Step by step tips how to import vCard to google plus:

1. Open apple adress book

2. Address Book -> Preferences

3. Select vCard tab and choose vCard Format 2.1

I'm using vCard 2.1 Encoding: Western (Mac OS Roman); thick in: private, notes and photos as well

4. Close Preferences

5. In Address book click File -> Export -> Export vCard

6. Save vCard in Documents

7. Type in browser https://plus.google.com/circles/find

8. Click on Submit your address book

9. Attach address book you created

10. Smile :)

Ken Elliott -- how many people do you have in circles? There is a hard-limit beyond which our systems don't function well.

Paul Linder,

I have tried multiple times to try to upload contacts from a .csv file to google+. It doesn't work. I am dissapointed that I have spent 30 minutes or so trying to do this.I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can give on this. I am trying to upload less than 4000 contacts. I even tried to upload as little as 250 contacts and it still didn't work.

i am also tried multiple times to try to upload contacts from a .csv file to google+. It doesn't work. I am dissapointed

thank you paul. worked perfect for apple vcards. Helpful.

Where do I upload the vcard? I only see a place to Add one person? I too have tried this for over 30 mins and am close to reverting back to the old google.

WTF? Please help

vcards do not work at all

The circles page doesn't show an import button like the new accounts.  I have 1500 contacts.  It only lets me enter them one by one.  Any help?  

apple address book does not upload.. file may be too large? its only 600+ contacts and a 5.7mg file!?!?! Please advise.

Carlos Benjamin

I think that is a remnant from the days when we had physical address books. I still keep a digital one, a nod to my old ways, but seldom use it.

This feature not available anymore, you have to do one by one.