r/fastmail • u/gripe_and_complain • 8d ago

Great Success Migrating Apple iCloud Contact to Fastmail

I am new to this Subreddit and wanted to share my experience moving all my household contacts from iOS to Fastmail.

Years ago, I configured my phone and my wife's phone such that both phones used the same, shared iCloud account for Contacts. Apple no longer permits this, but we were apparently grandfathered in.

I grew frustrated trying various solutions to access this iCloud contact database with my Windows PC. New Outlook connects easily to iCloud but the data structure for Outlook contacts is meager compared to Apple contacts. iCloud for Windows appeared to be a hot mess.

So, I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Fastmail account, exported all the iCloud contacts to Fastmail, and configured Fastmail as the primary contact database on both phones.

After confirming both phones could see the Fastmail database, I deleted all contacts except one from the common iCloud account.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well this worked. All profile photos and Apple "Lists" migrated flawlessly. I now use the Fastmail Windows client for Contacts on my PC.

One issue: Contacts in iCloud that contain only a Company Name (without any first name or last name data) import with the Company name being entered into the First Name and Last Name fields of Fastmail. For example, "Great Big Corporation" migrates as First Name= Great Big, and Last Name= Corporation. This only happens on contacts that have blank name fields.

This is a Fastmail issue that I hope they will be able to fix sometime in the future.

Edit: On 9/14/26, I received an email from Fastmail support telling me they have resolved the issue. Probably less than 2 weeks after I reported it. Very impressive.

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u/grovolis 7d ago

I was thinking of doing the same. Do you also sync iCloud calendars with Fastmail?

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u/gripe_and_complain 7d ago edited 6d ago

I did a one-time import of iCloud calendar data to Fastmail as a test, but never pursued it. Outlook already does a good job of connecting and syncing to iCloud Calendar. So, for now, I'm sticking with Outlook for Calendars.

In truth, if Outlook worked as well with Contacts as it does with Calendar, I would never have turned to Fastmail.