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Setting up your contact sync
Contact visibility
What fields are synced over?

Contact sync

JT
Jenny Takahara, November 2, 2023

The contact sync feature will allow you to sync your external contacts (Google Contacts, Microsoft, etc.) to Pipedrive, so you can keep all your information in one place.


Setting up your contact sync

Note: Users must have the ”add people“ and ”add organizations“ permissions enabled to initiate contact sync.

Pipedrive's contact sync works with most major third-party contact providers to keep all of your information connected and updated.

To enable the contact sync, go to Settings > Personal preferences > Contact Sync, provide the email address for the contact account you wish to sync into Pipedrive and click the "Add New Account" button.

The following providers are supported in the contact sync:

  • Google
  • Microsoft (Outlook, Live, MSN, Hotmail)

When configuring your contact sync, you can choose which group of contacts to sync with, the direction you would like the sync to operate in and the visible-to setting for those synced contacts when brought into Pipedrive.

The sync group option allows you to choose specific segments of your connected contact list that you may wish to sync to Pipedrive. In your chosen contact partner – like Outlook – these segments may be referred to by other terms, but will all still appear here under the "Sync Group" dropdown.

If there are groups that you wish to keep separate – like Family or Friends, for example – we suggest arranging your contacts in your contact list in groups to keep them separate and choose the appropriate group to sync to Pipedrive.

The sync direction option will dictate how Pipedrive handles your information. If you would prefer to keep all information updated in both accounts or to still keep your accounts segmented, you would make that choice here.

  • One-way sync
    When contacts are created, updated, or deleted in the connected contact list, those synced contacts will be created, updated, or deleted within Pipedrive. Contacts created in Pipedrive, however, will not be brought over into the connected contact list.

  • Two-way sync
    When contacts are created, updated, or deleted in the connected contact list, those synced contacts will be created, updated, or deleted within Pipedrive. When person contacts are created, updated, or deleted in Pipedrive, those synced contacts can also be created, updated, or deleted in that connected contact list.
Note: Only contacts that you are the owner of in Pipedrive will sync to your provider.
Please be aware that if two users in your company have the same contact person in their contacts, this will not be flagged as a duplicate when the sync connects and both will be created separately.

Contact visibility

Note: Global admin users will always have visibility to see all contacts.

When choosing the visibility option for your contact sync, you are dictating which users will be allowed to view or edit the contacts brought over from your contacts list.
Pipedrive companies under the Essential and Advanced plans will have access to the following visible-to permissions for any contacts synced through the contacts sync:

  • Owners and followers
    Only the owner of the synced contacts – and the followers of those contacts – can view or edit its details.
  • Entire company
    Any user in the company Pipedrive account can view or edit the details of the synced contacts.

A company account under the Professional plan or higher in Pipedrive will have access to the following visible-to permissions for any contacts synced through the contacts sync:

  • Owner only
    Only the owner of the synced contact can view or edit the details of the synced contacts.
  • Owner's role
    Only Pipedrive users in the same role as the owner of the synced contact can view or edit the details of those synced contacts.
  • Owner's role and roles below
    Users in the same role as the owner – and users in the roles below the owner's role – can view or edit the details of the synced contacts.
  • Entire company
    Every user in the company Pipedrive account can view or edit the details of the synced contacts.

What fields are synced over?

The following contact fields will be synced between your contacts and your contact provider:

  • Name
  • Email addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • Address
  • Instant Messengers
  • Post address
  • Organization/Company
  • Notes
  • Birthday/Date of birth
  • Job title
  • Photo/Picture (only for one-way sync and as long as there is no picture already under the contact in Pipedrive)
Note: The Instant Messengers, Post address, Notes, Birthday/Date of birth and Job title fields do not exist by default in Pipedrive and are only created when you set up your contact sync. If your contact provider is Outlook.com or Microsoft Office 365, notes will not sync over to your Pipedrive contacts.

Once you have set your configurations for your contact sync, simply click the "Start syncing" button to finalize those details and begin the sync.

Once a synced has been established, returning to the Settings > Personal preferences > Contact sync will instead show you a dashboard of the information associated with your current sync, including total contacts in sync and a tally of recent additions, updates, or deletions.

If you feel that there are contacts that have not yet been synced, you may click the refresh button. Clicking that button will immediately force a refresh of the contact sync and update any sync information.

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