Add your contacts to a Yealink phone

This post will you show how to take your contacts and install them on your Yealink T series phone.

The main difference between this method and the one from my previous post is this one loads your contacts directly into your Yealink phone. This is a static load meaning it will not change dynamically over time. However, you can still add, remove, or edit contacts as needed.

You can do this with contacts from any database once you have downloaded and formatted them correctly. I’ll use Google Contacts as my example.

Step 1: Download your Google contacts

  1. Open a web browser and surf over to contacts.google.com
  2. If you have multiple Google accounts, then make sure you are logged in to the correct account.
  3. In the left side pane, click Export.
  4. In the window that pops up, click Export.
  5. Your Google contacts will download to your Downloads folder on your local computer (Windows).

Step 2: Format your data

  1. Open the file in a spreadsheet program such as Excel or LibreOffice.
  2. Make columns following this naming protocol:
    1. Display Name – include first and last name
    2. Office Number
    3. Mobile Number
  3. You only need 2 or 3 columns but you can use more if you need them. You will see more options when you go to import the file.
  4. In my case, the file contained a whole bunch of unneeded columns. Delete, delete, delete.
  5. Additionally, I took the time to remove any blanks and outdated contacts.
  6. Regarding limits, depending on who you ask, a Yealink phone can handle at least 300 contacts, or maybe 1000. Another source says you can use a file size of up to 1.5 MB.

Step 2: Access the GUI

  1. Don’t let the acronym scare you. GUI stands for Graphical User Interface and means the same thing as an Embedded Web Page. This is simply the web page that resides inside your Yealink phone.
  2. To access the GUI, you need to be on the same network as your Yealink.
  3. On the Yealink phone, press the OK button from the idle (or Home) screen.
  4. Line 2 should be labeled IPv4. Type that series of numbers into your web browser address bar. For example, mine is 192.168.0.34. Yours won’t be the same as mine. Type it in the address bar and hit enter.
  5. You will probably see the Warning page. It’s okay. Click Advanced.
  6. The warning page will expand. Now, at the bottom of the page, you should see Accept the Risk and Continue. Click it.
  7. You will be presented with the Login screen.
  8. The factory login is
    • Username: admin
    • Password: admin
    • If you or your administrator changed the factory password, use it instead.
  9. Once logged in, you will land on the Status page.
  10. On the left pane, click Directory.
  11. Now click Local Directory.
  12. Click Import.
  13. Click Browse.
  14. Surf over to your Downloads folder, or wherever you saved your contacts in CSV format.
  15. Select the file and click Open.
  16. Click Import.
  17. In the Preview screen, select the appropriate column heading. Use Ignore for all columns you are not importing.
  18. Select OK.

Now you should find the contacts under Directory on your Yealink phone. The next post will talk about how to add VIPs to your speed dials.