Sync phone contacts with Yandex on Android and iPhone via CardDAV

Sync phone contacts with Yandex and you get one address book for Android and iPhone without depending on Google or iCloud. Contacts live in Yandex Mail, and the phone pulls and pushes changes over CardDAV — a standard protocol supported by DAVx⁵ on Android and the built-in Contacts app on iOS.

Updated in September 2026: steps and screenshots checked against the current Google Contacts, Yandex Contacts, Yandex ID and DAVx⁵ interfaces; added a diagram, moving contacts that already live on the phone, switching to a new phone, backups, fixes for problems after an iOS update and a troubleshooting table.

How to sync phone contacts with Yandex: the overview

1. Move your existing contacts once: export from Google or iCloud to a vCard file (.vcf) and import it into Yandex.
2. Create a “Contacts” app password in Yandex ID.
3. Connect the phone to carddav.yandex.ru: via DAVx⁵ on Android or with built-in tools on iPhone.
4. Nothing else is needed: all personal contacts live in the Mail contacts section of Yandex Contacts and sync with the phone as a whole, as the Personal address book.

Sync is two-way: a new contact on the phone shows up in Yandex, and edits in Yandex Contacts reach the phone. The key rule is to save new contacts to the CardDAV account, not to phone memory or Google.

Exporting contacts from Google

Before exporting, make sure the phone has pushed its latest contacts to Google: Settings → Accounts → Google → Account sync → ⋮ → Sync now. On Samsung the path is different: Settings → Accounts and backup → Manage accounts → your Google account → Sync account → ⋮ → Sync now. Other manufacturers may name the items a little differently too.

1. Open Google Contacts on a computer. If you have duplicates, merge them first under “Merge & fix” so a clean address book goes to Yandex.
2. Select all contacts: hover over any contact, tick its checkbox, then click the arrow next to it and choose All. The list header shows “N selected”.

3. Click ⋮ (More actions) on the right above the list and choose Export.

4. In the Export contacts window, check that “Selected contacts” shows the right number, pick vCard (for Android or iOS) — it also works for Yandex — and click Export.
5. The contacts.vcf file appears in your Downloads folder.

Exporting contacts from iCloud

On a computer, open iCloud.com → Contacts, select the contacts, click “…” and choose Export vCard. On an iPhone with iOS 16 or later you can skip the computer: Contacts → Lists → long-press “All iCloud” → Export. Details are in Apple’s guide.

Importing contacts into Yandex

1. Open Yandex Contacts (the Contacts section of Yandex Mail).
2. Click ⋯ next to the Create button and choose Import.

3. In the Import mail contacts window, click the upload area or drag the contacts.vcf file into it.
4. Click Import. The contacts appear in Mail, Disk and Calendar.

App password for Yandex CardDAV

Your regular Yandex ID password will not work for CardDAV — you need a separate app password.

1. Open Yandex ID → Security → App passwords.
2. Choose the Contacts type and give it a clear name, for example “DAVx⁵ phone”.
3. Click Next and copy the password right away: it is shown only once. If you closed the window, delete the password and create a new one.

An app password usually works right away. But according to Yandex documentation, activation can take up to 2–3 hours, so if login fails, check your login and password, wait and try again.

How to sync phone contacts with Yandex on Android via DAVx⁵

Android has no built-in CardDAV, so you need a client. The best choice is the free open-source DAVx⁵ from F-Droid; a paid build with the same features is on Google Play. I covered installing F-Droid in the F-Droid 2.0 article, and all DAVx⁵ settings in the DAVx⁵ instead of Google guide.

Before you can sync phone contacts with Yandex on Android, DAVx⁵ shows a short setup wizard on first launch. The first screens matter most:

1. On the Tasks support screen, tick “I don’t need tasks support” — contacts do not need it.
2. On the Permissions screen, turn on “All of the below” and “Keep permissions” so Android does not reset them automatically.

3. If a toggle does not work, tap App settings → Permissions and grant access manually. On Samsung, also turn off Pause app activity if unused there, otherwise the system revokes contacts access after a few months.
4. Turn on Periodic sync intervals — this lets DAVx⁵ run in the background. If Android still stops the sync, turn off battery optimization for the app. You can skip the remaining wizard screens.

Now connect your Yandex account:

5. On the main screen, tap Add account.
6. Choose Login with URL and user name and tap Continue.

7. Enter:
   Base URL: https://carddav.yandex.ru
   User name: the full address, e.g. test@yandex.ru
   Password: the “Contacts” app password.
   Tap Login.
8. Keep the account name equal to your email address. Leave the contact group method at “Groups are separate vCards” (the default). Tap Finish.

9. Open the new account and go to the CardDAV tab. Turn on the toggle next to the Personal address book — these are your personal Yandex contacts — and tap Sync. Books marked “read only” are shared organization address books in Yandex 360; enable them only if you need them on the phone.
10. Tap Personal to check the result: it should say sync is enabled and read/write, and “Last synced” should show the current time. The item count shows how many contacts reached the phone.

Make sure new contacts are saved to this account: when creating a contact, pick the Personal (your Yandex address) address book at the top of the screen, not “Phone” or Google. In the Contacts app you can make it the default account.

On Samsung the DAVx⁵ account may not show up in the list, and new contacts keep going to Google. In that case open the Contacts app and tap View all contacts — after that you can pick the DAVx⁵ address book when creating a contact.

Yandex account settings in DAVx⁵. Tap the account, then the gear icon at the top. By default the contacts sync interval is every 240 minutes and immediately on local changes: a new contact from the phone goes to Yandex right away, while edits made on the web arrive on the interval or when you tap “Synchronize”. You can also turn on “Sync only over WiFi” there. If you deleted or replaced the app password in Yandex ID, do not remove the account: under “Authentication” tap the account or app password option → “Update password” and paste the new one.

How to sync phone contacts with Yandex on iPhone and iPad (iOS)

You can sync phone contacts with Yandex on iPhone in a couple of minutes. To get Yandex contacts on iPhone, you need no extra apps: CardDAV is built into iOS. The screenshots below are from iOS 27; iOS 18 uses the same path, while older versions start at Settings → Contacts → Accounts.

1. Open Settings → Apps → Contacts → Contacts Accounts and tap Add Account.

2. At the bottom of the list of mail services, tap Add Other Account… and choose Add CardDAV Account.

3. Enter:
   Server: carddav.yandex.ru
   User name: the full address, e.g. test@yandex.ru (for Yandex 360 for Business — the address on your domain)
   Password: the “Contacts” app password.
   You can leave the description as is. Tap Next.
4. If the iPhone cannot connect, open the new account → Advanced and check that SSL is on and the port is 443 (Yandex also accepts 8443).
5. Go back to Contacts settings and set Default Account to carddav.yandex.ru — new contacts will then go straight to Yandex.

How to check that Yandex contacts reached the phone

Previously only the “Phone contacts” group synced with the phone, and you had to move contacts into it by hand. The new Yandex Contacts interface does not need this: all personal contacts live in the Mail contacts section, and that is what reaches the phone as the Personal address book. Contacts imported from a file and new contacts created on the phone land there right away. The “From organization” section holds shared Yandex 360 address books and is read only.

1. Create a test contact in the Personal address book on the phone and start a sync: tap Sync in DAVx⁵, or pull down the list in Contacts on iPhone.
2. Open Yandex Contacts → Mail contacts and search for the contact — it should appear within seconds.
3. Compare the counts: the number next to Mail contacts should roughly match the item count of the Personal address book in DAVx⁵.

How to move contacts that already live on the phone

Contacts stored in phone memory or in a Google account never reach Yandex. The most reliable way is to move them with a file as well:

1. In the phone’s Contacts app, find export (usually “Manage contacts” → “Import/Export” → “Export to .vcf file”).
2. Upload the file to Yandex Contacts as described above — the contacts land in Mail contacts right away and reach the phone on the next sync.
3. After syncing, delete the old copies from phone memory or hide the Google account in Contacts to avoid duplicates.

How to move Yandex contacts to a new phone

Once you sync phone contacts with Yandex, moving to a new phone takes a couple of minutes and needs no export. Add the same CardDAV account on the new device — via DAVx⁵ on Android or in iPhone settings — and all Mail contacts download by themselves. Switching between Android and iPhone is just as easy: the address book lives in Yandex, not in the Google or Apple ecosystem.

Create a separate app password for each device. If a phone is lost, you revoke only its password in Yandex ID, and the other devices keep syncing.

Backing up your Yandex contacts

Sync is not a backup: a contact deleted on the phone is deleted in Yandex too. So every few months, and before any change — a system update, a new phone, re-adding the account — save a copy to a file.

1. Open Yandex Contacts on a computer.
2. Click ⋯ next to Create → Export — all contacts are saved to a vCard file.
3. Keep the file off the phone: on a computer, a USB drive or in encrypted cloud storage.
4. To restore contacts, upload the file back: ⋯ → Import.

Details are in the Yandex Mail help on managing contacts.

What to do if Yandex contacts vanish from the iPhone after an iOS update

Sometimes after a major iOS update the CardDAV account stays in settings, but Yandex contacts on iPhone are no longer visible. Go step by step:

1. Open Yandex Contacts in a browser. If everything is there, the data is safe and the problem is only on the phone. Save a copy to a file right away, as described above.
2. In the Contacts app, tap Lists in the top left and check that the CardDAV account list is there and selected.
3. Create a new “Contacts” app password. It usually works right away, but activation can sometimes take up to 2–3 hours.
4. Remove the CardDAV account and add it again with the new password.
5. If the account is added but the list is empty, open its settings → Advanced and check that SSL is on and the port is 443 or 8443.

If birthdays or phone number types are missing in the Yandex web version too, the data was lost on the service side. Restore it from a backup or contact Yandex support.

Yandex, Google or iCloud: where to keep your contacts

Yandex’s main advantage is that it works the same on Android and iPhone. Google Contacts is convenient mostly on Android and iCloud mostly on Apple devices, while you can sync phone contacts with Yandex without tying yourself to either ecosystem: switching phones or platforms needs no export.

Feature	Yandex	Google	iCloud
Android	via DAVx⁵	built in	third-party clients only
iPhone	built-in CardDAV	built in	built in
Protocol	CardDAV	own API and CardDAV	CardDAV
Web version	Yandex Contacts	Google Contacts	iCloud.com
Backup	vCard export	vCard and CSV export	vCard export
CardDAV login	app password	Google account sign-in	Apple app-specific password

If you use Yandex Mail, Disk or Calendar, your Yandex contacts are available there right away: addresses autocomplete when you write an email, and birthdays show up in Calendar. Do not keep the same address book in two clouds at once — you will get duplicates. Pick one main service and hide the other accounts in the Contacts app.

If you cannot sync phone contacts with Yandex

Problem	Cause	Fix
Password rejected	regular password, or the app password is not active yet	use a “Contacts” app password and the full address; if that fails, wait up to 2–3 hours
Sync stopped after the app password changed	the old password was deleted in Yandex ID	in DAVx⁵: account → gear icon → account or app password → paste the new password; no need to remove the account
Yandex contacts do not appear on the phone	the Personal address book is off or no sync has run yet	turn on Personal on the CardDAV tab in DAVx⁵ and tap Sync; on iPhone pull down the list
New contacts do not reach Yandex	saved to phone memory or Google	set the CardDAV account as default; on Samsung first tap View all contacts in the Contacts app
New contacts are not visible on Android	the DAVx⁵ account is hidden in the Contacts app	turn on the DAVx⁵ account in the Contacts display settings (“Contacts to display”), on Samsung — View all contacts
Yandex contacts vanished after an iOS update	the account is still there, but the address book no longer loads	check the contacts in Yandex Contacts and save them to vCard, create a new app password, remove and re-add the CardDAV account, check “Lists” in the Contacts app
Android sync stops	battery optimization	disable battery optimization for DAVx⁵
Duplicate contacts	the same people in both Google and CardDAV	merge duplicates before export, hide the extra account

Yandex Calendar syncs the same way over CalDAV: server caldav.yandex.ru and a “Calendar” app password. For a step-by-step guide, including moving events from Google and iCloud, see how to sync your calendar with Yandex. And if you are leaving Gmail entirely, see the guide on moving email from Google to Yandex.

FAQ: how to sync phone contacts with Yandex