How to create and manage contacts - Zoho Contacts

How to create and manage contacts in Zoho Contacts

In Zoho Contacts, you can organize and maintain contacts efficiently. To get started, sign in to Zoho Contacts, where you can add new contacts, merge duplicates, delete unwanted entries, and manage your contacts by archiving and unarchiving them, and many more actions.

Info
Access to the Organization contact actions may vary based on your user role and organization policy.

Add Contact

You can add contacts under the PERSONAL or ORGANIZATION section by creating and using categories. Refer to the Organize Contacts document to add contacts under specific categories.
  1. Click New Contact or the  icon in the top menu bar.
  2. Enter the contact's information.
  3. Click Save.
Info
  1. If no name is entered, Zoho Contacts automatically uses the part of the email before '@' as the contact's name.
  2. You can add a maximum of five mobile numbers and five email addresses per contact.
If you add an organization user to your personal category using only their email address, the remaining contact details will be automatically populated from the organization directory after saving.


Edit Contact

  1. Find and click the contact's name from your contact list.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Update the information and click Save.

Delete Contacts

Organization contacts cannot be edited or deleted in Zoho Contacts because their details are automatically synced from your organization's user directory and other connected Zoho services (e.g., Zoho Mail, Zoho Cliq, Zoho WorkDrive, Zoho Sign, Zoho Tables, Zoho Lens).
Notes
Only personal contacts and external contacts that you've added manually in Zoho Contacts can be edited or deleted.
You can delete a contact in two ways:
  1. Click on the contact name, then click Delete.
  2. Select one or more contacts using the checkboxes, then click the   icon in the top menu bar.
Info
Deleted contacts are moved to Trash and deleted permanently after 30 days. You can restore them before that.

Restore Contacts

  1. Click the  icon in the top menu bar, then click Trash.
  2. Select the number of days for which you want to restore deleted contacts from the past period, then click Restore.


Notes
To clear the contacts from the trash, select Clear.

Merge Contacts

If you have a duplicate listing for the same person in Zoho Contacts. You can merge up to 5 contacts at a time.
To merge contacts,
  1. Select the contacts you want to merge using the checkboxes.
  2. Click the  icon in the top menu bar, then select the primary email address.
  3. Click Merge.
 

Archive Contacts

Archiving moves a contact out of your active contacts list without permanently deleting them.
You can archive a contact in two ways:
  1. Click on the contact name, then click Archive.
  2. Select one or more contacts using the checkboxes, then click the  icon in the top menu bar.

Info
If a contact is archived, they will not appear in search results from other Zoho services.


Unarchive Contacts

You can restore the archived contacts to your active contacts list.
  1. Click Archived in the left menu.
  2. You can unarchive a contact in two ways:
    1. Click the contact name, then Unarchive.
    2. Select one or more contacts using the checkboxes, then click the  icon in the top menu bar.

Inactive Contacts

Contacts that are deactivated by an admin from the associated services, such as when an individual leaves the company, changes role, or no longer requires access are moved to an inactive state.
  1. Inactive contacts are moved to the Inactive section and removed from the My Contacts (Personal) or Org Contacts (Organization) section.
  2. If a contact becomes active again, they are moved back to the My Contacts or Org Contacts section.
  3. Inactive contacts cannot be edited, but can be deleted.
Info
Inactive contacts do not appear in the search results from other services.

Sort Contacts

Zoho Contacts lets you sort your contacts alphabetically by first name or last name.
  1. Click the icon in the top menu bar.
  2. Select First Name or Last Name.

Search Contacts

You can search for contacts in two ways:
  1. In Zoho Contacts: Use the search bar at the top-right corner.
  2. In Zoho Mail: Use the search bar at the top-right corner and select Contacts from the drop-down.
Info
In both cases, click the search type and select contains. You can filter your search results by: all, first name, last name, email, or company name.


You can print a single contact or multiple contacts at once in Card View or List View.
Print Views
  1. Card View: Prints contacts as business cards. You can customize the color of the business cards to match your Zoho Mail theme color.
  2. List View: Prints contacts in a table format.
To print contacts,
  1. Select the contacts to print using the checkboxes.
  2. Choose the print option in either way:
    1. Click the  icon, then click Print.
    2. Click the  icon in the top menu bar.
  3. Select the view of the contacts to be printed:
    1. Card View - Click the  icon in the top-right corner.
    1. List View - Click the  icon in the top-right corner.
  1. In the Customize your Card section, choose which details to display, such as Work/Home, Email, and Phone Number
  2. Click Print.
Notes
To add more contacts for printing, click the   icon in the top-right corner menu in Print Contacts page .

Clean Duplicate Contacts

You can remove duplicate contacts from your list.
  1. Click the   icon and hover over Clean Duplicates.
  2. Select a method:
    1. Auto: All duplicate contacts are deleted automatically after you confirm in the pop-up window.
    2. Manual: Duplicate contacts are listed for your review. You can choose to Merge, Delete, or Skip each one individually.


Bulk Edit Contacts

Bulk edit allows you to edit the details of multiple contacts at once. You can edit upto 100 contacts at once.
Notes
Bulk edit is not supported for organization contacts in Zoho Contacts.

To edit bulk contacts,
  1. Select the contacts you want to edit.
  2. Click the  icon.
  3. Select the field you want to edit. You can choose from the following options.
    1. Last Name
    2. Middle Name
    3. Nick Name
    4. Company
    5. Designation
  4. Select the action to be performed for the selected field:
    1. Update and Add - Updates the field for selected contacts and adds it if the field is empty.
    2. Add - Adds the field value for contacts where the field is empty.
    3. Clear - Clears the exisiting value for the field across selected contacts.
  5. Click Edit another field to modify an additional field.
  6. Click Edit all and review the consent screen. 
  7. Click Proceed to apply changes.

Send an Email

You can send emails to individual contacts or to contacts in a category using Zoho Mail.
  1. Send via Zoho Mail
    1. Sign in to Zoho Mail.
    2. Click New Mail, then click To.
    3. Select the required category from the drop-down in the top-right corner of the pop-up window.
    4. Select the contacts you want to email.
    5. Click Insert.
  2. Send from Zoho Contacts
    1. Go to Contacts from Zoho Mail.
    2. Select the contacts you want to email.
    3. Click the Mailbox option. A new tab will open in the email section.
    4. You can also send an email by clicking the  icon to the right side of the contact name.

View Account activity and history

Zoho Contacts allows you to track the activity of your account and history of the contacts in your organization.
  1. To view the activity of your account, click the  icon in the top menu bar, then click Account Activity.
  1. To view a specific contact's activity, click the required contact and click History on the left panel.

Upload a Display Picture for a Contact

If a contact has already set a display picture in their Zoho Account, it will automatically appear in Zoho Contacts.

Info
  1. Only admins can change the display pictures of contacts in ORGANIZATION and ORG GROUPS.
  2. Changes made in Zoho Contacts are not reflected in Zoho Accounts.
To change contacts display picture in Zoho Contacts:
  1. Click a contact from the list, then click Edit.
  2. Click the  icon on the profile picture.
  3. Click either Choose from Desktop or Reset to Default.
  4. Select the photo and click Upload.