Moving contacts between contact apps

Contacts live in apps: Outlook, Google Contacts, Apple’s Contacts, a CRM or a mailing list tool. Moving to a new one means getting them out of the old one in a file the new one will take, and the two rarely agree. Most offer two kinds of file: vCards (.vcf), the standard format for contact cards, and CSV, a spreadsheet of rows and columns. vCards are also what phones use to send a contact or export a whole address book, so a .vcf from a phone goes through the same steps. These tools combine, tidy and convert those files in your browser; the contacts aren’t uploaded anywhere.

1. Export from the old app

Export everything, as a vCard file if the app offers one, since it keeps more detail than a CSV: several numbers and addresses, photos and notes. Apple’s Contacts exports vCards from File › Export, and Google Contacts offers vCard as well as two kinds of CSV. Outlook and many business systems export CSV only, which is fine too. If your contacts are spread across several apps or accounts, export each.

2. Open, merge and remove duplicates

Open the vCard Viewer & Converter and choose every export at once, vCard and CSV together. It reads vCard versions 2.1 (older phones and Outlook), 3.0 and 4.0, and CSVs with its own columns or the usual ones from Google and Outlook, then lists every contact with their organisation, email addresses and phone numbers.

Tick Leave out duplicates to drop contacts that appear in more than one export. Only exact copies are dropped (the same name, email addresses and phone numbers), so two slightly different entries for one person both stay; merge those in the new app, which usually has a tool for it.

3. Fix garbled names

If names show Müller for Müller, or ? in place of accented letters, the export was saved in one text encoding and read as another. Open the file in the Encoding Fixer, which finds and repairs the usual mix-ups, Save as a file, and open the repaired file in the converter again. Check names with accents, and any in other alphabets, before going on.

4. Save in the format the new app imports

• Save as one .vcf suits most contacts apps, including Google Contacts and Apple’s Contacts, and phones. Keep vCard version on 3.0, which almost every app reads, unless the new app asks for 4.0. Tick Leave out photos if the file is too large to import.
• Save as CSV suits spreadsheets, mailing list tools and CRMs. It has a column for each part of the name and for each email address, phone number and address, with their types. When importing, the app usually asks which of its fields each column fills; match them carefully, as a mismatched column puts phone numbers in the wrong field for everyone.
• Save a .vcf for each (ZIP) gives one file per contact, for apps that take one at a time, or for sending one person’s details by email.

If you’ve edited the CSV in a spreadsheet before importing, check it with the Data Validator, which points out rows with the wrong number of columns, a common cause of failed or shifted imports.

5. Import, then check before deleting anything

Import the file into the new app, then open a few contacts you know well, ideally ones with several numbers, an address and an accented name, and check every field landed in the right place. Keep the old app’s exports until you’re sure: apps differ in what they import, and fields one doesn’t understand may be dropped without warning. Contact details are personal data, so delete the files from downloads folders and email once you’re done.