Open a VCF file and convert it to Excel, on any device

To open a VCF file, you usually just tap or double-click it, and your phone or computer offers to add the contacts inside. The trouble starts when you want to read it as a list, put it in Excel, or the names come out as strange symbols. This guide covers all of that, device by device.

Short answer: A VCF (vCard) file is a plain-text contacts file. On iPhone, Android and Mac, opening it offers to add its contacts. To turn it into an Excel table, import it into Google Contacts, export it again as a CSV file and open that CSV in Excel with UTF-8 encoding. If you only want to peek inside, open the file in a plain text editor.

What is inside a VCF file

A VCF file is text. Open it in Notepad or TextEdit and you will see blocks like this:

BEGIN:VCARDVERSION:3.0FN:Ayşe YılmazTEL;TYPE=CELL:+90 555 000 00 00EMAIL:[email protected]:VCARD

Each block from BEGIN:VCARD to END:VCARD is one person. A single file can hold one contact or thousands. The VERSION line matters more than it looks: older phones often write version 2.1, newer apps write 3.0 or 4.0, and some programs only read some of them well. That is behind most "it won't open" and "the letters are broken" problems.

Because the file is plain text, anyone who opens it can read every name, number and note inside. Keep that in mind before you upload it to a website you don't know. Free online "VCF to Excel" converters ask you to hand over your whole address book, including other people's details. The routes below avoid that.

Open a VCF file on each device

iPhone

Save the file somewhere the iPhone can reach, such as an email attachment or the Files app, and tap it. iOS shows the contact, or the list of contacts in the file, with an option to add them. Imported contacts go into your default contacts account, often iCloud. If you only wanted to look, close the preview without adding anything.

If the same people already exist on the phone, adding the file creates duplicates. Check first. How to back up your iPhone contacts explains where your existing contacts live.

Mac

Apple's Contacts guide lists three ways: double-click the vCard file, drag it onto the Contacts icon or contact list, or choose File > Import in Contacts and select the file. Contacts then asks you to confirm, and it tells you when it finds duplicates so you can review them.

To look without importing, select the file in Finder and press the space bar for Quick Look, or open it with TextEdit.

Official steps: Import contacts into Contacts on Mac (Apple Support).

Windows

Windows has no single contacts app that everyone uses. Double-clicking a VCF may open it in Outlook, in an older Windows Contacts window or in another program you installed. Two common surprises:

• Only the first contact appears. Some Windows programs show only the first person in a file that holds many. The rest are still in the file.
• Letters look wrong. The program may read the file with the wrong encoding. See the section on broken characters below.

To check what the file really contains, right-click it, choose Open with and pick Notepad. To work with the contacts as a list, use the Excel route below.

Android

In Google's Contacts app, the import option sits in the app's organising or management menu, labelled something like Import from file. Choose the account the contacts should go to, then select the VCF file. Samsung and other phones have their own Contacts apps with a similar import option in the settings or menu. Google's help notes that imported contacts are copies; the originals stay where they were.

Google Contacts on a computer

Open contacts.google.com in a browser, click Import, choose Select file, pick the .vcf file and click Import. Google's help adds two practical notes: details that don't fit a field sometimes end up in the contact's notes, and an account can hold up to 25,000 contacts.

Convert a VCF file to Excel

Excel does not read VCF files as a table. Opening one directly gives you a single column of text lines, which is useless for sorting. The reliable free route goes through Google Contacts.

1. Use a spare Google account if you can. Importing adds the contacts to that account and to every phone signed in to it. A separate account, or deleting the imported contacts afterwards, keeps your main address book clean.
2. Import the VCF at contacts.google.com as described above. Google puts the imported contacts under a new label with the import date, which makes them easy to select.
3. Select the imported contacts. Open that label and select all.
4. Export as CSV. Choose Export, select Google CSV and click Export. Google also offers Outlook CSV and vCard; for Excel, Google CSV keeps the most columns.
5. Open the CSV in Excel the safe way. Instead of double-clicking, start a blank workbook and use the data import option for text or CSV files. Set the file encoding to UTF-8 and set the phone number columns to Text.
6. Check a few rows before you save: names with special letters, a contact with several numbers, a number with a leading + or 0.

Google Sheets is an easier alternative for step 5. Import the CSV into a new sheet and it usually reads UTF-8 correctly. You can then download it as an Excel file.

Official steps: Export, back up, or restore contacts (Google Contacts Help).

On a Mac, Contacts can export vCards but not a CSV table, so the Google route is the simplest free option there too. If you are deciding between the two formats in the first place, VCF or CSV for a contacts export explains what each one keeps and loses.

When letters look broken

You open the file and "Şule" shows up as "Åžule", or "Begoña" as "Begoña". The contacts are almost always fine. The program is reading them with the wrong encoding.

• In Excel: don't double-click the CSV. Import it and choose UTF-8, as in step 5 above.
• In a VCF from an older phone: version 2.1 files often store special letters in a coded form, with lines like CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=C5=9Eule. Phones and Google Contacts usually decode this; some desktop programs don't. Importing into Google Contacts first and exporting again usually gives you a clean file.
• When a program can't read your Mac's vCards: Apple's guide notes that Mac Contacts exports vCard 3.0 by default, and the vCard section of Contacts settings lets you switch to 2.1 and change the encoding for an app that needs it. Switch back afterwards.
• Never fix names by hand in a broken file. If you save it, the damage is permanent. Fix the import setting instead and keep the original file.

Many contacts in one file

A file with hundreds of people is normal. To count them, open it in a text editor and search for BEGIN:VCARD. The number of matches is the number of contacts. Compare it with what arrived after the import.

• iPhone, Mac, Android and Google Contacts import every contact in the file.
• Some Windows programs show only the first one, as noted above.
• Google's help suggests splitting a CSV with more than 3,000 contacts into several files before you import it. If an import stops partway, smaller files help.
• Importing the same file twice creates a second copy of everyone. Keep track of which files you have already imported.

If you are moving a file between phones, how to transfer contacts from Android to iPhone shows where imported contacts land. If you are trying to bring back contacts from a backup file, restore contacts from Google covers Google's own restore options.

Where Callmory fits

Callmory is an iPhone app, and contact export is built. You pick contacts from your phone or from Callmory, choose VCF or CSV, and send the file to Mail, Files or any app. If what you want is a list for a spreadsheet, you can export CSV straight away and skip the conversion. If you want a file you can restore to a phone later, choose VCF. Exporting only the people you need also keeps the file small and limits what a stray copy can expose.

Both files are plain text, like any VCF or CSV. They hold contacts, not the notes, follow-ups or voice recordings you keep in Callmory; those go into a separate encrypted app backup, described in encrypted contacts backup. Restoring a Callmory backup into Callmory shows a preview first; restoring into the iPhone's own Contacts app, with your approval, is in progress. The backup flows are free; see pricing.

Frequently asked questions