Converters
Converters · Free · Private

Contacts Converter (vCard ↔ CSV)

Phone contacts to a spreadsheet and back, with Google and Outlook column names ready to import.

  • Runs in your browser
  • No upload
  • No sign-up

Drop files here, or

vCard files (.vcf) from iPhone, Android, Google, Outlook · several at once is fine

Stays on your device

About this tool

Contacts Converter moves an address book between the two formats everything uses. A vCard file (.vcf) is what an iPhone, an Android phone, iCloud, Google Contacts and Outlook give you when you export or share contacts. A CSV file is a spreadsheet. Going one way lets you tidy, sort or print your contacts in Excel or Google Sheets; going the other lets you load a list from a club, a client database or an old system straight into your phone.

It reads every vCard version still in use. Old Android and Nokia exports in version 2.1, with names hidden in “quoted-printable” code such as J=C3=BCrgen, come out as Jürgen. iPhone 3.0 files keep their custom labels like “Gym”, and their birthdays without a year. Long folded lines, several numbers per person and many contacts in one file are all handled. Contact photos are left out, and the tool tells you how many.

For the spreadsheet you choose the layout: Google Contacts’ own column names, Outlook’s, or a plain one-column-per-field table. Coming back, it guesses which column is which from the headings and lets you correct any guess before saving. Your contacts never leave this page: nothing is uploaded and nothing is kept.

How to use Contacts Converter (vCard ↔ CSV)

  1. For vCard → CSV, press “Choose .vcf files” (or drop them on the box, or “Paste vCard text instead”). Several files at once are combined.
  2. Check “Contacts found”: the counts and any notes, such as photos left out.
  3. Pick a layout — “Google Contacts”, “Outlook” or “Simple (one column per field)” — and a separator, then look over the preview.
  4. Press “Download CSV”, or “Copy CSV” to paste it into a sheet.
  5. For CSV → vCard, open the “CSV → vCard” tab, choose your file, and fix any column under “Which column is which?” that was guessed wrong.
  6. Choose vCard 3.0 or 4.0 and press “Download .vcf”. Open that file on your phone, or import it at contacts.google.com or in Outlook.
Example

An old Android export line N;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:M=C3=BCller;J=C3=BCrgen;;; becomes First Name “Jürgen” and Last Name “Müller”. With the Google layout, an iPhone number saved with the label “Gym” lands in Phone 1 - Label = Gym and Phone 1 - Value = +44 7700 900999.

Features

  • Reads vCard 2.1, 3.0 and 4.0, including folded lines, quoted-printable text in any character set, and old “TEL;CELL” style types.
  • Keeps iPhone custom labels, preferred numbers and year-less birthdays, in both directions.
  • Three spreadsheet layouts: Google Contacts import columns, Outlook import columns and a simple one-column-per-field table.
  • Outlook’s fixed slots are filled by type (mobile, home, business, fax); anything left over is added to Notes instead of being dropped.
  • Excel-safe option: a byte-order mark so accents and non-Latin names open correctly, and an apostrophe before any cell starting with = + - or @ so it can’t run as a formula.
  • Column matching that recognises Google, Outlook and everyday headings such as “Surname”, “Mobile” or “Postcode”, with a dropdown for every column.
  • Comma or semicolon CSV out; comma, semicolon, tab or pipe CSV in, detected automatically, including files saved by Excel on Windows.
  • Preview tables, counts and plain warnings before you download, plus a peek at the vCard text itself.

Tips and good to know

  • On an iPhone, open Contacts, touch and hold a list name, and choose Export to get one .vcf file. On Android, the Contacts app’s settings have an Export option.
  • Importing into Google? Use the Google Contacts layout: its column names are the ones Google itself exports, so every field lands in the right place.
  • If Excel shows everything in one column, download again with the semicolon separator; many European Excel versions expect it.
  • Choose vCard 3.0 for phones. Version 4.0 is newer, but some address books still read it poorly.
Are my contacts uploaded anywhere?

No. The files are read and converted by your own browser on this page. Nothing is sent to a server, and nothing is saved after you close the tab.

Is it free, and is there a size limit?

It is free with no sign-up. There is no set limit: thousands of contacts convert in a moment. Only the first 50 rows are drawn in the preview, but every contact goes into the download.

Does it work on my phone, and offline?

Yes. It works in Safari and Chrome on phones and tablets, so you can pick a .vcf straight from Files. Once the page has loaded it needs no connection.

Why are the contact photos missing?

A spreadsheet cell can’t hold a picture, so photos are skipped and counted in the notes. The rest of each contact is kept.

Some of my columns weren’t used. What do I do?

Columns the tool doesn’t recognise are listed under the contacts and set to “Ignore this column”. Choose the right field in that column’s dropdown, or Notes, and the preview updates at once.

What does the apostrophe in some cells mean?

A cell starting with =, +, - or @ can be run as a formula by Excel, which is a known trick for hiding harmful commands in shared files. The apostrophe makes Excel show it as plain text. Phone numbers such as +44 20 7946 0000 are left alone.

Which vCard version should I choose?

vCard 3.0 is read by iPhone, Android, Google, Outlook and almost everything else. Pick 4.0 only if the app you are importing into asks for it.

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