CSV to iCloud Contacts VCF Converter

From spreadsheet to iCloud Contacts

Contact lists often live in Excel or come out of another service as CSV, but iCloud Contacts imports vCard (.vcf) files. This converter builds that vCard for you, in your browser, with checks that stop half-empty or broken cards from reaching your address book.

Preparing the CSV

• In Excel, use Save As and choose CSV UTF-8 so accented names survive.
• From Google Contacts, export in Google CSV format. Its Phone 1 - Type and E-mail 1 - Type columns are read so mobile, home and work labels are kept.
• From Outlook, export contacts to a comma or semicolon separated file. Outlook uses Title for Mr. or Ms. and Job Title for the role; the converter maps them that way.
• A header row is detected automatically, and a file without headers is guessed from its data.

Mapping and validation

Each CSV column shows an example value and a menu of what it should become: full name or name parts, nickname, organization, department, job title, phones by type, emails by type, home, work or other address parts, website, birthday or notes. Several columns can feed the same kind of field, for example two mobile numbers.

What is checked

• A row needs a name, a valid phone number or a valid email address. Other rows are skipped and listed with their row number.
• Email addresses must contain a user, an @ and a domain.
• Birthdays must be real calendar dates. Day and month order is never guessed when both readings are possible.
• Websites must be http or https addresses; anything else, such as a javascript: link, is left out.

vCard 3.0 or 4.0

vCard 3.0 is what iCloud and the Mac Contacts app use, and it is the safest choice for importing into iCloud. vCard 4.0 is the newer standard used by some other apps. Both are written with escaped commas and semicolons, CRLF line endings and lines folded at 75 bytes without splitting any character.

How to import the file into iCloud

1. Sign in to iCloud.com on a computer and open Contacts.
2. Use the import option in the settings or share menu and choose the downloaded .vcf.
3. Alternatively, open the .vcf on a Mac, iPhone or iPad and add the contacts there; with iCloud Contacts turned on they sync.

Import a small test file first. Importing the same file twice creates duplicates.

Limitations

• Up to 10 MB of CSV and 20,000 rows per run.
• Only the fields in the mapping menu are written; photos and contact groups cannot come from a CSV.
• Phone numbers are written as they appear in the spreadsheet and are not reformatted or given a country code.
• The tool cannot check whether a contact already exists in your account, so remove duplicates before or after importing.

Privacy

The CSV is parsed and converted in your browser. It is not uploaded to A2Z Tools, and nothing is added to any account.

A2Z Tools is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. iCloud, iPhone and Apple are trademarks of Apple Inc.