iCloud Contacts VCF Viewer

Open a .vcf contacts file without importing it

A .vcf file, also called a vCard, is the standard format for contact cards. iCloud, Mac and iPhone contact exports, Google Contacts and Outlook can all produce one. Opening it normally means importing it into an address book, which mixes it into your existing contacts. The VCF Viewer lets you look inside the file first, so you can check what an export contains before you decide what to do with it.

How to export contacts from iCloud

1. On a computer, sign in to iCloud.com and open Contacts.
2. Select one contact, several, or all of them.
3. Open the share or settings menu and choose Export vCard. The browser downloads a .vcf file.
4. On a Mac you can also select contacts in the Contacts app and choose File, then Export, then Export vCard.

You export the file yourself. This tool never signs in to an account and never sees your Apple ID.

What the viewer shows

• Full name, name parts, nickname, organization, department and job title.
• Every phone number and email address with its label, including custom Apple labels and preferred values.
• Postal addresses, websites, notes, birthdays, anniversaries and other dates, including birthdays saved without a year.
• Social profiles, instant messaging accounts, categories and contact groups with their member counts.
• Raw properties for each contact, so fields added by other apps are not hidden.
• Warnings for anything unusual, such as a card with no END line or a line that is not a valid property.

Search, cards and table

Search matches names, organizations, emails and phone numbers. Phone search ignores spaces and punctuation, so typing the last digits finds the number however it was formatted. The card view is easy to scan; the table view is sortable and paged for large exports.

vCard versions

Version 2.1 is common in older phone backups and often stores accented names as quoted-printable text with a character set. Version 3.0 is what iCloud and the Mac Contacts app usually export, with labels stored as grouped properties. Version 4.0 is the newest standard and uses data URIs for photos and a different form for birthdays without a year. The viewer understands all three and unfolds long lines correctly, including lines folded in the middle of an accented character.

Exports

CSV export produces a UTF-8 file with a byte order mark that opens correctly in Excel, with cells that could run as formulas neutralised. JSON export includes every field and every raw property, with embedded photos replaced by a short size label.

Limitations

• One file of up to 25 MB and 20,000 contacts at a time.
• Photos are never drawn as images and photo links are never opened, to keep the file from contacting any server.
• Websites are shown as plain text rather than clickable links.

Privacy

The file is read by JavaScript in your browser tab. It is not uploaded, stored or sent to A2Z Tools, and closing the tab discards it.

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.