VCF file viewer

How to open a .vcf file

1. Choose the .vcf file, or drop it on the page. You can add several files at once.
2. Read the contacts. Each one shows as a card, sorted by name, with phone numbers and e-mail addresses you can tap or click. The summary above the list counts the contacts and shows the vCard version.
3. Search for a name, company, e-mail address or part of a phone number. Spaces and dashes in numbers are ignored.
4. Save a copy as an Excel or CSV file if you want the contacts as a table.

What is a .vcf file?

A .vcf file is a vCard, the standard format for contact details. Phones, Google Contacts, iCloud and Outlook all export and import it. One file can hold a single contact, such as a card attached to an e-mail, or a whole address book with thousands of contacts, one after another. Three versions are in use: 2.1 (older phones and Outlook), 3.0 (iPhone, Google) and 4.0. The viewer reads all three.

Why a .vcf file won’t open, or opens wrong

• No contacts app on the computer. Windows only has the old Windows Contacts, which shows one card at a time, so a .vcf file may open there, in Outlook or in a text editor full of lines like TEL;TYPE=CELL:. The viewer shows the same file as readable cards.
• Classic Outlook shows only the first contact. It treats a .vcf file as one contact card. To get every contact into Outlook, save an Outlook CSV copy here and import that.
• Odd characters in names. Older phones save accented letters in an encoding called quoted-printable. The viewer decodes it, so “=C3=A9” shows as “é”.
• No contacts at all. “VCF” is also the name of a genetics format (Variant Call Format) from DNA labs. Those files hold gene variants, not contacts, and contact apps can’t read them.

Adding the contacts to a phone or account

The viewer only reads the file. To add the contacts, import the .vcf file in the app you use:

• iPhone: open the file from Mail, Messages or Files, then tap Add All Contacts. The iPhone import guide covers the other ways.
• Android: in Google’s Contacts app, use Organize (called Fix & manage in older versions) → Import from file.
• Google Contacts on a computer: Import in the side menu, then choose the file.
• Outlook: save an Outlook CSV copy here, then import the CSV: in classic Outlook with File → Open & Export → Import/Export, in new Outlook and Outlook.com from People → Import contacts. The Outlook contacts guide has every step.

Check the contacts here first: a quick look shows duplicates, empty cards or missing numbers before they reach your phone.