How to import contacts from a CSV or vCard file without making duplicates
Export the contacts as a vCard (.vcf) file where you can, because it carries every phone number and address in a fixed shape; use CSV when that is all the old program offers, and check the column matching before you import. Import once, into an empty or backed-up address book, so a second attempt does not double everything.
30 October 2026 · 4 min read
vCard or CSV
A vCard (.vcf) is the standard format for contact cards, and one file can hold hundreds of them. It has a place for everything: several phone numbers with their kinds, several addresses, birthdays, a photo. Versions 2.1, 3.0 and 4.0 are all in use, and most programs read all three.
A CSV file is a table, one contact per row, and its columns are whatever the exporting program chose. Google’s and Outlook’s CSV files name their columns differently, so a CSV always needs its columns matched to fields when it comes in.
Getting the file out
- iPhone: at icloud.com, Contacts, select all, then Export vCard.
- Android: in the Contacts app, Settings or Fix and manage, then Export to file, which writes a .vcf.
- Gmail: in Google Contacts, Export, then Google CSV, Outlook CSV or vCard.
- Outlook for Windows (classic): File, Open and Export, Import/Export, Export to a file, Comma Separated Values.
Bringing it in
Google Contacts and iCloud import both formats from their own Import buttons. Classic Outlook imports CSV through the same Import/Export wizard and lets you map each column; opened directly, a .vcf holding many contacts often brings in only the first one, so for Outlook a CSV is the easier route.
The usual problems, and how to avoid them
- Garbled names. Accents and non-Latin letters turn into symbols when a CSV is saved in an old character set. Save or export as UTF-8.
- Lost leading zeros and plus signs. Opening a CSV in a spreadsheet to tidy it can turn +44 7700 900123 into a number in scientific notation. Edit a CSV in a text editor, or import the phone column as text.
- Columns in the wrong fields. Look at the preview of the first few contacts before you confirm, especially for a CSV.
- Duplicates. Importing the same file twice, or two files with the same people in them, doubles them in most programs. Google Contacts has a Merge and fix page afterwards; it is easier not to need it.
Our own product, disclosed
Where our own software comes into this
We make Rutba Office, a free desktop suite for Windows. Its Contacts app imports both kinds of file and shows a preview with the columns of a CSV matched to fields, to check before anything is added. A person who is in two files is folded into one card, and importing the same file again adds nothing twice. Cards can be searched by company or tag, and every card exported to one .vcf for the next program. The address book stays on your own computer.
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