How to export iPhone contacts as a vCard (.vcf)

vCard (filename extension .vcf) is the universal contact-card format. Every contacts app on every platform reads it. If you're moving contacts between iPhone and Android, between two Apple IDs, or just want a portable backup that doesn't depend on iCloud, vCard is the right format. Here's how to produce a clean one.

Three ways to produce a .vcf from iPhone contacts

1. AirDrop a single contact (only works for one)

In the Contacts app, open a contact and tap Share Contact. The share sheet sends a .vcf for that one person via AirDrop, email, or Messages. This is the only built-in way to produce a vCard on the iPhone itself, and it's limited to one contact at a time. Useless for backup, fine for sharing your own card.

2. macOS Contacts or iCloud.com

On a Mac, open Contacts, select all (⌘ + A), then File → Export → Export vCard. You get a single .vcf with every contact. Same flow on iCloud.com: select all, export. Both work, but the iCloud.com path tends to time out above ~5,000 contacts and silently produce a partial file. Always check the contact count after export.

3. Pluck (recommended on iPhone)

Pluck exports a complete .vcf directly on iPhone, with no Mac and no iCloud round-trip:

1. Open Pluck → Backup on the import screen.
2. Grant contacts permission. Pluck reads everything in memory.
3. The vCard is written to a temp file and the iOS share sheet opens. Save to Files, AirDrop to your laptop, or email it to yourself.

Why this matters: Pluck's vCard generator is RFC 6350 compliant, escapes special characters correctly (commas, semicolons, newlines in notes don't break the file), and folds long lines per spec. Some converters skip those steps and produce .vcf files that fail to import on stricter receivers like Microsoft Outlook.

What the vCard format actually looks like

A vCard is a plain-text file. Open it in any text editor and you'll see something like:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
FN:Ada Lovelace
N:Lovelace;Ada;;;
TEL;TYPE=CELL:+44 7700 900123
EMAIL:ada@example.com
ORG:Analytical Engine Co.
END:VCARD

The full spec is RFC 6350. There are three live versions in the wild: 2.1 (legacy, still produced by some Android exporters), 3.0 (the current default for most apps including iOS), and 4.0 (newer, less universal). Stick with 3.0 if you want maximum compatibility.

Validating a .vcf file before you trust it

Before you delete the original contacts or rely on a backup, sanity-check the file:

• Count the cards. Open the .vcf in a text editor. Search for BEGIN:VCARD and check the match count equals your contact count.
• Open it in another contacts app. Drag onto macOS Contacts in a sandboxed test account, or import into Google Contacts at contacts.google.com. If it imports cleanly there, it'll import almost anywhere.
• Spot-check a non-Latin contact. If you have any names with accents or non-Latin characters, find one in the text editor and verify it didn't become mojibake.

Why we don't recommend the iCloud sync method as a "backup"

iCloud Contacts isn't a backup. It's a sync. If you delete a contact on your phone, it disappears from iCloud within seconds. A real backup is a .vcf file you control, stored somewhere outside the sync chain (a hard drive, a different cloud, an email to yourself). See our separate guide on backing up iPhone contacts without iCloud.