How to view a vcf file on a computer. What is the VCF file extension? How to get contacts from a vcf file

09.12.2023 Memory cards

When buying a new phone or flashing an old one, we are recommended to create a backup copy of contacts from the phone book, so as not to lose important information and not waste time entering numbers manually. After creating a copy and saving it on the computer, we need to open the .vcf file to view the contact's phone number. But how to do this and using what program? We will consider the answer to these questions below.

How to open .vcf?

The extension file.vcf is a subscriber’s business card, which stores information about the contact (name, phone, email, personal website and links to pages on social networks). It can be opened using standard tools of any mobile operating system. But in Windows there are some nuances.

Windows Address Book

Standard method that does not require installation of additional software. Right-click on the .vcf file and select “Open with” – “Windows Contacts”.

Attention! The built-in Windows Contacts program does not recognize the Cyrillic alphabet! If the numbers from your address book were signed in Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian, they will not be displayed correctly!

Microsoft Outlook

If you have Microsoft Office preinstalled on your machine, you can open “contacts.vcf” using MS Outlook. To do this, drag the .vcf file onto the program's working window and follow the instructions. After viewing the contact details of business cards, they will be saved in the address book of the email client.

Nokia Suite

An epoch-making application from Nokia, in which creating a backup copy of contacts and restoring them is a small part of the entire functionality. The application will allow you to view contact data and restore it on your mobile device (if it is manufactured by Nokia Corporation).

Notepad++

A multifunctional text editor that supports many encodings and guarantees the correct display of information. The application cannot export data to mobile devices, but allows you to edit a contact: add, delete and edit information.

Google's Gmail

To view contacts in .vcf format, you can use Google services.

Create an account or sign in to Gmail.
Click on the drop-down list and click the “Contacts” button.
In the “More” tab, click “Import” – “Import from a CSV or vCard file.”
Confirm the transition to the previous version of contacts.
In the window that appears, click “More” – “Import”.

A number of users may receive an email containing an attachment file with the “vcf” extension. This file usually contains data about contacts previously exported from the phone contacts book. At the same time, there are also files with the VCF extension that have nothing to do with the contact book. In this article I will tell you what this format is, how to open the VCF extension on a PC, what programs and services will help us with this, and how to work with them.

Format.VCF

What is VCF

The "VCF" extension is usually an abbreviation for "Virtual Contact File". At the same time, there is also an alternative abbreviation - “vCard File” (vCard file).

This file is usually used to store contact information in digital format (person's first and last name, address, email, phone number and other relevant information). With its help, it is convenient to exchange contacts between address books, the file can be easily attached to an email, and it supports pictures and other media content.

In addition, a file with the vcf extension can act as a VirtualDub editor settings file (VirtualDub Processing Settings), as a WorldToolKit Objects API configuration file (Vevi Configuration File), as a FileViewPro program service file, a relevant file for VP HybridCAD Native Format, etc.

Description of the business card extension

How to open VCF

If our file contains contact information, the following programs will help open it:

1.Windows Contacts is a classic application for viewing Windows contacts. It works quite poorly with Cyrillic characters, so for a Russian-speaking user its use will not be entirely convenient.

Windows Contacts

2.vCardOrganizer – a convenient program for working with digital cards. Allows you to create, modify and view vCards, supports displaying photos, printing cards on a printer, and so on. The program is paid, but you can try searching the Internet for its free variations.

vCardOrganizer interface

3.Open Freely is a free viewer that can open many documents and media files (including the vcf files we need).

4.VCFtools – a set of utilities that allow you to work with vcf files, including viewing, merging, converting, and so on.

5.VCF Viewer is a free utility for viewing the contents of vcf files. Its main drawback is that it shows the data of only one contact.

6.Open Contacts - another free tool, a program for storing contact data, allows you to open vcf files.

7.Classic Notepad can also be used as a viewer of raw vcf file data. For a Russian-speaking user, it may be a problem that Cyrillic characters are incorrectly displayed during such viewing (if the contact data is typed in Cyrillic), because Notepad in this case will not be very convenient to use.

Manager contact opened

8.Notepad++ is an advanced text editor that allows you to make minor edits to contact data located in a vcf file.

Notepad++

9. The Eudora OSE mail client, which has quite rich functionality, can also open files with the vcf extension;

Microsoft Outlook and Handy Address Book programs can also open and view files of this format; the disadvantages include the paid nature of these products.

How to open vcf file in Outlook

To view vcf in Outlook do the following:

Contacts will be added to the “Users” section of this program.

How to transfer contacts from a vcf file to Gmail

Contacts from a vcf file can be transferred to the Gmail contact list. To implement this, do the following:

Go to the Gmail mail page;
Click on the arrow next to “Gmail” (top left) and select “Contacts” there;

Go to Contacts

We find our vcf file and click on “Import”, the specified contact will be added to the contact list.

Conclusion

The programs I described above will help you play a VCF file on your computer. Most of them are free, allowing you to easily view the contents of vcf files. If you come across a file that cannot be opened correctly using the listed programs, then perhaps this is a qualitatively different type of file (for example, WorldToolKit Objects API settings), which will be handled by a rather specialized specialist.

RusAdmin.biz

.vcf format: how to open it on a computer and what type of file is it?

How to open a .vcf file?

Windows Address Book

Standard method that does not require installation of additional software. Right-click on the .vcf file and select “Open with” – “Windows Contacts”.

Microsoft Outlook

Nokia Suite

Google's Gmail

To view contacts in .vcf format, you can use Google services.

windowsten.ru

How to open a vcf file on a computer - step-by-step instructions

Due to the great popularity of mobile phones, smartphones and tablets, users are increasingly faced with the need to import and export contacts stored on these devices. If there are only a couple of dozen such contacts, then it is even more or less possible to dial them manually. But more often there is a situation when their number amounts to hundreds, and for fairly sociable people it can exceed the thousand mark. Therefore, to import and export contacts, mobile device manufacturers provide the ability to bulk process contacts using VCF files. Using vcf files, you can transfer contacts not only to smartphones and tablets, but also to many mobile phones that have the ability to connect to a computer. For this, the appropriate software supplied with the mobile phone is used: “Nokia PC Suite”, “Samsung PC Studio”, etc. In this regard, users have a logical question - how to open a vcf file on a computer. We will talk about this in this article.

What is the VCF format?

The vcf file format was invented to store contact information about a person. In particular:

Last name, first name and patronymic

Contacts in Internet messengers

Addresses of work, residence, etc.

The name VCF itself stands for vCard File, or business card file. Since a certain time, this format has been supported to one degree or another by most computer mail programs.

Essentially a vcf file is a text file that can be manually edited with a text editor. Unfortunately, sometimes texts containing Cyrillic in these files are written in encoded form, which does not allow you to work with them directly in Notepad. For example, this is what a card for the name “Ivan Petrov” with a phone number looks like, exported from a mobile device.

If the digits of a phone number are readable and can be viewed or edited if desired, then for the first and last name this operation is extremely difficult.

Problem with encodings

Modern versions of Windows have the Windows Contacts application, which allows you to both open a vcf file on your computer and add it to the operating system contact list, where the file will be converted to *.contact format and will become available for editing using Windows tools. But this feature is only available for files written in Windows encoding. At the same time, many mobile devices and modern email applications save vcf files in modern UTF-8 encoding. And if you try to open such a file using Windows, the Cyrillic characters will not be read properly.

Interestingly, Windows encoded files are available for manual editing in any text editor. This is what the text content of a vcf file created using Microsoft Outlook looks like.

It would seem logical to convert all files to Windows encoding in order to be able to work with them on a computer, incl. and in text editors. However, the problem is that then these files cannot be used on other devices and in modern email programs. For example, the latest vcf file, despite the fact that it looks beautiful in Notepad and the Windows Contacts program, does not open correctly in the emClient email program.

The same problems arise when exporting vcf files to mobile devices. Therefore, the best way out of the situation is to use programs that can fully work with business cards in UTF-8 encoding. The above-mentioned emClient program is quite suitable for this purpose. Moreover, it can export files in UTF encoding so that the readability of Cyrillic characters is preserved.

Using emClient

You can download the program from the download page on the official website. After installation, the application will work for 30 days in full mode, after which you will need to either obtain a free license to use the limited home version, or purchase the program. As a matter of fact, the home version is quite capable of both opening a vcf file on a computer and editing all its fields, as well as doing bulk import and export of such files.

To add vcf files to the program, you need to either drag them into the program window using the mouse, or use the menu item “File / Import...”.

In the window that appears, select the option “Import contacts from vCard (.vcf)”.

After this, the program will scan the entire specified folder and import all found business cards. In our case, one file was imported.

Now you can open it in the general contact list for editing.

Similarly, using the “File / Export...” menu item, you can save the edited contacts to a separate folder as a list of vcf files.

conclusions

Using the emClient program, you can both open vcf files on your computer and fully edit their contents, working with data in the form of a contact list. Edited contact data can be exported back to a set of vcf files, which can be useful for manually transferring contacts to a mobile device or another computer. Due to the fact that the program understands files in modern UTF-8 encoding, there will be no problems with Cyrillic characters when exchanging data with modern mobile devices. And business cards exported by this program open in a text editor in a readable form, so you can, as an option, apply the bulk search and replace functions of the Notepad++ program to them.

LiveLenta.com

How to view a vcf file on a computer

If you've dealt with old phones, you've probably kept a backup copy of your contacts. Typically, such data is saved in the vcf electronic business card format. Let's try to figure out how you can view this file on your computer.

How to view a vcf file using standard applications

An electronic business card in vcf format is a text document that can be viewed on a computer in various ways, including using Windows system tools.

Windows Contacts

Standard system application for viewing contacts. However, if the data was entered in Cyrillic, we will receive an incorrect display.

Outlook

If you have Microsoft Office installed on your computer, the operating system will offer to open an electronic business card using Outlook. But in this case, the text in Cyrillic also remains unreadable.

Notebook

As we mentioned above, the information in the vcf file is stored in text form. The most ordinary notepad will do an excellent job of viewing it.

However, you can't edit the data using Notepad - even if you change a single character, the file can no longer be opened using contact viewing applications.

Notepad++

If you need to make minor edits to the electronic business card file, we recommend using a more advanced notepad – Notepad++. Changes made using it will not change the structure of the vcf file.

Importing data from a vcf file

Information from an electronic business card can be transferred to a Gmail contact list. To do this, open the mail page, click on the “Gmail” button and in the drop-down menu click on the “Contacts” item.

On the page that opens, select “More”, then “Import”.

Click “Import from file...”

Gmail will offer to switch to the previous version of the Google Contacts application, we agree with this proposal.

Click on the “More” button and select “Import”.

Select the required vcf file and click “IMPORT”.

At the end of the process, we observe the added contact.

P.S.

We hope that with our help you can now easily view contact information stored in vcf files.

What is a vcf file and how can you open it on a computer? Many users may discover such a file by accident, while others create it intentionally to store information.

But in both of these cases the file you may need to open it to view the information stored in it.

Definition

What is this file, where can it be found, and what is it for? This format has the data of a saved contact recorded in a smartphone or telephone.

Information (contacts) in this format can be found in the memory of a smartphone, tablet, and even a PC (if devices were synchronized or data was transferred).

Where does this file come from? It appears after updating the phone's firmware and contains all the data from the device’s phone book.

This file is created by the user independently (the operating system does not create it automatically, for example, during failures).

It may be subject to export, import from and to the system, viewing, etc. Thus, it is necessary for fast and accurate

Sometimes this method can even open files created on other devices (with a different operating system).

In order to use this method, do the following:

1 Sign in to Google mail;

3 In the drop-down list, go to the section Contacts;

4 In the left list that will open after updating the window, click on the button More;

5 In the expanded list, find the item Import;

6 In the pop-up window, specify Import from CSV file;

7 In the updated window, find the button Go to the previous version of contacts and click on it;

The table below shows the comparative characteristics of programs and applications for working with vcf format files.

Based on them, one can draw a conclusion about which application to use will be optimal in each specific case.

<Рис. 14 Выбор программы>

Table 1. Comparative characteristics of programs for opening the vcf format

Program	Download	Preservation	Cyrillic display	Multifunctionality	Additional functions
The address book	Not required	Forcibly	No	Any files of this format	No
Outlook	Not required	Automatically	Yes, correct	Any files of this format	Exchange of emails
Nokia Suite	Requires installation from phone	Automatically or forcefully	Yes, correct	Only files that were created on devices manufactured by Nokia and its subsidiaries	Synchronization, transfer and copying of data and much more
Gmail	Not required	Automatically	Yes, correct	Relative (some files not created on the Android system open)	Email and some other services from Google

The choice of the appropriate program depends on the needs and capabilities at a particular moment, as well as on the type of files.

This document is a vCard file used to provide contact information. In addition to an additional binary image, VCFs are text documents and show the contact's name, e-mail, physical address, phone number and other data. vCard is an abbreviation for virtual business card and is a standard file (.vcf files) for electronic documents. vCards allow you to create and share contact information over the Internet, such as . You can also use vCards to move data from one client or personal information management program to another, as long as both programs support the extension.

Selecting a program to work with a file with the VCF extension.

Because the VCF format contains data, it is often considered an export/import document for some contact programs, allowing you to easily share one or more contacts, use the same contacts in different email programs or services, or back up your address book. The VCF extension on a PC can be opened by a program that allows you to view contact details, but the most common reason to open it is to import an address book into an email client program, such as on the Internet or on a phone and computer.

Programs for working with contacts

How to open VCF on a computer? Some apps have a limit on the number of contacts you can import or open at one time. If you have problems, you can go back to your original address book and export only half or 1/3 of the contacts to the VCF contacts file that opens, and repeat the process until they are all transferred.

Mail clients

In Microsoft Outlook, to open VCF, go to the “People” section by clicking on the corresponding icon of the same name at the bottom of the window. To view a contact, click Business Card in the Current View section of the Home tab. Select a contact by clicking on the name bar at the top of the business card. To export it as a business card, go to the File tab. On the Account Information screen, click Save As in the list of options on the left. The Save As dialog box opens.

By default, the .vcf designation in the File Name field is the contact's name. Change it if you want, select a location and click Save. To import a vCard or .vcf file into Outlook, simply double-click the .vcf document. Please note that since this contact is new, the full contact editing window will appear rather than the contact card that appears when you double-click.

Organizers

With vCardOrganizer you can manage, edit, print and create new electronic contacts. Using only the VCF format (for example, from Microsoft Outlook and Windows Contacts), the program scans and automatically displays contacts in a list. To edit one of the templates already prepared in the program, simply double-click the person's name. You need to supplement it with information such as name, profession, position in the current company and phone number (possibly even a direct connection to Skype).

Although vCardOrganizer has very interesting features and interface that make all the work of creating virtual contacts easier, the test version has too many limitations. On the other hand, its interface, despite its old-fashioned design, works in an organized and correct manner. The fact that the software takes up little space and works without the need to install anything else is another advantage of the service.

VCF Viewer is a compact application designed to view information from multiple vCard files. They are often used to transfer contact information between programs such as email clients. If you need to extract any detail such as phone number, email address, the software can help you avoid opening or adding each of them to your contact list. Since this is a portable program, it is important to note that it leaves no traces in the Windows registry. You can copy it to any USB drive or other devices and take it with you when you need to open the vCard on another device.

To view the data stored in business cards, you only need to select the folder containing the documents. The program instantly displays the contents of files in the form of a data table, sorted alphabetically by file name. This is a good tool if you don't want to add all the documents to your contacts or open them individually. However, it does not have the ability to retrieve contact information, for example to add data to the clipboard. So if you need to edit or extract contact information, you should look for another solution.

GMail service

VCF files can also be imported into email clients such as Gmail. On the “Google Contacts” page, find the “Advanced” - “Import ...” button and use the “Select file” button to select the required contact. If it contains an image, that part of the file is binary and will not display in a text editor. Information must be fully visible and editable in any program that works with text documents.

Text editors

To open a vcf document in Windows, you can use one of many test editors. Starting from the standard Notepad and ending with office suites such as Microsoft Office Word and so on. Windows Notepad is not only a simple text editor, but also a program for viewing contacts. To open a document in the editor, you need to right-click it and select "Open with". In the list of programs, select Notepad and click OK. For comfortable and productive work, it is recommended to use professional text editors, for example, Notepad++. Its advantages:

many functions;
ease of operation;
ability to add your own dictionaries.

Flaws:

weak external spell check.

Notepad++ is valued primarily by programmers - the editor has the ability to add dictionaries of various programming languages, which greatly facilitates editing the source code. Built-in tools allow you to automatically edit character encoding formats and offer quick access to frequently used options. In Notepad++, you only need one click to remove unnecessary spaces at the end of a line or change quotes to the desired format. How to view a vcf file on a computer using Notepad++? Launch the program and select “Open” from the “File” menu. Then specify the path to the document and click "Open". The program offers not only viewing, but also editing vcf files.

What else could cause problems with the file?

The built-in Notepad in Windows may incorrectly display the encoding of characters written in Cyrillic. This is explained by a mismatch between the Windows encoding and UTF-8, which is used by modern applications for viewing and editing vcf documents. Now you know how to open a file with the .vcf extension. But if, after reading this article, you still have questions, feel free to write them in the comments.

We decided to look into the question of how to open VCF. In this material we will try to talk in detail about why it was created, what its functions are, and also, using examples, we will look at programs that will allow you to work with this extension.

Definition

Next we will look at how to open a VCF file, but we should start by finding out what this format is. VCF is an acronym for vCard File. This format is used to store personal contact information. Such material most often contains email, fax, telephone numbers, address and full name of a specific user. It may also contain additional information. This type of file can be attached to an email, allowing the recipient to use it to import information into their own contact database.

View

If we talk directly about how to open VCF, email clients will primarily help us here, including Outlook and Eudora OSE. It should be noted that MS Outlook is not distributed separately, therefore, to install it, you need to download the Microsoft Office software package and specify the necessary components in it. A client called Mozilla Thunderbird also provides the answer to the question of how to open VCF, but you will have to install add-ons for it. To view contacts from VCF, as well as add them to the database, you can use a free application called Open Contacts, it is a convenient address book. Import allows you to add contacts received from vCard. You should know that you can view files of the specified type using the traditional one, but in this case, the information will be displayed with the system formatting code.

Alternative options

In addition to the popular programs described above, you can open a VCF file on your computer using lesser-known tools or unconventional methods, which are also worth saying a few words about. For example, if you own a Nokia phone, you can work with the file you are interested in using the bundled PC Suite software. We are talking about a program that is designed for convenient synchronization of a mobile phone with a personal computer. However, the leader can be called the vCardOrganizer application. In fact, it is a small program with a simple interface. It allows you to easily create an electronic type in the format that interests us. You can also share and edit maps.

Such files are very convenient for placement on your own commercial websites. One product, vCardOrganizer, combines a manager and a tool for creating business cards. Using the tool, you can replace a photo, add a logo, or add new contacts to the card by editing them. At the same time, the program allows you to simultaneously store an unlimited number of business cards in your list. By the way, the Eudora program is also capable of working with the format, the main task of which is to facilitate the interaction of a personal computer user with e-mail. Now you know how to open VCF. The choice is yours.