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 that 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”.
Having encountered a file with the VCF extension, many users wonder: what exactly is it? Especially if the file is attached to a letter received by e-mail. To allay possible concerns, let's take a closer look at what this format is and how you can view its contents.
The VCF format is an electronic business card that contains a standard set of data for such documents: full name, phone number, address, website and similar information. Therefore, you should not be surprised when you see a file with this extension attached to an email.
This format is also used in various address books and contact lists in popular email clients. Let's try to view the information in different ways. To do this, create a file example.vcf containing code with example data.
Method 1: Mozilla Thunderbird
Many users use this software product from Mozilla Corporation as an email client and organizer. VCD files can also be opened in it.
To open an electronic business card file in Thunderbird, you must:
The result of these actions will be the appearance in the address book of a section corresponding to the name of our file. By going into it, you can see the information available in the file.
As you can see from the example, Thunderbird opens the VCF format without any distortion.
Method 2: Samsung Kies
Owners of Samsung smartphones use the Samsung Kies program to synchronize data on their devices with their PC. Among many other features, this software is capable of opening VCF files. To do this you need:
After this, the contents of the file will be downloaded to contacts and will become available for viewing.
As in the previous method, the information is displayed correctly. However, whether it is worth installing Samsung Kies on your computer just to view the VCF format is up to the user to decide.
Method 3: Windows Contacts
On Microsoft operating systems, the application Windows Contacts mapped to VCF files by default. Therefore, in order to open such a file, just double-clicking the mouse is enough. However, this method has a very significant drawback. If Cyrillic was used in the information contained in the file (as is the case in our case), the program will not be able to recognize it correctly.
Method 4: "People"
Starting with Windows 8, along with “Windows Contacts”, there is another application in the system for storing this type of data - "People". In it, the encoding problem is completely solved. In order to open a VCF file using it, you must:
- Call the context menu (RMB) and select the option there "To open with".
- Select program "People" from the list of suggested applications.
Information is displayed correctly and organized into sections.
If you have to open files of this type often, then to speed up the process you can simply associate them with this application.
Method 5: Notepad
Another system tool with which you can open a VCF file is Notepad. This is a universal application for opening files containing information in text form. You can open an electronic business card file using Notepad in the same way as in the case of the People program. The result will be like this:
As can be seen from the example above, when opening the VCF format in Notepad, the content is presented in an unformatted form, along with useful information, tags are also displayed, which makes the text inconvenient to read. However, all the data is quite readable and in the absence of other means, Notepad may well be suitable.
Concluding the review, I would like to emphasize that on the Internet you can find many programs that provide the ability to open the VCF format. Therefore, it is likely that some working method of solving the problem was not displayed in the article. But most of the software tested during the preparation of this material was unable to correctly display the Cyrillic characters used in our sample. Among them was such a well-known product as Microsoft Outlook. The same methods that were demonstrated above can be considered absolutely reliable.
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. To do this, use the appropriate software supplied with the mobile phone: “Nokia PC Suite”, “Samsung PC Studio”, etc. In this regard, users have a logical question - how to open vcf file on 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
Contact phone numbers
Photo
Email addresses
Website addresses
Contacts in Internet messengers
Date of Birth
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. 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 download pages on the official site. 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.
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 information, but the most common reason for opening 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 continue to examine files of various programs and with extensions that are incomprehensible at first glance for the average user. And today we have .vcf files (from vCard File developed by Internet Mail Consortium).
What are these files and what information can they contain inside?
Can they harm your personal computer?
Vcf files are files (contact cards) that in most cases contain information (last name, first name, middle name, identification number, email address, phone numbers, fax number, Internet page addresses) and can be used to attach to emails with subsequent downloading and adding it to the database of your contacts.
Or, more simply, a person’s electronic business card is created programmatically. In the overwhelming majority, they cannot cause any harm other than the loss of personal personal data of a specific person.
From the above it follows that to view them on your local computer, it is enough to have one of the common email programs installed (Outlook, Eudora OSE).
The Windows operating system itself has an installed program for viewing such contact cards; you can launch it by selecting Start menu - All Programs - Accessories - Address Book (Windows Contacts).
You can also use a large number of free online services like Open Contacts, or directly import/export contact data from email services like Gmail (Google).
In them you can both view and edit with subsequent downloads and use in other programs and online resources.
Select "Import VCARD File (.vcf)" and click "Next". You can open .VCF files either with special programs from our list or with the standard Windows Address Book. There is an issue when importing Google Android phonebook backup files into Outlook.
The built-in vcf viewer in Windows7 incorrectly opens only 10 out of 200 and with crappy ones instead of Russian.2. Copy it to your computer, unzip the zip, copy the multi-vcf file into the “My Documents/vCards” folder.3.
VCF files can be attached to emails and used by the recipient to import data into their contact database. Also included in the list of programs that support the VCF format is the Mozilla Thunderbird client, although add-ons must be installed to work with vCards. VCF is an extension of vCard files, which are used to store contact information for a person or company.
Click "File" - "Open and Export". On your computer, locate the VCF file and click Open. The new contact will be added to Outlook (Users section). On your computer, locate the VCF file you want to import. Download the free utility “VCard to XLS”. This is an Excel macro that converts VCF files to XLS format. You can download the utility from sourceforge.net/projects/vcf-to-xls/.
How to open VCF (VCARD)?
These files are often used for import and export, i.e. for exchanging electronic business cards between various programs or devices and their address books. The VCF file can also be sent via email with a message as an attachment. In Google Android, for example, contacts are stored in one file and separated by BEGIN and END tags. When exported to a memory card, they can be found in the System/PIM directory on the memory card.
Method 1 of 4: Add a VCF file to Outlook Contacts
A file with the .VCF extension is a text file in the vCard format for storing and exchanging electronic business cards. Such files are most often used for exchanging contacts or for backing up a list of contacts from a mobile phone to a computer. To do this, select File -> Import -> Business Card (vCard) from the menu. 1) The most popular and proven way was to upload to a Google account. Perhaps there are other encodings in the cards, if necessary, write to me and I’ll try to modernize the program.
Apparently the Easy Backup program does everything correctly, Windows just doesn’t know how to open multi-cards. There is also Russian text in the form: “N;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D0=96=D0=B0=D1=80=D0=BE=D0=B2;=D0=9C=D0 =B8=D1=85=D0=B0=D0=B8=D0=BB;;;".
We need a program for Windows that can correctly open multi-contact cards and correctly display Russian text instead of these rubbish.
The fact of the matter is that I don’t want to use Gmail and other email services. Outlook only with office, heavy. As a result, the algorithm is as follows: 1. We split the resulting multi-vcf into separate vcf files using vCardOrganaizer - Edit - Split.4. Editing vcf cards using vCardOrganaizer. Not super convenient, but still a working option.
Only contacts.google.com helped - they saw my contacts without any clutter from my old Sony Ericsson K770i phone and managed to transfer them to Android without any problems in the best possible way! VCF is an acronym for vCard File and this format is used to store personal contact information. MS Outlook is not distributed separately, so to install it you need to download the MS Office package and select the necessary components from it.
2) I opened the TheBat! email program, there was the necessary converter, and a bunch of my vcf files with contacts were exported to the address book. Everything was wonderful, but only Nokia Suite and TheBat! A vCard file consists of records, each of which contains information about one business card. CardOrganizer2.1 - works only with individual cards in the Windows Contacts folder, there is no way to open one multi-card.3. In 1996, all rights to the format were transferred to the Internet Mail Consortium.
