How to Open VCF File

What is a VCF file?

VCF (Virtual Contact File) is a standard file format for storing contact information for a person or business. A VCF file is an electronic business card that automates the exchange of personal information typically found on a traditional business card. It typically includes a name, address, phone number, email address, and other contact information. VCF files are also known as vCards.

How to Convert VCF File?

CSV is a common format to convert VCF files into since it's supported by Excel and other applications that would prefer to import contacts from CSV. You can download and install VCF to CSV, VCF to Excel, VCF to TXT or CSV to VCF conversion apps for converting VCF files easily.

CSV to VCF Converter	Convert CSV to VCF vCard file
VCF to CSV Converter	Convert VCF vCard files to CSV
VCF to XLS Converter	Convert VCF to Excel XLS file
VCF to TXT Converter	Convert VCF vCard files to TXT file

How to Open VCF File?

Windows users can open vCards using the included Windows Contacts program. Here are some of the programs that can open VCF files:

• Microsoft Windows Contacts
• Microsoft Outlook
• Palm Desktop
• Beiley Handy Address Book
• Fonlow IT Open Contacts
• vCardOrganizer
• Nokia PC Suite

How to Edit VCF File?

Email and messaging apps can edit VCF files however if you want to edit a VCF file without any email or messaging app, you can do so with some limitations. You can use almost any text editor to edit a VCF file. To open the file on Windows 10, right-click it and select the Open With option. Select Notepad from the list of apps, or if you prefer a much cleaner interface for editing the VCF file, you can use Text Edit Plus instead.

If you need to change the phone number, name, or email you can easily find those fields in the file. There is some information you won’t be able to edit for example, a field called ‘X-Activity-Alert’ which is for a custom alert that was set up for the contact on an iPhone. This field can’t be edited and it won’t be present in the VCF file for a contact that was exported from Gmail.

After you edit the file, you can just save the change with the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut. This only works for text based information e.g., names, and phone numbers etc. VCF files also contain images i.e., profile pictures and that isn’t something you can edit with any text editor. If what you essentially want to edit is the image saved for a contact, you’re going to have to go through an email app like Outlook or a service like Gmail Contacts that has an interface for editing that particular field. Both mobile and desktop apps/services will do but since you’re dealing with a VCF file, it’s easiest to import it on your desktop.

If you are editing a VCF file, you should be careful about the information you changed.

Learn More: How to Manage your Contact List in Excel

vCard Properties

All vCards begin with BEGIN:VCARD and end with END:VCARD. All vCards must contain the VERSION property, which specifies the vCard version. VERSION must come immediately after BEGIN, except in the vCard 2.1 standard, which allows it to be anywhere in the vCard. Otherwise, properties can be defined in any order.

Quick Tips

• iCloud doesn't support vCard 2.1 standard. VCF file must be created using vCard 3.0 or later when uploading to Apple's iCloud service.
• VCF files can be encoded using UTF-8. However you can experience compatibility issues if the VCF is encoded using UTF-8-BOM. Unicode Byte Order Mark (BOM) character should not be used in VCF files.