What is a VCF file?

What VCF is

VCF is a plain-text format you can open in any editor. It is used for moving data between programs.

The extension is .vcf, and the full name is vCard Contact. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.

Where VCF came from

It dates from 1995. The specification is RFC 6350.

A format that has been readable for that long is a format worth trusting with something you want back in ten years.

The specification is public

Anyone can implement it without asking permission or paying a licence, which is why it turns up in so many programs and why files written twenty years ago still open.

Nothing is thrown away

VCF stores its content exactly. Saving it again changes nothing, so it can be opened, edited and re-saved as often as you like without accumulating damage — which is what makes it a working format rather than a delivery one.

What opens VCF

Google Contacts, Apple Contacts and Microsoft Outlook read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.

If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.

Opening it in a browser

No browser reads it.

That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.

It is a working format

VCF is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.

The facts, in one place

Converting VCF to something else

• VCF to CSV

Formats worth considering instead of VCF

• Comma-Separated Values