Files with the VCF extension are vCard electronic business card files. vCard was developed quite a long time ago, in the nineties of the last century. The vCard contains: first name, last name, address, e-mail, birthday, video files, etc. The purpose of the VCF file is to store and share the user's address book.
To open a VCF file on your computer, you can use standard program- Windows contacts. VCF files are used by the Outlook program from the software package; it has a Russian-language interface and extensive help.
A very convenient online service for working with VCF files is offered by Google. To do this, you need to log into your account and import the file from your computer. This way, you will have a backup copy of your address book at your disposal. In the future, contacts can be transferred to your other devices: tablets, mobile phones. In any case, contacts will no longer be lost.
What else can you do to open files with the VCF extension on your computer?
When buying a new phone or flashing an old one, we are recommended to create backup copy contacts from the phone book so as not to lose important information and do 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 in 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 the package pre-installed on your machine Microsoft Office, you can open “contacts.vcf” using MS Outlook. To do this, drag the .vcf file to working window program 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++
Multifunctional text editor, which supports many encodings and ensures that information is displayed correctly. The application cannot export data to mobile devices, but allows you to edit the 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 VCF file is a file in which contacts from your phone are saved, with all the accompanying information. Let's give an example. Let's say you decide to change your phone, and all your contacts are not saved on the SIM card, you need to connect the background to the computer and save all the contacts on it, as a vcf file. Afterwards, you just need to install this file in the same way new phone and all numbers will be transferred to the phone book.
This is very convenient way copying numbers, but since you need to open such a file on your computer, then you have already learned how to create it, so it’s worth considering several of the most popular ways to open vcf files on a PC.
Opening with Notepad
This application can be found on absolutely any computer. But most users don’t even know what they can do with it. Including viewing contacts from a vcf file. To do this you need:1. Open notepad;
2. Drag into it required file, or click on the “File” item - “open”, find the desired file, select it and click the “Open” button;
3. View the data or make changes to it.
In the screenshot above, you can see how it is displayed in the notepad vcf file. One contact here is enclosed in a whole block of characters, starting with the line “begin:vcard” and ending with “end:vcard”. The notepad copes well with numbers and English letters, so after the word “cell” you can easily see the number of a contact from the list.
After the letter “N” there is information responsible for the last name, first name, patronymic, etc. As you can see, English words, letters and numbers are displayed instead. The fact is that for the safety of user data, all files with the vcf extension are automatically encrypted in the phone so that third parties do not get your contacts.
The question arises, how can you look through your contacts and figure out who owns which number? To do this, you can use the following program.
Opening a vcf file using NotePad++
This program, just like notepad, is available on almost any modern computer. If it is not available, it can be easily downloaded from open sources, since it is distributed free of charge.You can open a vcf file here in the same way as through notepad. After opening, we see that contacts are also displayed in the same way as through notepad, but unlike notepad, here this can be corrected:
1. After opening the desired vcf file, select the encrypted part of the text and go to the menu “Plugins – MIME Tools – Quoted-printable Decode”, as in the following screenshot
2. Now the incomprehensible characters are converted into the word under which the contact was recorded in notebook phone
Note: You should not select the entire file at once and translate it, hoping to view all contacts at once. If you do this, you will break the encoding and end up with all the characters mixed up, which can cause the file to become corrupted.
View vcf file using Nokia Suite
The best way to view telephone contacts via computer - this is the use third party programs which are designed specifically for these purposes.You can download and install this program from the official Nokia website, so there should be no problems with this. After installation, you need to open the program and click File - Import contacts. Then select the vcf file from your computer and click the “Open” button.
As you can see, contacts are displayed immediately in Russian. Also, using this program, you can create lists of contacts, save them in a separate vcf file and then import them to your phone, which can significantly speed up the creation of a contact list. However, there is one drawback to this program. As you can see from the screenshot above, only the first contact from the entire list is displayed. This happens in some versions of both the program itself and the operating system, so you can use another software product.
Displaying vcf files using Google contacts
1. To use this technology, simply log into your Google account and select the “Google Contacts” service.
2. In the window that appears next, click on the “Import from csv file or vCard".
3. Next, you need to select the desired file on your computer and click the “Import” button
4. After these steps, all contacts saved in the selected file will be displayed in front of you. Here you can also make changes to your contact list, save and import back to your smartphone.
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 text document, which can be viewed on a computer in various ways, including using Windows system tools.
Windows Contacts
Standard system application to view contacts. However, if the data was entered in Cyrillic, we will receive an incorrect display.
Outlook
If you have it installed on Microsoft computer Office, 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 prompt you to go to previous version Google Contacts application, we agree to this proposal.
Click on the “More” button and select “Import”.
What is a vcf file and how can it be opened 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>
| Program | Download | Saving | Cyrillic display | Multifunctionality | Additional features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Automatic or forced | 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.
