Topmost Solution to Migrate CSV Contacts to iPhone,iPad or iCloud

Easiest Way to Migrate CSV Contacts to iOS Devices or iCloud

Having your contacts easily accessible to all platforms like Android,iPhone,iPad,iCloud etc. is the want of all users who are working on various platforms and devices. Here,we are discussing the same issue in this post.

If you have contacts stored in CSV file format and want to move them to iPhone or iCloud. You must go through this article.

CSV means Comma Separated Value which is a table-structured format used for contacts storage and is supported my email clients like Thunderbird,MS Outlook etc. Contact doesn't only mean the phone number but it also includes name,email address,image,address and many other things. Generally,users use CSV and VCF/vCard formats for contacts storage. Having CSV,a very common format but it is not supported by iPhone,iPad,iCloud etc. whereas VCF format is well supported in them and is known as the standard format for storing contacts.

Compare CSV versus VCF formats

  • There is a lack of standardization in CSV files. There are no rules set how contacts are written to CSV Whereas VCF is a standardized format for contact storage and transfer.
  • CSV does not support contact photos whereas VCF stores contact photos,audio clips as well.
  • VCF is a single contact file so it can be easily managed and transferred whereas CSV holds contacts in batches.

Solution to import contacts from CSV file to iPhone,iPad,iCloud without iTunes

To migrate contacts from CSV to Air,iCloud,iPhone 8,7,5C or iPad. Follow the three steps given below –

  • Export CSV to VCF format
  • Transfer vCard to iCloud
  • Sync iCloud with iPhone

Step 1. Convert CSV contacts into VCF

To do this,the users can take help of Softaken CSV to vCard Converterfor Windows to simply convert CSV file to iPhone supported VCF format. To do the conversion,follow the mentioned steps –

  1. Download and launch the Softaken CSV to vCard Converter on your PC. Click 'Browse' to upload your contact spreadsheet.
CSV to vCard Converter browse button to upload contact spreadsheet
  1. Once it is installed,run it and browse CSV file whom you want to move to iPhone.
Browse and select your CSV file
  1. Utilize the updated field mapping pane. Match your CSV columns (Name,Mobile,Email) to the accurate vCard fields.
Complete view of CSV file with field mapping options
  1. Choose your preferred view (Horizontal or Vertical) in the new multiple preview feature to double-check layout integrity before exporting. Then select your target output format.
  2. Now,Browse the Output destination for saving the VCF files.
  3. Choose your destination output path and hit 'Convert Now' to generate your secure,bulk-migrated .vcf file.
Click Convert Now to start the conversion process

Step 2. Transfer VCF file to iCloud

Once you got vCard files,follow the given instructions with these steps –

  1. Open web browser,navigate to iCloud.com,and log in with the Apple ID credentials.
Login to the iCloud account
  1. This shows various options,select the Contacts
Select Contacts from iCloud options
  1. Click on the 'Contacts' application icon. Locate 'Gear' settings icon in the bottom-left corner and select 'Import vCard'. Select freshly converted file to upload instantly.
Contacts window showing no contacts selected
  1. Click on the gear icon and click on the Import vCard option .
Click on gear icon to access import options
  1. After that,you will find a new dialog box that consists of vCard files present in your system.
Dialog box showing available vCard files
  1. Select vCard file that you want to import in iCloud.
Select the vCard file to import

If you are unable to import vCard,here are the steps –

  1. Open vCard file where you will find a list if all VCF files. Choose the files whom you would like to import.
Choose specific files from vCard to import

Step 3. Sync iCloud to iPhone

To move VCF contacts to iPhone,you need to sync contacts from VCF to iPhone. For this follow the steps –

  1. Grab iPhone/iPad,open the 'Settings' app,and tap on Apple ID profile banner at the top.
Navigate to iPhone Settings
  1. Enable Contacts option to import CSV to iPhone to import vCard to iPhone,iPad or iCloud.
Open Apple ID settings on iPhone
Select iCloud option
  1. Click 'iCloud' ->'Show All' ->Toggle the 'Contacts' option to ON. If prompted,select 'Merge' to combine any local data seamlessly. The CSV contacts will populate your mobile address book instantly!
Enable Contacts sync option
  1. By this,the contacts which are exported in VCF format will be synced with the contact list of iPhones.
Contacts synced with iPhone contact list

Bottom Lines

By converting your database from a basic layout to a universally accepted vCard schema,you bypass complex iTunes steps entirely. Ready to transfer your address book without risking data loss? Download the free trial version of Softaken CSV to vCard Converter to process your first 10 contacts completely free.

Manually performing the whole migration to iPhone from CSV file is really a tiresome task but with the software approach,the task has become somehow easy for the users so that users can easily access CSV files in iPhone.