Who knows why Apple decided not to allow you to export your contacts from the OS X Address Book application? Maybe it’s fear of feature bloat; maybe it’s a sinister attempt to lock you in once you’ve started using their app.
One thing’s for certain: it’s a colossal pain.
(You actually can export individual contacts very easily as vCards. But if what you’re looking for is a handy comma-separated list — a.k.a. CSV, the text-based lingua franca of long lists of contacts — Address Book gives you the brush-off. Funny, because it does allow you to import a CSV file.)
Fortunately, the answer is as close as one of the shortest software downloads you’ll ever experience. AddressBookToCSV is a tiny, 39KB program that does one thing, and one thing only: make a CSV version of your Address Book file.
Because it never writes to your Address Book data, AddressBookToCSV is perfectly safe. And you can use the file it spits out for adding addresses to your GMail account, manipulating data in a spreadsheet, or extending your web of contacts on several social networking platforms. (Or even switching to a different address book.)
One last little trick: developer Ken Ferry (I think that’s his name, judging by his e-mail address) includes a newsfeed for every application he publishes on his web page. So you’ll never need to worry about missing a critical update.
For more Apple goodness, check out Rob’s Noise to Signal cartoons about life as a Mac user!
how stupid this isn’t built in. thanks! works like a charm!
This is great but in future versions if it could export all fields, that would be helpful as well! Thanks!
Or if you could control which fields it exports. Hmm.
I’ve looked for this program for a long time, but was very disappointed that it doesn’t export all of the fields from the Address Book.
Has Apple responded to consumer complaints regarding exporting the Mac Address Book?
I am having a nasty time trying to export groups form my Mac Address Book to my webmail program SquirrelMail which imports comma delineated .csv files.
Any bright ideas?
Thank you so much…
I only get 48 contacts exported… is this the “all fields” problem mentioned or something else?
Micah, you could try e-mailing the author. His site lists his address as kenferry at mac.com.
Bo, I wish I had some ideas to offer, but I don’t know of a way to export groups in CSV. I’ll keep my eyes open, though.
Great. Now if only there was a way to export the groups so they stayed intact. Had a disk crash. Cost $1000 to recover all my data, but moving from OSX 10.2 to 10.4 isn’t easy. Address Book doesn’t recognize the old files. Had to use a friends old mac to open my old addressbook, then export as Vcards. Got all 4000+ cards, but lost the dozens of groups. What a waste of time… Apple should have make this easier.
I have a large number of contacts and appreciate the export program…does anyone have any tips so that the emails stay in the folders they are in…does each address need to be catergoried?
i think the addressbook works quite well now (10.4) you have several options to export. You can make groups for different people or phones and not get them mixed.
export everything by making backup (though you cant import with existing contacts as you lose those).
If you like to import a group of contacts just select group and select all contacts. file -> export vcard… this makes a file with all the vcards selected. you can just make a new group on another mac and drag the file there.
I’m very disappointed that Apple has not addressed this given how basic and necessary it is – Thnaks Ken… if that’s your name…
Thank you! I need to send a huge email shot to publicise my book “Red One” and guide people to my website http://www.kevinivison.co.uk and could not find a solution to this issue anywhere else!!!!