How to Export Mac Contacts to CSV and Excel with 1 Click

This article mainly talks about how to export Mac contacts to CSV or Excel directly and easily. Mac contacts are stored in the Apple Contacts (previously known as Address Book) app for macOS. Mac Contacts app supports three export formats: vCard, PDF and ABBU (as an archive file). But what if you need to export contacts from Mac Contacts to CSV?

The first method lets you do the export straightforwardly without having to converting contacts. Apple Contacts is also available for iOS. And in addition, Apple provides a cloud-based contacts management service known as iCloud Contacts. If you also need to export contacts from iPhone or iCloud to CSV, the same method can help.

Method 1. Directly export Apple Contacts to CSV from Mac, iCloud or iPhone

This part will show you how to effortlessly export contacts to CSV or Excel from Apple’s Mac Contacts app, iCloud service and iPhone Contacts app.

This method uses Cisdem ContactsMate, the best contact manager for Mac. Before you start, please download and install ContactsMate. When you launch this tool for the first time, it will ask for access to your contacts. Click OK. And it will sync with your Mac Contacts.

Export Mac contacts to CSV

1. In this tool, select and control-click On My Mac in the left sidebar.
2. Choose Export.
3. To export Mac contacts to CSV, select CSV from the Format dropdown list.
4. Select a location on your Mac to store the to-be-exported CSV file.
5. In the Export As field, give the file a name.
6. Click Save.

This is how to export contacts from Mac to CSV. To export Mac contacts to Excel, select Excel from the dropdown list in Step 3.

Tip

By following these easy steps, you can quickly export all contacts to CSV. If you only need to export some specific contacts, choose On My Mac in the sidebar, select these specific contacts, control-click and choose Export.

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Export iCloud contacts to CSV

1. Open the same tool.
2. From the toolbar, click Add Account.
3. Select iCloud from the list on the right. Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID and password.
4. Check the box next to Contacts.
5. Quit ContactsMate and open it again.
6. In the sidebar on the left, select and control-click iCloud.
7. Choose CSV as the export format and start exporting.

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Export iPhone contacts to CSV

To do this, you need to first turn on iCloud Contacts on your iPhone. And the rest of the process is pretty much the same.

1. On your iPhone, tap Settings.
2. Sign in to your iPhone.
3. Select iCloud.
4. Under the Apps Using iCloud section, turn on Contacts.
5. Choose the Merge option when asked.
6. Now your iPhone contacts sync with iCloud. Follow the 7-step instruction right above to export them to CSV.

Method 2. Export Mac contacts to vCard and then convert vCard to CSV

Another available method to export Mac contacts to CSV is to it by converting. vCard, also known as VCF, is the primary export format of Mac Contacts app. The method requires the conversion from vCard to CSV.

1. Open the Contacts app on Mac.
2. In the left sidebar, select All on My Mac (or a sub-group under it).
3. From the top menu bar, choose File > Export > Export vCard.
4. Choose a location to keep the file you are going to export. Click Save.
5. Open your web browser and visit vCard to LDIF/CSV Converter, an online tool.
6. Click Choose File. Select the exported vCard file. Click Open.
7. Click the Format dropdown list and choose CSV.
8. Select the option Comma as CSV (comma-separated values) files are generally separated by commas.
9. Make sure you select the box before Add header line.
10. Click Convert. Once the process is done, the CSV file will be automatically saved to your computer.

Compared to the first method to export Mac contacts to CSV, this one is a little bit complicated. The online tool used here is easy to access and use. However, there are a few limits. If you have a long contacts list, say, 150 or more, this tool probably won’t help. Because it only supports vCard file smaller than 8 MB. Also, it will take quite a while to convert if the file is relatively big.

Bonus tip: How to convert ABBU to CSV

As mentioned in the beginning of the article, Mac contacts can be exported as an archive file in ABBU format. Suppose that someone sends you an ABBU file. What do you do if you need to convert it to a CSV file?

Few apps can handle the ABBU format. And Mac’s Contacts app is one of them, which leads to a workaround.

1. In Mac's Contacts app, export your current contacts as an archive backup file (which is also in ABBU format).
2. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose File > Import.
3. Select the file that you want to convert to CSV. Click Open. Please carefully read the warning. Click Replace All.
4. Now follow the method of converting Mac contacts to CSV and complete the conversion.
5. Import the backup file (exported in Step 1) to restore contacts.

Benefit of exporting Mac contacts to CSV

Why do we export Apple contacts to CSV? CSVs look like a garden-variety spreadsheet but with a .csv extension. Traditionally they take the form of a text file containing information separated by commas, hence the name. CSV files can be used with any spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, or Google Spreadsheets. What is the advantage when we export contacts to the CSV format?

CSV as a general and relatively simple file format is widely used in business and science field because that large number of programs all support CSV variant. It has been a widely used text file format. After exporting your contacts in this format, you can easily import them into lots of other programs or services. For example, by doing so, you are able to batch edit your contacts in Excel, which is super efficient.

Conclusion

If you are look for an easy, straightforward way to export Mac contacts to CSV file, I hope this article will help. To export Apple contacts to CSV, you can choose to do it directly with ContactsMate or by converting using a converter. If you have many contacts to export, organize and manage, it’s a good idea to get a powerful contact manager as the one used in the first method.