The Contacts app on your iPhone holds your entire address book which includes emails, phone numbers, address and a whole lot more. iExplorer allows you to access your iPhone contacts data from your computer and export or copy that information as you please. Using drag-and-drop or bulk exporting you can instantly backup everything or just copy specific conctacts in a snap. With iExplorer, you can export your contacts directly to the universally accepted VCard format or a CSV file on your Windows PC or directly to your Contacts app on your Mac.
If something happened to your iPhone, and you previously backed up your iPhone using iTunes, than iExplorer can even access your contacts directly from that backup without even needing to connect to your device!
What you will need
- iExplorer
- An iPhone, iPad, or iPod
- USB cable to connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod
- A Mac or PC with iTunes installed
Before you begin
If you don't already have iExplorer installed download it by clicking the button below. For more detailed installation instructions, click here.
iExplorer can read and export the contacts in your iPhone's Address Book that are either on your iPhone or ones that have been saved in an iTunes Backup already on your computer. This tutorial walks through both possibilities.
Access iPhone Contacts on Your Computer
To access the contact database that is currently on an iPhone, open iExplorer and connect your iPhone to your computer. You should see the Device Overview screen appear. From this screen navigate to Data --> Contacts or from the left column, under your device's name, navigate to Backups --> Contacts.
Access Contacts from an iTunes Backup of an iPhone
When you create a backup of your iPhone using iTunes, your contacts are saved to your computer, but they get buried deep within various semi-encrypted databases. iExplorer can do the heavy lifting for you and make these contacts readily available so you can read and export them on your computer.
To access contacts from an iPhone Backup, first open iExplorer, then click Explore Backups. From the left column, under the Browse iTunes Backups section, select the backup you want to use. Then within that backup select, Contacts.
Exporting iPhone Contacts to Computer
After clicking on Contacts for either an iPhone backup or a currently connected iPhone device, iExplorer will load your address book database. On the left column, you'll see your contact groups, next there's a column listing all the individual contacts within that group and on the far right are the contact details.
Choose an export option from the buttons at the bottom of the window. To export all contacts, click on the Export All button, or you can Export Selected Contacts or Export Selected Group.
On a Mac, these exported contacts will go directly into your Contacts app. On a PC, they are exported as individual vCards, a universal file format which can be imported to any desktop contacts application as well as most online address books or as a singe CSV file which is also a common file format for contacts. Once exported to your computer, you'll be able to then easily migrate the data to Gmail, Outlook and other popular address book databases.
Have questions that aren't addressed here? Please visit our Support Center for iExplorer FAQs.
Feel free to contact us if your problem persists.
Cheers,
Macroplant Staff
