Cannot export more than 2 VCards from iCloud.com

Question

Cannot export more than 2 VCards from iCloud.com

Steps to reproduce:

1) Login to iCloud.com > Contacts

2) Select 1 contact > Gear Icon > Export vCard... > OK

3) Select 2 contacts > Gear Icon > Export vCard... > OK

4) Select 3 or more contacts > Gear Icon > Export vCard... > Error:

Unable to export vCard.

An unknown error occurred trying to export the vCard. Please try again.

Tried: 2 different computers and 3 different browsers: Chrome, IE, Firefox.

Does anybody have any fresh info on how to fix this?

Thank you,

SM

PS: to the genius how wrote/approved the error message:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” -Einstein

Windows, Windows 6

Posted on Jan 18, 2020 9:17 AM

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Answer 1

rose_10

Community Specialist

Jan 22, 2020 6:56 AM in response to SimonMazzucca

SimonMazzucca,

Thanks for the update.

It sounds like you've narrowed down the exporting failure to certain contact cards, but you were unable to identify differences between the contact cards that could be causing the failure. If you were to review these contacts from your iOS device (if available), do you see any obvious differences between the contact cards, that you could try adjusting?

You could certainly try deleting and re-adding the affected contact cards to see if this helps solve the issue. If it does not, I would like you to get in touch with Apple Support directly. They may be able to dive deeper into the vCards to help identify the cause. You can reach out here: Contact - Official Apple Support.

Kindest regards.

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Answer 2

i_rina

Community Specialist

Jan 21, 2020 6:40 AM in response to SimonMazzucca

Hi SimonMazzucca,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Communities! I understand you are running into an error when trying to export more than 1 vCard at a time from the iCloud website. I'd like to help.

You took great steps to isolate the issue further, by testing in multiple browsers and another computer. I was unable to reproduce this issue on my end when exporting multiple vCards at once: Export a contact as a vCard on iCloud.com - Apple Support. I have a few questions.

-Are there certain vCards that you are trying to export in a group when you run into this error? Or, does this happen no matter which vCards are selected together for export?

-Review your contact cards and take notice if there are any differences with the cards that fail to export with others. Do the contact cards have certain parameters added, when compared to the ones that export without issue?

To test, I would suggest trying to clear your browser content and try again. You can do this in one browser, or all, for testing. If you wanted to try in Chrome first, I found guidance on how to perform this action here: Clear browsing data - Computer - Google Chrome Help, and Clear cache & cookies - Computer - Google Account Help.

Keep me posted. Regards.

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Answer 3

Jan 22, 2020 2:55 AM in response to i_rina

That's a good point, it's only some contacts that have issues. So, to clarify, most contacts work, but 10% of them (based on small sample) cannot be exported (alone or in conjunction with other ones).

But it seems very random. I don't see a rhyme or reason why they should fail. Some are actually pretty small, just first name and one number.

Other than deleting the contact, is there anything else I can do to determine what is bad about them ?

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