Cannot import vcards into iCloud

Hey,

I was messing with transferring my Android phone contacts to my iPhone. I exported my Android mobile contacts to SD card(.vcf format), transferred it to my Mac and tried to import it to my iphone via iPhone. But it was failiong all the time.

Here is how I finally succeeded:

1.) Transferred my Android contacts in the .vcf format to my MAC using USB.

2.) I sync these contacts with my MAC Address book, using Microsoft OutLook.

3.) And then exported the Contacts in the Mac Address book to Desktop (any location).

4.) Now I logged in to iCloud from my iPhone and Web browser using the same account.

5.) I selected the Contacts in iCloud.

6.) Click on Contacts, And click the Settings icon, Import Vcards.

7.) Selected the vCard exported to the Desktop.

8.) And finally all Android phone Contacts reached in my iPhone.

Hope this will work for you.... All the best.... 🙂

This is just typical for Apple. I found the same issue, and was thinking I'd have to craft a script to convert from 2.1 to 3.0 format, because there are differences in the spec. But no, it turns out that iCloud is perfectly capable of importing a 2.1-formatted vcard, it just bombs when it sees VERSION:2.1. Why do I get the feeling that no one at Apple is paying any attention to their forums? This is still an issue over a year later.

Just one more reason I can't quite put my trust in iCloud. Steve is rolling right now.

Hey guys,

I had the same problem and none of the mentioned solutons worked for me. So I found another way which I guess is easier!

So I basically treid to Share the contacts in Outlook and therefore it make an email with all the vcards attached. I dragged the vCards to a folder.

Then you can open a terminal and go to that folder

Type in: "cat *.vcf > combined.vcf"

This will combine all the cards into one file called "combined.vcf" (I learned this from another forum!)

Then you go to the Contact application and import it! Done! If your computer synchs the contacts will iCloud it will automatically go to iCloud! In case it does not, you can export all the contcats from the Contact app to a single file and import it on iCloud.com!

Hope this helps!

Neema

Didn't have this working. Actually on a Mac using the newest Outlook nothing of these really worked.

I tried exporting the cards from Outlook, all good, then trying to import to iCloud through browser, no luck. It only accepted 1 at a time and even then said that all my contacts are wrong or something.

Absolute easiest way on a Mac to get your contacts from Exchange is this (2015-2016):

1. Open Contacts on your OS X

2. Select all in your exchange list in the Contacts app

3. Drag them into your iCloud address list on the Contacts app

4. Let is sync and it's done, double check it uploaded all contacts in the browser

No exporting and importing needed, at all. Unless you're on a PC, that might be harder 😉

Wow. Thank you Wesley Elder. Wow, so difficult yet so easy. I see this is 3 years ago that your solution was posted, but this has had me stumped for a while. iCloud is supposed to make our lives easier.

My issue was that I am exporting from Lotus Notes email contact (I know, I know, who uses that?). It exports some contacts with vCard ver 2.1. Funny thing is, I'm playing around with it. When I do an export all from Lotus Notes, it then creates a vCard ver 3.0 file. Strange.

Many thanks!

this works for outlook 2003 too

omg - THANK YOU. was trying to do outlook express to icloud for a client and tearing my hair out.

I experienced the same issue. I resolved it by editing the .vcf files and replacing all 'VERSION:2.1' to 'VERSION:3.0'. The it works fine 😝

Thank you so much! This was a great help.

One reminder - that version number is in each contact (card) and must be changed in each card that needs to be imported.

Great stuff wesley.elder (Jul 6, 2013 8:40 AM). Changed 2.1 to 3.0 and bosh, in it goes!

PERFECT!!! Solved my problem!

thanks it's really helpful. finally got the contacts all imported without using an external tool.