How to save contacts from a smartphone to a computer. The best ways to save contacts from an Android device to your computer's memory: video instructions and step-by-step explanations

The presence of synchronization on Android devices allows you to save all created contacts in storage on Google servers. At any time, these contacts can be transferred to another device or edited using the Gmail mail system interface. But even in this case, no one is safe from loss of contacts. Therefore, we recommend keeping a copy on your computer. How to copy contacts from Android to a computer and what do you need for this? This procedure is so simple that even a child can handle it - read the details in our review.

Local saving of contacts

The easiest way to save contacts is local. To do this, you need to go to your phone book and visit the settings item. Here you will find tools to export contacts in vCard format. Sometimes this item becomes available and visible after selecting one or more records. Having selected the recordings you want to save, you need to save them in the built-in memory, on a memory card, or send them by email. There are other ways to send contacts, but they are not of interest to us.

After you save your contacts, you need to connect your smartphone to your computer and copy the files to your hard drive. But the hard drive doesn't last forever, either, so we recommend creating another copy on more reliable media, such as a CD or USB drive (or cloud storage). Having several copies in several sources at once will allow you to be calm about the safety of your phone book.

We recommend copying contacts from Android to a computer at least once a month, since the data in subscriber phone books is periodically updated - new phones appear in them, and already recorded information changes.

If for some reason your phone does not have a function for exporting contacts (the manufacturer installed obviously clumsy software), then third-party “dialers” will help you cope with this task. Also in Playmarket you will find a huge number of programs that allow you to create backup copies of phone books. Some of them save data in the same vCard format (.vcf files), and some - in their own format. The resulting files can be saved on your computer or transferred to any other device.

Remotely saving contacts

You can transfer contacts from Android to your computer without using a smartphone. For this we can use a Google account. Saving is carried out in several stages:

• We go to the website of the Gmail mail service (from here it is convenient to access the Google Contacts service);
• Go to the “Contacts” section;
• Select “More – Export”.

Next we are transferred to the old version of the Google Contacts service, where we can select the required records and export them as vCard. Thus, we will have at our disposal a backup file with all the necessary telephone records.

The same service also offers the reverse operation – importing contacts from a vCard file. It can come in handy when adding contacts to a new account or after editing files on your computer.

Working with a vCard file

Copying contacts from Android to computer is not that difficult. But what to do with this file next? If you want to edit your contact list, use appropriate editors such as vCardOrganizer. Also, vCard format files can be imported into some email programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, The Bat and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Almost all users trying to work with vCard files on computers running Microsoft Windows are faced with the problem of incorrect encoding. The Android operating system generates files in UTF-8 format, while Windows uses the Windows-1251 encoding. As a result, the files you open may contain incorrectly displayed data. In this case, you need to change the encoding using one of the text editors. How to change the file encoding?

To do this, you will need the universal text editor Notepad++. It can work with many types of files and can change their encodings. Open the resulting contacts file in Notepad++, find the encoding change option in the top menu and select Windows-1251 encoding there. Next, save the file and try to open it with a program for working with vCard. If everything went well, the data will be displayed in Russian.

A typical sign of incorrect encoding is the correct display of English-language entries and incorrect display of Russian-language entries (names, surnames and other data written in Cyrillic are displayed incorrectly).

According to statistics, the average user changes his mobile phone once every 1.5 years. This is due to the fact that a smartphone is a gadget that becomes obsolete in a matter of months. The operating system is updated, new powerful processors appear, and battery capacity increases.

Very often the reason for buying a new mobile phone is the breakdown of the old one. Not a single gadget, be it an iPhone or an Android smartphone, is immune from system failure or mechanical damage. In any case, the user is faced with the task of saving the most valuable data in his device. And if a photo or video can be quickly transferred, for example, to a memory card, then what about contacts?

Of course, you can spend a lot of time and rewrite all the numbers in the phone book. But, as a rule, the number of contacts in a phone exceeds several hundred. Then the most obvious and accessible way is to transfer contacts from your phone to your computer. This can even be done as a safety net by creating a backup copy of your numbers just in case.

In our article we will tell you how to transfer contacts from your phone to your computer using:

Importing numbers through the Contacts system application settings and Google account

Connecting your phone to PC using a USB cable

External software

Method 1. How to transfer contacts from your phone via a computer using a Google account

Owners of Android smartphones can use the functions of their Google account to copy numbers from their address book to their PC. Copying takes place in two stages. First you need to set up synchronization between your account and contacts. And then transfer the contacts packed into the vcf file.

Stage 1: Synchronization

Enter your smartphone settings

Select "Accounts"

Specify the Google item or add it with a command at the end of the list

Set the synchronization switch opposite the “Contacts” item

In the upper right corner, click on the drop-down menu and click the “Sync” button

After this, the connection between your Google account and address book will be set up.

Step 2: Copy

Now let's take a step-by-step look at how to transfer contacts from your phone to your computer using the system address book.

The Contacts system application in any version of Android has the function of exporting and importing contacts. The interface may differ slightly, but the essence remains the same. Address book data is saved in a file with a vcf extension, which is transferred to your computer via Gmail email. We will show the process of transferring contacts using the 6th version of Android OS as an example:

Turn on mobile internet

Open the Contacts application in the smartphone menu

In the top right corner, open the drop-down menu

Select Import/Export

Specify the source from which the contacts will be copied. This could be an internal storage device, a SIM card, or phone memory.

Select your email

In the contact list, click on “Selected” and select all contacts

Click OK

After this, the system will pack all contacts into a file and send it to your email. Then they can be stored either in the received letter or copied to your computer. You can also use your account page in your browser in the contacts section:

Open the browser page at https://www.google.com/contacts

In the "More" section, click on Export

Add the vcf file that you sent from your smartphone

Please note that in the settings for importing and exporting contacts, you can set the transfer of numbers to an external memory card. After copying the vcf file to the card, you need to remove it from the phone, place it in the card reader and transfer the data to the PC. Make sure that no important applications are installed on the card - after removing the SD card, all programs will be lost.

If you have problems adding a Google account, use the advice on the official Fly company forum in the topic Google account is not added: ways to solve the problem.

Method 2: Copy contacts by connecting your phone and PC via USB

If for some reason you don’t have a Google account, but urgently need to transfer your contacts to your computer, you can use copying numbers using a USB cable. In order for the computer to see your contacts, you need to transfer them to the phone’s memory:

Open Android settings

Select “Contacts”

Click on Import/Export

Specify the SIM card as the source

Assign storage to phone memory

In a few seconds, all your contacts will be copied to your phone. Using the same procedure, copy contacts from your phone to a memory card. The system will create a vcf file with your numbers in the root directory. Now you can transfer them to your computer:

Connect your phone to PC with a USB cable

In the USB usage menu, specify file transfer

Open File Explorer or File Manager on your computer

Find your smartphone in the list of drives

Open the internal storage

Find the business card file - this is your contacts

Copy the file to your computer's memory

Method 3: Copying contacts to a computer through external programs

There are quite a few applications in the Google Play digital store designed to transfer contacts from your phone to your PC. All of them function on the same principle as the “Contacts” system application - through the creation of a vcf file, which can be sent to your email or directly copied to your computer.

For avid fans of delving into various software, we can recommend the service and the associated application for the AirDroid smartphone. Using this service, remote control of a smartphone from a PC is established. In particular, the user also gets access to contacts on his mobile phone. You can read about how to use AirDroid in the article Remote control of Android.

To test various methods of transferring contacts from a mobile phone book to a PC, we needed a powerful and productive smartphone that had to hold a charge for a long time, have a fast processor and carry a capacious battery on board. As a result, the Fly Cirrus 7 smartphone passed the load test on the processor and battery.

The Fly company has been producing high-quality mobile gadgets for 14 years, which combine high-performance technical components with excellent design and an affordable price. The Cirrus 7 smartphone is no exception.

This model is extremely convenient to use. Thanks to the ergonomic body and precise dimensions, the smartphone fits perfectly in the hand. The bright and contrasting 5.2-inch IPS screen does not glare even under bright lighting, and the powerful 4-core processor with a frequency of 1.25 GHz ensures excellent work with the smartphone interface and installed applications.

Full testing of various methods and a thorough study of the settings for copying contacts to a PC took us almost 2 hours. During this time, the smartphone's 2600 mAh battery showed its best performance, discharging only 20% with the 4G LTE module always on.

Have you often encountered the need to transfer contacts from your phone to your computer? Did you encounter any difficulties with this? Tell us about it

Most users keep a phone book on their smartphone and accumulate a large number of contacts there over time. In order not to lose all these contacts along with your smartphone, you need time to transfer them to your computer. In this article we will look at two ways to transfer contacts from an Android smartphone to a computer.

Transfer contacts from Android to computer using export

The easiest option for transferring contacts from an Android smartphone to a computer is by exporting contacts from the Contacts application. By exporting contacts in this way, you will receive a file in vcf format, which can then be imported into any application for working with contacts, both on another phone and on a computer.

Exporting contacts is quite simple. First, you need to launch the Contacts application on your Android phone. After that, open the context menu in this application (this is done using the on-screen or touch key under the screen).

After that, select “Import/Export” in the menu that appears.

As a result, a menu will appear on the screen with several options for transferring contacts. Here you need to select the “Export to VCF file” option. In some cases, this option may be called "Export to internal memory" or "Export to SD memory card."

After this, the Contacts application will transfer all contacts from its database to a file with a vcf extension, which will be saved in the internal memory or on the SD memory card, depending on which transfer option you chose.

In the future, you can use contacts from the vcf file as it is convenient for you. The Vcf file can be imported into an email program (for example, Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird), into another phone, or into an email service.

Transfer contacts from Android to computer using Google

You can also transfer contacts from Android to your computer using the Google Contacts service. For this transfer method to work, your Android contacts must be synchronized with your Google account.

To make sure that your contacts are synchronized, go to Android Settings and open the “Accounts - Google” section. This settings section will contain a list of everything that is synchronized with your Google account. Find the “Contacts” item there and make sure it is enabled.

If the contacts synchronize normally, then you can start transferring them. To do this, use your browser to go to the Google Contacts service, which is available at , open the “More” section there and select “Export”.

After that, you will be prompted to open the old version of the Google Contacts interface. Agree and wait until the old interface loads. In the old interface, you need to click on the “More” button and select “Export” from the menu that appears.

As a result, a window with export settings will open in front of you. Here you first need to indicate which contacts you want to transfer. You can select some individual contacts, a group of contacts, or all contacts.

After this, you need to select the format for export. There are three formats available here: Google CSV (for transferring contacts to another Google account), CSV format for Outlook (for transferring contacts to Outlook), vCard (for transferring contacts to the Apple Address Book or another program). In most cases, the vCard format will be optimal, since it is quite universal and supported by most programs.

After selecting contacts and format, you just need to click on the “Export” button and download the resulting file. In the future, using this file, contacts can be transferred to another phone or to another program.

The numbers of relatives, friends and acquaintances are something that is especially offensive to lose if the smartphone suddenly breaks, gets lost or is stolen. In order to protect yourself, you need to save this data somewhere else in advance. Let's look at, for example, how to transfer contacts from your phone to your computer.

Android is a very common operating system used in modern phones, so the ability to transfer contacts from this device to your home PC will never be superfluous.

This is very easy to do if you have synchronized your phone with your Google account.

1. We go there, select the “Contacts” section, then the “More” and “Export” menus.
2. A window will open where you need to enter some of your data and click on “My Contacts”.
3. Select the required CSV file and click the “Export” button. After this, all contacts selected from the smartphone will appear on the computer.

Another option is suitable for those devices that support the Export/Import to PC function. If it is, then we do the following.

1. Open the list of contacts on your phone and select “Export”. It may be located in different places depending on the smartphone model.
2. After the item is found, a copying proposal will appear: “from the drive,” “to the drive,” or “transfer only visible contacts.”
3. You need to choose the second option - to the drive. In this case, a file will appear on your phone, which can be transferred to your computer using a regular USB cable.

Step-by-step instructions for Windows Phone

It's easy to copy contacts from your phone to your computer if both devices support the same operating system. In our case it is Windows.

First of all, you should know that in Windows-based phones, information is stored in Microsoft cloud services, which means that you just need to log into your account on your computer, connect to the Internet and all contacts from the first device, that is, from the phone, will be transferred to PC.

Another option is to use the Outlook service.

1. Go to it and log in to your account. If it is not there, then you need to register.
2. Go to the People section.
3. Then select the Manage option and then Export Contacts.
4. In the window that opens, select which contacts should be copied and click the “Export” button.
5. All data will be saved to a file in CSV format.
6. Download it on PC and that's it. You can open it at any time and get the information you need. If necessary, you can easily download your saved address book to your phone again.

Ways to copy contacts from iPhone to computer

The easiest way to transfer contacts from your Apple phone to your computer is to use your iCloud account.

If you don't already have it, it's worth signing up as it opens up a lot of possibilities for iPhone owners.

1. Connect the Internet on your phone and PC.
2. Go to the phone menu - settings - and then iCloud.
3. There you will find storage and a list of everything that is on the device.
4. On the right side you can see the “sliders”. It is necessary that “Contacts” is turned on and lights up green.
5. After that, open the iCloud website on your computer, go to your personal account using your username and password.
6. Click “Contacts” and see everything that is on the phone. Select the ones you need, click on settings and select “Export”.
7. The data will be saved in Windows Contacts, and you can open the map to view the information at any time.

Another option to send your address book to your computer is through iTunes and a USB cable. Make sure you have the latest version of the application on your computer.

1. Connect your phone and PC using a cable.
2. Open the program and there click on your device.
3. On the left is “Information”. Check the “Synchronize contacts with...” checkbox.
4. In the list of available programs, select the one through which the transfer will take place, and click “Finish”.

Special programs for transferring contacts

The markets installed on your phone have a wide variety of programs that allow you to copy contacts to your phone, and each operating system has its own application.

They all work on the same principle - they create a file that can be transferred and opened on a PC.

There is a very convenient program called AirDroid. Using it, you can not only transfer a list of contacts, but also generally control your smartphone remotely.

• We go to the official website of the program, register there, and then download the application to your smartphone and computer.
• Log in to your personal account using your registration data.
• We launch the program on the PC and perform the necessary actions - create a file with contacts and copy it.

In addition, through the application you can transfer files, turn the sound on and off, and much more.

In order not to one day encounter the problem of restoring your phone book, it is better to worry about transferring it to a PC or to the cloud in advance. In the future, it would be nice to get into the habit of immediately copying all newly created contacts there.

Address book or Contacts is an integral part of the software of any modern smartphone running Android. In addition to the phone number, it may contain the person’s first and last name, residence and email address, place of work and position, as well as many other information. Data can be stored both in the memory of the gadget itself and on the SIM card, but none of these methods ensures its 100% safety.

Failure of a SIM card, phone or flash memory can lead to the loss of valuable information for the user. Therefore, as you add new data to your address book, it is advisable to create backup copies of its contents. Typically, in such cases, the owner of the mobile phone transfers contacts to a computer, laptop, and from it to a flash drive or other storage device.

This is where very often novice users have a question: how to transfer contacts from a phone to a computer? Do I need any programs for this or can I use built-in tools? Is it possible to transfer data over the Internet? There are many ways to transfer contacts from your phone to your computer and vice versa, and today we will consider them if possible. Which one is more convenient is up to you to decide, the main thing is that they all work.

Where are contacts stored in Android?

On most phones, contacts are in a SQLite database file contacts.db or contacts2.db located at data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases at the root of the file system. To access the data folder on the phone, you need root rights, so you won’t be able to open it through either the built-in or third-party file managers.

The system root will not be displayed even with . But if the phone is rooted, then you can copy the database file using Root Explorer or another manager to the location you need.

Rooting Android comes with risks! Firstly, you lose the manufacturer’s warranty, secondly, this reduces the level of system security, and thirdly, during the rooting process, the phone’s firmware may fail, turning the gadget into a “brick.”

Transfer data using the Contacts app

As you can see, the first method is not suitable for beginners. So how can you save contacts from Android to your computer without unnecessary hassle? The answer is through the built-in Contacts application itself. If you call up the application menu, you will see, among others, the options “Import/Export” and “Send contacts” (in version 5.0 and higher). The only difference between them is that the second option only exports data, while the first also allows you to transfer contacts from another device to your phone.

Let's consider transferring contacts using the “Send Contacts” method.

After you click on the desired item, a list of applications and devices that can transmit contact information will open. It can be MicroSD, SIM card, SD card, Skype, Total Commander, Storage, Gmail, Google Drive, Yandex.Disk, Bluetooth, Email and so on, it all depends on how many applications that support transfer are installed on your gadget.

For example, if you select Storage or MicroSD (assuming the phone does not have an SD card), the contacts will be saved in an editable section. Typically this is the Contact folder in the Internal Memory section. This directory is not protected by root rights.

The contacts file saved in VCF format can then be transferred to the computer in any convenient way, at least via the same USB cable. If the file was saved to an SD card, it can be removed and connected to a PC via a card reader.

The contacts file will be transferred in the same format when using email or the Google Drive cloud service, it is only advisable that synchronization in the phone settings with your Gmail account is enabled.

In essence, that’s all, now you know how to download contacts from your phone to your computer via the Internet.

Problems reading VCF files

Unfortunately, neither Microsoft Outlook nor the standard Windows Contacts application is able to display the content correctly if the mobile application used Cyrillic when creating it.

Alternatively, you can try opening the VCF file in Notepad++ and changing the encoding by selecting the "Encoding to UTF-8 without BOM" option and then clicking "Convert to ANSI".

If this does not help, we use the Gmail mail service to read or convert the VCF file. After transferring contacts from your phone to your Gmail email, hover your mouse cursor over the VCF file and click on the “Add to Contacts” icon that appears.

The message “These contacts have been imported but not yet merged” appears. Next, in the main menu of Gmail, click “Contacts” or go to the address contacts.google.com.

You will see that the transferred contact has become readable. From the Gmail web app, you can export your contacts to your PC in a readable format. To do this, switch to the old version in the menu on the left.

Click the “More” button at the top, and then “Export...”

From the menu, select the “Google CSV (to import into Google account)” method and export the contacts to your PC’s hard drive.

The file will be saved in CSV format, accessible for more or less correct viewing in Microsoft Excel, Notepad++ or another text editor.

If contacts from your phone to your computer were transferred solely for the purpose of creating a backup copy, do not edit them (make a separate copy for reading on a PC), otherwise restoration on a mobile gadget may be unsuccessful.

Bluetooth transmission

If your computer supports Bluetooth technology, you can try transferring contacts over a local wireless connection. Everything here is also very simple, only in the list when transferring a contact you need to select the Bluetooth option and pair between devices.

This method, however, is not reliable and in some cases ends in error. It is mainly used to transfer contacts from one Android mobile device to another.

Using Third Party Applications

In addition to the standard smartphone tools, there are special programs that make it easy to transfer contacts from an Android phone to a computer. One of the most popular programs is MOBILedit. After installing it and the necessary drivers (the program will download and install them itself), you need to connect the phone to the PC using a USB cable, having previously enabled USB debugging in the mobile device settings. MOBILedit differs from other programs in its versatility and support for phones from different manufacturers.

The application allows you to copy contacts from your phone in CSV format, edit them directly on the device, view and save calls and SMS messages, any text and multimedia content, perform various types of backups and many other useful actions. Pairing a PC with a phone when using MOBILedit is possible via a USB cable, Wi-Fi, infrared and Bluetooth. MOBILedit is a commercial program, but you can use it for free for a week.

If you are looking for a free file manager to transfer contacts from Android to computer, try MyPhoneExplorer. It can connect to Android smartphones and tablets and select Sony phones via Wi-Fi, IR, Data cable and Bluetooth. The program supports creating backup copies of contacts, messages, calendar entries, transferring files from the device to a PC, synchronizing data with Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird.

Other popular applications for saving contacts from your phone to your computer include Nokia Suite, Nokia PC Suite, Smart Switch and Samsung Kies.

Bottom line

Of course, there are other, so to speak, exotic transfer methods, but there is no point in citing them, since they are not convenient and sometimes require specific skills and third-party tools. If you are looking for how to copy contacts from Android to a computer, you don’t need to worry too much, because all you really need is the phone book itself on your mobile device, a suitable USB cable or a Google account.