Manual method
Preserve Apple Contacts as portable vCards plus an optional Mac Contacts Archive.
- Open Contacts on Mac and select the intended account/list; select all required contacts.
- Choose File → Export → Export vCard and save the .vcf file.
- Review Contacts → Settings → vCard if photos or notes should be included.
- Optionally choose File → Export → Contacts Archive to preserve an .abbu backup too.
Coverage and limitations: vCards do not preserve every list structure. An .abbu archive is app-specific. Linked contact cards from multiple accounts can make counts differ; record which lists/accounts you selected.
Size and time to allow
Illustrative small / central / large case: 0.001 / 0.01 / 0.2 GB (decimal GB). These are planning assumptions, not a measured average per person. 10 MB is a planning example for about 1,000 contacts; photos and long notes make the upper case larger.
Preparation: No export queue for the Mac route. Allow a few minutes to select and export; network transfer is negligible at this size.
For the central 0.01 GB example, network transfer alone is approximately:
| Connection | Estimated transfer |
|---|---|
| 10 Mbps | 11 seconds |
| 50 Mbps | 2 seconds |
| 100 Mbps | 1 seconds |
Assumes 70% sustained use of the stated connection. Provider throttling, many small files, retries, local extraction and copying add time. For online backup use your upload speed. These are not estimates of the provider’s preparation queue. See calculation and large-file advice.
Store and verify the archive
The example is small enough for an encrypted USB key, external drive or private cloud folder. Choose a second independent copy as well; a single USB key is easy to lose and a sync folder alone can propagate deletion.
Create apple_contacts/YYYY-MM-DD/originals/, preserve the untouched download, and extract a separate working copy when needed. Allow extra free space for archive plus extraction; compressed text can expand far beyond twice its size. Record account/scope, export date, date coverage and missing items in a local README without passwords.
Inspect names, phone labels, notes and photographs in a disposable address book. Do not replace the live address book to test a backup. Reopen a sample from the second copy before deleting or replacing any source. Storage choices and verification.
Sources and review
Public documentation was reviewed on 27 October 2026. No signed-in export or restoration was performed. Account options and availability can change; follow the current provider instructions.