For macOS
Import contacts from Excel and CSV into Apple's Contacts app on your Mac, or convert them to vCards. Full privacy, no subscription.
Import CSV or Excel into Mac Contacts
Apple's built-in importer fails on many CSV files: wrong encoding, line breaks in fields, columns that will not map. Importer for Contacts opens the CSV files Apple's Contacts app refuses, reads Excel files directly, lets you map every column to the right field and imports them straight into Apple's Contacts app. You don’t need a subscription. The app processes all data on your Mac and doesn’t send it to us or to third parties.
How to import a CSV into Apple's Contacts app
- Open Importer for Contacts and drop in your CSV or Excel file.
- Use the interactive preview to confirm the character encoding, which helps when accented characters look wrong.
- Map each column to the matching contact field; Importer for Contacts remembers the mapping for next time.
- Import. Your contacts land in Apple's Contacts app and sync to iCloud if that is your default account.
Opens the CSVs Apple's Contacts app won't
Files with line breaks inside address or note fields, unusual delimiters or tricky encodings are handled properly. No garbled or half-imported records. Unlike the import function of Apple's Contacts app, Importer for Contacts also supports custom labels.
Full control over field mapping
You decide which column is imported where. Fields that Apple's Contacts app does not support can be imported into a contact's Note field, so nothing is lost.
Setups for recurring imports
If you import similar files regularly, save the field mapping as an import setup. Next time you just call up the setup and the fields are mapped automatically, the way you defined them.
Excel files without a detour via CSV
Apple's Contacts app can't open an Excel file. Importer for Contacts reads .xlsx workbooks directly, including embedded images. You don't have to save the spreadsheet as CSV first or deal with delimiters and encoding. You map the columns the same way as for a CSV file.
Bring over contacts from Outlook
Export your contacts from Outlook as a CSV file and open it in Importer for Contacts. An Outlook CSV often has dozens of columns and an encoding that Apple's Contacts app can't handle. You map only the columns you need and leave the rest out. Notes, labels, and multiple phone numbers are preserved, even for thousands of contacts in one pass.
Frequently asked questions
Why are accented characters wrong after the import?
Usually the CSV file uses a different encoding than the Contacts app assumes. Importer for Contacts shows the file in a preview first, where you change the encoding until characters like é, ü, and ç look right. Excel files don’t need this step.
Can I import an .xls file?
No, Importer for Contacts reads Excel files in the .xlsx format. Save an older .xls file as .xlsx in Excel or Numbers first.
What users say
"Been looking for a way to easily get .csv files into Apple Contacts.
This works perffectly and has a lot of flexibility"
"This app solved a big issue for me with contact management. I imported 100's of contacts from a CSV file in a few minutes. Custom mappings work well."
"Excellent! The app worked smoothly with a csv file that had line breaks which would not work with the native Contacts importer. The mapping interface supported me in a clean transition from Outlook to Contacts on Sierra. Thanks."