How to Convert EML to VCF
In short: To convert EML to VCF, remember an EML is an email and a VCF is a contact card, so the real task is pulling the person’s details out of the email into a vCard. By hand, open the EML in Outlook or Thunderbird, add the sender to your contacts, then export that contact as a .vcf. If the email already has a vCard attached, just open the EML and save it. For many EML files at once, a tool reads the sender details and writes vCards in bulk.
What converting EML to VCF actually means
This is the bit that trips people up, so it is worth a moment. An EML file is a single email, with a subject, a body and headers. A VCF file is a vCard, a contact card holding a name, an email address and maybe a phone number. They are not the same kind of thing, so no program offers a direct EML-to-VCF button. What you really want is the person inside the email, the sender or a recipient, saved as a contact card you can import into Google Contacts, iCloud or Outlook. There are two cases. Usually you extract the sender details into a new vCard. Occasionally the email already carries a .vcf attachment, in which case you simply save that file.
Senior Analyst, Corbett Software
“People look for a switch that turns an email into a contact, but there is not one, because they are different formats. The trick is to save the sender as a contact, then export that contact as a vCard. For a whole folder of EML files, do not do it by hand, let a tool read the senders and write the vCards.”
Turn an email’s sender into a vCard by hand
For one or two emails, your mail app already does this. Outlook is the simplest.
- Double-click the .eml file so it opens in Outlook.
- Right-click the sender’s name in the message, then choose Add to Outlook Contacts, then save the contact.
- Go to People, open that contact, then use Save As and pick vCard Files (.vcf).
In Thunderbird, open the EML, click the sender and choose Add to Address Book, then in the Address Book right-click the contact and use Export to save a vCard.
If the EML already has a vCard attached
Some emails, such as signatures or shared contacts, include the .vcf inside the message. In that case there is nothing to convert.
- Open the .eml in Outlook or Thunderbird.
- Look in the attachment area for a file ending in .vcf.
- Right-click it and choose Save, then import that vCard wherever you keep contacts.
Convert EML to VCF in bulk with a tool
Doing this by hand across a folder of EML files is slow, so a tool reads the sender details from every message and writes the vCards for you.
The Corbett EML Converter opens your EML files, with no Outlook or Thunderbird needed, then pulls the contact details from each message into vCard files, deduplicated. It can also save the emails themselves as PDF, MSG or PST if you need those too, with a filter to limit the run to a date range or sender. A free demo edition runs on every edition of Windows.
- Install and open the tool, then click Open, choose Email Data Files and select your EML files.
- Let it preview the messages and the detected senders.
- Choose vCard (.vcf) as the output, apply any filter, then Save.
Frequently asked questions
Can you convert an EML file to a VCF?
Not as a straight file swap, because an EML is an email and a VCF is a contact. You save the sender as a contact and export that as a vCard. A tool can also pull the details out in bulk.
How do I turn an email sender into a contact?
Open the EML in Outlook or Thunderbird, right-click the sender and choose Add to Contacts or Add to Address Book, then export that contact as a .vcf file.
My EML has a vCard attached. How do I get it?
Open the email in a mail client, find the .vcf in the attachments, then save it. That file is already a vCard, so no conversion is needed.
How do I convert many EML files to VCF at once?
A mail client does one at a time. For a whole folder, use an EML converter that reads the sender details from every message and writes deduplicated vCards.
What contact details end up in the vCard?
Usually the sender’s name and email address from the header, plus any phone or extra fields present in a signature or attached card. Bodies of text are not turned into contacts.
Will this change my original EML files?
No. Saving a contact or running a converter only reads the EML. The original email files stay exactly as they are.