Free online VCARD to XML converter

What vCard is

vCard is a text-based contact format normally stored with a .vcf extension. Each record is enclosed by BEGIN:VCARD and END:VCARD and can contain names, telephone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, organizations, birthdays, photographs, notes, and custom properties.

Phones, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Contacts, Google Contacts, Thunderbird, CRM systems, and mail applications commonly create or export vCards. One file can contain one contact or many contacts. Versions 2.1, 3.0, and 4.0 differ in property syntax, character encoding, parameters, and supported features.

What XML is

XML is a hierarchical text format that represents data with elements, attributes, namespaces, and text values. It supports validation against an XSD schema, querying and transformation with XML tools, and integration with applications that define an XML import format.

XML does not normally mean one universal contact structure. The standardized xCard format, defined by RFC 6351, represents vCard 4.0 in XML, but many programs instead require a proprietary schema with different element names, namespaces, and nesting. Confirm the receiving application’s documentation, XSD, or sample XML before choosing the output structure.

How to convert the file

Use 101convert.com

On 101convert.com, select the VCARD-to-XML conversion, upload the .vcf file, start the conversion, and download the resulting .xml file. This is suitable when the converter’s XML structure matches the importing program and the contact data may be processed online; use a local method for address books that must remain on the device.

Open the output in an XML-aware editor and check that it is well formed. A successful download does not guarantee that the destination program will accept the schema or preserve every vCard property.

Convert locally with Python

For private data or repeatable processing, parse the vCard with the vobject package instead of replacing lines mechanically. The following script creates a simple custom XML structure and retains each property name, parameter set, and text representation of its value:

python -m pip install vobject

import sys
import vobject
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

source, destination = sys.argv[1:3]
root = ET.Element("contacts")

with open(source, "r", encoding="utf-8-sig", newline="") as file:
    for card in vobject.readComponents(file):
        contact = ET.SubElement(root, "contact")
        for name, properties in card.contents.items():
            for prop in properties:
                element = ET.SubElement(contact, "property", {"name": name})
                for key, values in prop.params.items():
                    element.set(key.lower(), ",".join(str(value) for value in values))
                value = prop.value
                if isinstance(value, (list, tuple)):
                    element.text = ";".join(str(part) for part in value)
                else:
                    element.text = "" if value is None else str(value)

ET.indent(root, space="  ")
ET.ElementTree(root).write(destination, encoding="utf-8", xml_declaration=True)

Save it as vcard_to_xml.py and run it with Python 3.9 or later:

python vcard_to_xml.py contacts.vcf contacts.xml

This produces elements such as <contacts>, <contact>, and <property name="tel">. It is a starting point, not a universal import format. Change the element names, namespace, parameter representation, date formatting, and structured-value handling to match the destination schema. If the destination accepts xCard, implement the RFC 6351 element and namespace mapping instead of using this custom structure.

Quality and compatibility checks

Valid XML is not necessarily compatible XML. Importers may require a particular root element, namespace, contact nesting, field names, phone and email type syntax, date format, or xCard version. Validate the result against the supplied XSD when one exists and test it with a copy of the destination address book.

Use a vCard parser to handle folded lines, quoted-printable values, UTF-8 text, escaped characters, property parameters, repeated properties, and version-specific rules. A line-by-line conversion can corrupt multiline notes, non-ASCII names, telephone labels, or addresses.

The sample script converts values to text and may not preserve the full semantics of structured fields such as ADR and ORG, binary photographs, group membership, time zones, private fields, or vendor extensions. Review records containing multiple phone numbers, repeated email addresses, photographs, and notes. If every vCard feature must survive, use a documented xCard or vendor schema and retain the original .vcf file as the authoritative backup.