Import CSV to iCloud Contacts — Convert to vCard First, Then Upload

Direction 1 — Import a CSV into iCloud

1. Convert the spreadsheet with the CSV to VCF converter — check the column mapping preview, and select vCard 3.0. That version choice matters more for iCloud than for any other importer: 3.0 is iCloud's native dialect, and its web importer is the strictest one in common use.
2. Sign in at icloud.com with the Apple ID your devices use and open Contacts.
3. Open the gear icon (bottom-left) or the ⋯ menu — Apple moves it between redesigns — and choose Import vCard…, then select your .vcf.
4. The contacts appear in the iCloud list immediately and sync down to iPhone, iPad and Mac on their own (Settings → your name → iCloud → Contacts must be on — on iOS 18+ that toggle lives under iCloud → Saved to iCloud / See All; it is on by default).

This is also the standard way to manage iPhone contacts from a Windows PC — the whole flow lives in the browser, no Mac and no iTunes required.

Direction 2 — Export iCloud contacts to CSV / Excel

1. On icloud.com → Contacts, click any contact in the list, then press Cmd-A (Mac) or Ctrl-A (Windows) to select all — or Cmd/Ctrl-click to pick a subset.
2. Gear / ⋯ menu → Export vCard…. iCloud downloads one combined .vcf holding every selected contact.
3. Drop that file into the VCF to CSV converter. Every card becomes a row across 18 columns — names, two phones with their types, two emails, company, job title, the address split into street/city/state/ZIP/country, website and notes.
4. Download the CSV — it's UTF-8 with a BOM, so Excel shows accented and non-Latin names correctly, and Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice open it as-is.

iCloud exports have their own quirks — grouped properties like item1.TELinstead of plain TEL lines — and the parser here recognizes them, so custom labels such as 'Work fax' are carried as the phone's type.

The round trip: clean up your contacts in a spreadsheet

The two directions combine into the most useful workflow this page enables: export everything, fix it in Excel, bring it back. Duplicates, dead numbers, inconsistent company names and half-filled entries are far easier to spot in a sorted spreadsheet than in any contact app.

1. Export all contacts to one .vcf (Direction 2, steps 1–2).
2. Convert to CSV, open in your spreadsheet app, edit and de-duplicate rows.
3. Convert the cleaned CSV back with the CSV to VCF converter (vCard 3.0 again).
4. Before re-importing, delete the old batchon icloud.com (select → delete). iCloud's importer never merges — importing edited copies alongside the originals duplicates every contact. Keep the exported .vcf until you've confirmed the re-import looks right; it's your backup.

Troubleshooting

• iCloud.com rejects the import or shows gibberish: almost always a version problem — regenerate the .vcf as vCard 3.0.
• Can't find Import/Export: both live in the same menu — the gear at the bottom-left of the contact list, or the ⋯ menu in newer iCloud.com designs.
• Exported CSV shows numbers without the + prefix: that usually happens after editing in Excel, which strips leading + under the General format. Format phone columns as Text — the Excel guide shows the fix.
• Imported to iCloud but not on the iPhone: Settings → your name → iCloud → Contacts on (iOS 18+: iCloud → Saved to iCloud / See All → Contacts), then check the Contacts app's Lists filter — a Gmail/Exchange default account can hide the iCloud view.

iCloud contacts — FAQ