Monday, August 8, 2011

My App (1): Vcard Backup

VCard Backup

Expert on iPhone's Address Book

Main functions of this App are as following:

1. Import VCF contacts from your old mobile device (e.g. Nokia, Android) to iPhone. Just a few button clicks to BULK_import all your contacts, as long as they are standard VCFs. So this app helps reduce a lot of hurdles for people just switching from other smartphone to iPhone.
2. Export your current iPhone Address Book contacts as VCFs, and save them in your computer for usage of other platform or just as a reliable way to backup your contacts. To most people, contact list within the phone is the most important information that they are afraid to lose. So this app will be their good choice: You Can See The VCards.
3. Backup and Restore Address book (2nd Tab). All the data produced within the 2nd Tab is stored within the App. User can use this as a convenient way of backup and restore, but be careful that the saved data will be lost when the App is uninstalled.

Here are some step guidelines and screen captures for this App.

A: Import

  1. Connect your iPhone with your computer.
  2. Add all the VCFs to the App "VCard Backup" via iTunes' File Sharing.
  3. Open the App in your iPhone, and hit Refresh button. You should see total number of VCFs detected by the App.
  4. Hit "Import to Address Book".
  5. That's it. All the contacts are added to your Address Book.

B: Export

  1. For iOS 6, please turn off Contacts to access your Facebook Contacts, as shown below.
  2. Connect your iPhone with your computer.
  3. Open the App "VCard Backup".
  4. Hit "Export All Contacts".
  5. Save the folder "Export" to your local directory via iTunes' File Sharing.

C:Backup & Restore

  1. Click "Backup Address Book".
  2. Click "Restore from Backup" to restore directly within the App. OR
  3. Click "Email".
  4. Open the Attachment (Backup.vcf) from Mail, you will be able to add all the contacts to address book of any iOS device.
Please leave me a comment here if you have any improvement suggestions or find any Bugs of the App. Thank you.

17 comments:

  1. Gilfanov Nail darkforce@mail.ruOctober 1, 2012 at 10:06 AM

    Hi! I've just bought your VCard application. It doesn't work at all. First, I can't share all VCFs in iTunes - it says "Not enough memory". I have 670 vcf's exported from previous phone. Second, VCard doesnt see already shared vcfs. I think this problem is in cyrillic names of vcf, and I'm deeply sure it shouldn't be MY problem! Please, do something.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      What is your new phone model and OS version?
      Thanks

      Delete
    2. Gilfanov Nail darkforce@mail.ruOctober 2, 2012 at 10:09 AM

      Iphone 4s 16 Gb
      iOS 6 (latest update)
      Windows 7 Ult, 32b

      Delete
    3. can you send me 2-3 sample vcfs? Thanks.

      Delete
    4. Gilfanov Nail darkforce@mail.ruOctober 2, 2012 at 2:14 PM

      could you please tell me your e-mail?

      Delete
    5. Hi,
      I have pushed an update to App Store. You shall be able to get it in around 2 weeks.
      Bugs fixed.

      Delete
  2. Gilfanov Nail darkforce@mail.ruOctober 25, 2012 at 11:41 AM

    Yeah, now it works just fine. BTW, MS Outlook sucks...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your feedback Nail.
      Can you leave a review in App Store for me? Much appreciate.

      Delete
  3. Hello! I have just bought an Iphone 5 and downloaded latest version of itunes. I am not able to folow step 2 Add all the VCFs to the App "VCard Backup" via iTunes' File Sharing.

    Can you please guide me? thanks alexanderwahl32@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sent email to you. It is because iTunes got updated UI recently.
      General steps in any version of iTunes:
      1. Click your device icon in iTunes.
      2. Click Apps tab(there are other taps in a row, music, movies, TV shows... )
      3. Scroll down, there is a section 'File Sharing'. You will see all the apps that support this function. 'VCard Backup' is one of them.

      Delete
  4. Hi, I just installed this and after I export my contacts, I am unable to copy the EXPORT folder to my PC. Here's the error...

    "Export could not be copied because an error occurred. A duplicate file name was specified."

    Also, I can't expand the EXPORT folder under VCard Backup Douments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John,
      In iTunes, we can only see the top level files and folders, cannot go into the folder.
      In iOS 6, Address book imported contacts from facebook, which induces a lot of duplicates...
      To fix your problem, please:
      1. Delete the folder 'Export' in iTunes 'File Sharing'.
      2. iPhone>>Setting>>Facebook>> turn off Contacts to access your facebook. I also updated this in this blog.
      3. Restart the App 'VCard Backup', and do export again.


      Delete
    2. Hi Cullen,

      Thanks for the quick response. I deleted the folder, turned off contacts in Facebook settings, restarted the app and had the exact same problem when I tried to save the file to the pc.

      Delete
    3. Hi John,
      I did have the same error as yours. Then, fixed by what I said. Yours seems a bit complicated. Do you have a skype/msn/ so that I can know more about your problem quickly.

      Thanks

      Delete
  5. No, I don't sorry. If you want to provide your email, I could send you my TN.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John,

      Generally, it is due to duplicated contacts in your address book. So you can check whether you have duplicated contacts, remove one, and try again.

      Apparently, this is a bug. Thanks for telling me this.
      It is supposed to overwrites when create the vcf file for the second time of the same contact, but I gotta check it first.
      My email is sunhongshuai[AT]gmail.com

      Delete