Import or export contacts

Fastmail makes importing or exporting contacts simple. You can upload existing contacts from vCard, CSV, or LDIF files, and download your contacts in any of the same formats.

Note that importing and exporting is a one-time operation. If you're looking to keep your contact list constantly up to date, you need to synchronize via CardDAV.

• Import contacts
  • Import contacts using address book file
• Import limitations
• Importing CSV
• Export contacts

Import contacts

If your provider supports it, you can migrate your contacts to Fastmail using our import tool.

1. Open the Settings → Migration screen. 
2. Go to the Import mail, calendars, and contacts section and select your other mail provider. If the mail provider is not listed, click Other (IMAP / CardDAV / CalDAV).
3. On the next screen, you'll be asked to log in to your external account.
   • If you use a password manager, please make sure the correct login credentials are being autofilled in.
4. You'll then be asked what you want to import. Please select Contacts to import them from your other service.
5. Click Do It.

You can continue to use your account as normal while the migration is running.

We also have specific instructions when migrating your contacts from Gmail or Yahoo.

Fastmail will import your contacts. In most cases, we're not able to tell if a contact has been duplicated. We create a new entry for each imported contact to ensure none of your data is lost.

Import contacts using address book file

You can also import your contacts into Fastmail with an address book file, if you have one:

1. Open the Settings → Migration screen. 
2. Click Upload contacts and calendars.
3. Click Upload address book file.
4. Choose the CSV, LDIF, or vCard file you want to import and click the Select button.

Import limitations

When you import data from another provider, Fastmail may not exactly represent the information in the same way. For instance, there's no way of telling which of several email addresses is the main address. We don't lose any data given to us and everything is imported, however the export and import formats aren't the most reliable.

While the main elements of a contact are the same across platforms (such as name and email address), different contact providers store extra data in ways that are aren't the same as each other.

We can only import files with headers in English at this time.

Importing CSV

The first line in a CSV file needs to be a header, so the importer knows what the data in the columns means. The list of standard headers is:

"Title","First Name","Last Name","Nick Name","Company","Department","Job Title","Business Street","Business Street 2","Business City","Business State","Business Postal Code","Business Country","Home Street","Home Street 2","Home City","Home State","Home Postal Code","Home Country","Other Street","Other Street 2","Other City","Other State","Other Postal Code","Other Country","Business Fax","Business Phone","Business Phone 2","Home Phone","Home Phone 2","Mobile Phone","Other Phone","Pager","Birthday","E-mail Address","E-mail 2 Address","E-mail 3 Address","Notes","Web Page"

If you'd like, you can download a CSV sample file here.

Export contacts

To export your Fastmail contacts:

1. Go to the Contacts screen.
2. To export all contacts, click the symbol next to All Contacts. To export a single contact group click the symbol next to that contact group. 
3. Select what type of export file you'd like to create in the drop-down menu. You can choose to export the following formats: vCard 3.0, vCard 2.1, CSV, .adr, and LDIF. If you're not sure, we recommend leaving it set to vCard 3.0, as this is the most widely supported.
4. Click OK.

The contacts will begin downloading. You might be asked for where you want to save it on your computer. If not, it'll likely go to your Downloads folder.

Contacts can also be exported on the Settings → Migration screen. 

1. Go to Settings → Migration. 
2. Scroll down to the Export mail, calendars, and contacts section.
3. Click Download your mail, contacts, or calendars.
4. Click Download all contacts. This will export a single vCard 3.0 file of all contacts. If you would like a different format, please follow the numbered steps above instead.