Importing contacts from a file

To import from a file you need to:

1. On the «Contacts» page, click the icon with the up arrow at the top right, next to «New contact» (tooltip «Import contacts»). Or, in «Address Books», the same icon on the row of the address book («Import contacts into this address book»): that way the destination is already chosen.
2. In the «Import contacts» window, stay on the «File» tab, choose the «Format» — «vCard (.vcf)» or «CSV (.csv)» — and the «Target address book».
3. Drag the file into the dashed box («Drop a .vcf or .csv file here») or click «Browse».
4. Click «Preview» at the bottom: the window shows how many contacts it found and the list.
5. Confirm with the blue button at the bottom, Importa … contatti with the number found.

At the end you read «Import completed» with how many came in and how many were skipped.

On a phone there is no import: it is done from a computer.

⚠️ The question that decides whether you will have duplicates

If the chosen address book is not empty, between the address-book dropdown and the file box appears «What to do with existing contacts», with three very different choices:

• «Add only new ones (recommended)» — imports only those that are not there. Running the same file again creates no duplicates: it is the safe choice.
• «Replace everything» — first deletes those in the address book, then imports. At the end inside there is only the file. Irreversible.
• «Add everything, including duplicates» — checks nothing. Useful in rare cases, and knowing why.

If you ended up with everything doubled, it was the third one.

The CSV needs a header row

With a CSV, Kontacts recognises the columns from the names in the first row of the file: both English (“First name”, “Email”, “Company”) and Italian ones (“Nome”, “Cognome”, “Email”, “Telefono”, “Azienda”, “Città”, “Note”) are fine. A column with a name it does not recognise is ignored — if the emails or companies are missing in the preview, it is almost always the header written another way: rename it in the file and try again.

⚠️ If in the preview you read that some contacts had first name and surname in the same field and were split automatically, it is worth checking a few: the split is a guess (first word = first name), and it gets compound surnames wrong.

If you cannot find the icon

Importing is a privilege of the user typology («Import vCard/CSV»). Ask whoever manages Kontacts users.

If instead in the window you read «No address book available for import. Create one first.», the destination is missing: create the address book and try again.

Questions this guide answers

• how do I import contacts from a file
• how do I import a vcf
• how do I import a csv of contacts
• after the import I have duplicate contacts