Bringing address books in from another server

When the contacts are on another service and you have no file to export, Kontacts can go and fetch them. You need to:

1. On the «Contacts» page, click the icon with the up arrow at the top right («Import contacts»).
2. In the window, switch to the «CardDAV Server» tab (next to «File», at the top).
3. Fill in «CardDAV server URL», «Username» and «Password» of that service, choose the «Target address book» and click «Connect».
4. If the credentials are right, below appear the «Address books found», each with its number of contacts: tick the ones you need («Select the address books to import»).
5. «Preview» at the bottom, then the blue button Importa … contatti with the number found.

If the destination address book already has contacts, above «Connect» appears the «What to do with existing contacts» choice: it is the same as for the file import, and «Add only new ones (recommended)» is the safe answer.

When it does not connect

The messages say different things, and lead to different remedies:

• «Invalid credentials. Check username and password.» — wrong user or password. On many services what goes here is not the account password but a password dedicated to apps.
• «Server unreachable. Check the URL.» — the address does not answer at all.
• «No CardDAV address books found at this URL.» — the server answers but there are no address books in there: almost always the URL is the website’s and not the contacts service’s.
• «The server did not respond in time.» — try again: it may be momentary slowness.

If after «Connect» you read «No address books found on the server», the connection worked but the user has no address books on that side.

Questions this guide answers

• how do I import contacts from another system
• how do I connect a carddav server to import
• migrating the address book from an old management system
• I cannot connect to the contacts server