Exporting from G+

Exporting from G+

H/T Gideon Rosenblatt



Originally shared by Gideon Rosenblatt

VCard Format and Google Takeout

Just wanted to share a little tip, based on a mistake I made. When you are downloading Circles or Contacts using Google Takeout, you have the option to select CSV or VCF format. CSV is going to be more useful down the road, but the one thing that VCF is good for is importing into mail and address book clients. If you go the VCF route, you will see a bunch of files, each named after a G+ Circle (or if you are exporting from Contacts, it will be the various labels you might have used). It will look like a mistake and that Takeout didn't actually export the contacts. But all you have to do is double-click on that file and your address book should prompt you to import all the contacts for that specific Circle or Label.

For example, I'm on a Mac and the below image was for my "Active Engagers" Circle here on G+. When I double click on it, the Apple Contacts app opens up and prompts to import the individual contacts for that circle.

I at first thought that the export was flawed because the files were so small and the individual contacts are obvious. They are grouped and need to be opened up by the contact manager.

I share this in the Google+ Mass Migration community, but figured I'd share it more broadly.