Export Contacts to Markdown

Each contact card becomes a Markdown file with every field, kept in sync as you edit.

A contact card, as a file.

Every field is in the front matter, as values and lists Obsidian's Properties panel can edit. The body is the name, the job line and the card's note.

Anna Kowalski.md

---
title: "Anna Kowalski"
id: "410FE041:ABPerson"
created: 2019-04-02T10:15:33
modified: 2026-08-30T19:02:11
source_url: "addressbook://410FE041:ABPerson"
organization: "Northwind Studio"
job_title: "Art director"
birthday: 1990-12-10
email: "anna@northwind.example"
phone: "+1 415 555 0123"
emails:
  - "anna@northwind.example (work)"
phones:
  - "+1 415 555 0123 (mobile)"
addresses:
  - "18 Harbor Street, San Francisco, CA, 94107, United States (work)"
groups:
  - "Studio"
conversations:
  - "[[messages/Anna Kowalski]]"
---

# Anna Kowalski

Art director · Northwind Studio

Met at the print fair. Prefers matte paper.

What comes out

The email-only entries Gmail collects for every address you wrote to are left out.

Every field on the card

Organization, job title, birthday, emails, phones, addresses, websites, social profiles, dates, related names.

Labels kept

Each value carries its label, like +1 415 555 0123 (mobile), and the first email and phone are plain email and phone fields for templates.

Groups

The Contacts groups a card belongs to, as a list in the front matter.

People and their conversations

With Messages exported too, a card lists its conversations and each conversation links back to the card.

Link back

source_url opens the card in Contacts.

Stable names

Two people with the same name each get a short id suffix, so neither file overwrites the other.

How it works

1Connect Contacts
A panel opens in your AddressBook folder: press Select this folder. Exporter reads only that folder, with no permission prompt.
2Pick who
Tick cards by group or company, or export every card. The tab the Contacts card is on sets the folders: on Groups or Companies each file goes into a folder per group or company.
3It syncs
Press sync now. Each card becomes Name.md, and an edited card rewrites its file.

How it works: Contacts docsGuides: Contacts to Obsidian

Questions

Still have questions? Get in touch

Why not just use vCard?

Use vCard to move cards to another address book: select contacts in Contacts, then File > Export > Export vCard. A .vcf file is made for importing. The Markdown files are for reading, searching and linking.

What is free?

Your first 100 contacts export and keep syncing free. Unlocking Contacts is a one-time purchase in Exporter.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Exporter reads your contacts and writes the files on your Mac. No account, no server.

Against the alternatives

Apple's export is vCard, the right choice for moving cards to another address book.

Feature	Exporter	vCard export	Copy and paste
Every card at once	Yes	Yes	No
Readable Markdown, one file per person	Yes	No	Manual
Fields as Obsidian properties	Yes	No	No
Linked to your conversations	Yes	No	No
Kept in sync as cards change	Yes	One-time	No
Imports into another address book	No	Yes	No
Price	100 contacts free, then a one-time purchase	Free	Free