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05-Blog

How to export and archive your iStuff

iCloud Contacts, vCard backups, photo sync, and a safe restore test.

Zoran Grbic

• 5 min read
A gloomy but colorful picture of the front of a MacBook Pro.
Photo by Tianyi Ma

Your contacts and photos feel solid. Familiar. Like they’ll still be there tomorrow.

Then one day they aren’t. A bad sync, a mistaken merge. iCloud is good at one thing: keeping everything the same everywhere. That includes mistakes.

So you make a backup. Not a sync. A real copy you can hold, label, lock up, and test without touching your live data. Tonight you’ll export iCloud contacts, save a vCard, archive the full address book, pull down photo originals, and run a safe restore test in a sandbox where nothing important can be damaged.

Syncing isn’t backing up, it’s a mirror with teeth

iCloud syncing is a mirror. You change one thing, and it shows up everywhere. Delete a contact on your phone, and it can vanish from your Mac, your iPad, and iCloud.com like it never existed. That’s not cruelty, it’s the contract.

A backup is different. A backup is a snapshot. It doesn’t care what you delete tomorrow. It doesn’t argue. It just sits there, quiet, waiting for the day you need it.

Before you touch anything, set two guardrails:

First, decide where the backups will live. Pick one folder you can find in the dark, like /Users/[YOUR_NAME]/Documents/Backups/Apple/ (Mac). Inside it, make dated subfolders, for example, 2026-02-Contacts and 2026-02-Photos.

Second, plan for encryption now, not later. “I’ll encrypt it later” is how unencrypted backups get emailed, synced, copied to USB sticks, and forgotten in drawers.

Keep it simple. Use one of these depending on the data size and your needs:

  • Backup software: Arq Backup or Duplicacy (Mac & Windows):
  • Encrypted disk image (Mac): Disk Utility, File, New Image, Image from Folder, pick AES-256 encryption, store the password in a password manager.
  • Encrypted cloud vault: only if you trust the provider and you use a strong unique passphrase stored in a password manager.

Now you’re ready. Not brave, just ready.

Export and archive your iCloud Contacts

vCard plus a real archive.

You want two things here: a vCard file (portable, widely supported), and a full archive (better fidelity, better for restores on Apple gear).

Export from iCloud.com to a vCard (.vcf)

On a computer browser:

  1. Go to iCloud.com, sign in, open Contacts.
  2. In the bottom-left corner, click the Settings icon (gear).
  3. Click Select All.
  4. Click the Settings icon again, choose Export vCard.

You should end up with a single file ending in .vcf. Save it into your dated folder, then rename it so it won’t blend in later, something like 2026-02-03-icloud-contacts.vcf.

Apple documents the iCloud.com import and export flow here: import, export, or print contacts on iCloud.com. If the buttons move around, that page usually tells you what they’re called now.

If you’re moving contacts into Outlook later, Microsoft’s steps mirror the same vCard export: export iCloud contacts to a VCF.

Export from the Mac Contacts app: vCard settings and Contacts Archive

On Mac, you can export with more control:

  • Open Contacts.
  • In the sidebar, click All Contacts.
  • Menu bar: File > Export > Export vCard…

Before you export, check what you’re actually putting into the vCard:

  • Contacts > Settings (or Preferences) > vCard
  • Review options like Export photos in vCard and Export notes in vCard (wording can vary by macOS version).

Then do the better backup too, the one that keeps more of the Apple-shaped details:

  • Menu bar: File > Export > Contacts Archive…

You should end up with a .abbu file. Put it next to the vCard in the same dated folder. Treat it like a master copy.

A minimal verification ritual that is fast, not perfect

Don’t overthink it. Just prove the file isn’t empty.

Open iCloud.com Contacts and note the rough count (or at least scroll and sanity-check). Then do three checks:

  • File sizes: the .vcf and .abbu shouldn’t be suspiciously tiny.
  • Spot-check fields: open the vCard on a Mac in Contacts (or Quick Look) and verify a few entries include phone numbers, emails, and labels.
  • Timestamp: confirm the file’s modified date matches today.

Write one line in a plain text log file in the backup folder, for example: “2026-02-03, exported vCard + ABbu, checked 5 contacts.”

It’s boring. That’s the point.

Photo sync, photo backup, and a restore test that won’t burn you

iCloud Photos is synced with a nice suit on. It keeps the same library everywhere. Deleting a photo on one device can cause it to disappear everywhere after it syncs. That’s why you also want an offline copy of your originals.

Get a local copy of your photos (what to click, what you get)

If you’re on a Mac, the cleanest approach is Photos exporting to a folder you control:

  1. Open Photos.
  2. Select a small set first (not your whole life), then scale up.
  3. Menu bar: File > Export > Export Unmodified Original for X Photos…
  4. Choose your dated backup folder, export.

You’ll end up with image files (HEIC, JPG, PNG, plus videos) in normal folders. Those files are blunt objects. That’s good. Other apps can read them. Future-you can read them.

If you prefer iCloud.com:

  1. Sign in to iCloud.com, open Photos.
  2. Select items (or a moment, or an album).
  3. Click the Download icon.

Depending on selection and browser, you may get individual files or a .zip. If you get zip files, keep them as-is, and also consider extracting them once to confirm they open.

The safe restore test: prove you can come back

Never test restores by importing into your real contacts list or your real Photos library. That’s how “testing” becomes “cleaning up for three hours.”

Pick a sandbox. Any of these works:

  • a spare device with a throwaway Apple ID
  • a separate macOS user account
  • a separate Photos library on the same Mac

Here’s a clean Mac-based test that doesn’t touch your main library:

  1. Create a separate macOS user: System Settings > Users & Groups > Add User.
  2. Log into that user. Open Contacts.
  3. Import the vCard: File > Import…, select your .vcf.
  4. Confirm the contact count looks right, then open a few contacts and check phone and email fields.
  5. Now test photos: hold Option while opening Photos, click Create New, name it Restore Test.
  6. Import a handful of exported originals (File > Import), open a few, check that dates and edits aren’t mysteriously gone (edits often don’t survive “unmodified original” exports, so don’t expect miracles).

If the test works, you’ve earned something rare, confidence you can recover without guessing.

If it fails, you caught it early, when failure is cheap.

Close the folder, lock the drawer, repeat

You’re not doing this because you’re paranoid. You’re doing it because you’re tired of being surprised.

Quarterly, repeat this small ritual, the one that keeps you out of trouble:

  • Export icloud-contacts.vcf from iCloud.com, save it in a dated folder.
  • Export contacts.abbu from Mac Contacts, store it beside the vCard.
  • Export photo originals from Photos (or download from iCloud.com), keep the files or zips.
  • Encrypt the backup location, store the password in a password manager.
  • Run a sandbox restore test for contacts and a small photo sample.
  • Log the date, the file names, and one quick verification note.

Backups don’t stop bad days. They stop bad days from becoming permanent.