[jszrules]

Hi - What is the difference between exporting Contacts as an .abbu backup versus the entire Contacts list into a single .vcf file? If both contain the same data and both can be used to restore a Contacts list, then what are the advantages of each? Thanks

[memphismacguy]

.abbu

Pros-preserves groups is the biggest
cons-usable only on another mac

.vcf

Pros-universal standard, can move data between platforms
cons-looses groups

Those are the big issues for me, Im sure there are others that Im forgetting at the moment

[ghporter]

Those are my two issues as well. Fortunately the VCF format preserves (most) notes, so if I really want to get serious about organizing my contacts, I can add a field that has the group name. That's at least a little helpful.

I use VCF for exporting or sharing single contacts (or one at a time, anyway), while if I'm planning to back up my contacts, I use ABBU. And since I use iCloud to sync my contacts, any updates on one device are propagated to all devices. That lets me mess with stuff at my leisure, and only worry about "backing up" contacts if I'm trying to do something "interesting" (like obliterate all of the entries on one device for some reason).

[jszrules]

Thanks to you both! If the only additional data to .abbu is group data, why are file sizes much larger for .abbu than for .vcf (I'm referring to a .vcf containing all contacts)? For example, my .abbu backup of 1,500 contacts is about 130MB. The same backup for a .vcf is about 10MB. Thanks again