> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.burakov.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Importing contacts

> How to bring your contacts into Tidybook — from your phone's address book and from vCard / CSV files — into one high-fidelity canonical book.

Tidybook builds **one canonical address book** from whatever sources you have. You can start
importing immediately, with **no account required**.

## From your phone

On iPhone and Android, Tidybook can read your device address book directly (after you grant
permission) and import every contact — names, organizations, phones, emails, addresses, websites,
birthdays and notes — into your canonical book.

Nothing is uploaded by importing: the contacts go into Tidybook's own local book on the device. Only
if you later turn on Sync does an **encrypted** copy leave your phone.

## From vCard / CSV files

You can also import from files:

* **vCard** (`.vcf`) — the standard contact format exported by most phones, email clients and
  address books.
* **CSV** — common spreadsheet exports.

This is the easiest way to pull in contacts from a source Tidybook doesn't connect to directly.

## High fidelity — nothing dropped

Tidybook imports into a rich model that keeps far more than name-and-number. When a source carries a
field Tidybook doesn't map, it **keeps the original alongside** rather than discarding it, so a later
export gives everything back intact. See [Cleanup, editing & your card](/tidybook/cleanup-and-editing)
for the full field list.

## Try before you sign up

Import, deduplicate and edit all work **without an account**. If you later sign in, the book you've
already built is adopted into your account — your pre-account work is never thrown away.

<Note>
  Importing the same source again is safe: Tidybook folds new and changed contacts in and surfaces
  any new duplicates in the review queue rather than creating a second copy of everyone.
</Note>