I created this script to automate my contacts backup procedure. The output of this script should be exactly the same as dragging and dropping the “All Contacts” card.

Usage

python3 abcddb2vcard.py backup/contacts_$(date +"%Y-%m-%d").vcf

assuming db is located at "~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb"

Export into individual files

python3 abcddb2vcard.py outdir -s 'path/%{fullname}.vcf'

Extract contact images

python3 vcard2image.py AllContacts.vcf ./profile_pics/

Supported data fields

firstname, lastname, middlename, nameprefix, namesuffix, nickname, maidenname, phonetic_firstname, phonetic_middlename, phonetic_lastname, phonetic_organization, organization, department, jobtitle, birthday, [email], [phone], [address], [socialprofile], note, [url], [xmpp-service], image, iscompany

Limitations

The image field currently only supports JPG images. But as far as I see, Apple converts PNG to JPG before storing the image. If you encounter a db which includes other image types, please let me know.

Disclaimer

You should check the output for yourself before using it in a production environment. I have tested the script with many arbitrary fields, however there may be some edge cases missing. Feel free to create an issue for missing or wrong field values.

Note: The output of diff or FileMerge.app can be different to this output. Apples does some weird transformations on vcf export that are not only unnecessary but in many cases break the re-import of the file.