Contacts

Exporting contacts

Download the workspace contacts to a file that opens in Excel, with all their fields, to use them elsewhere or to fix them and import them again.

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#Exporting

  1. Choose what you want to see

    In WorkspaceContacts, if you only need part of the contact book, choose a list, run a search or use a filter.

  2. Open the window

    Press Export at the top. “Export contacts” opens.

  3. Choose what to export

    With a list, a search or a filter active, in What to export choose between Only the ones you are viewing and All contacts. The number of contacts is shown in brackets. Without filters, the window tells you how many workspace contacts will be exported.

  4. Choose the format

    In File format, the English console preselects Standard CSV (comma): commas separate the columns, which is what Excel expects in English-speaking countries. For Excel (semicolon) is for Excel set up for countries that write decimals with a comma, such as Italy: there it opens with a double click, with the right columns and accented characters.

  5. Export

    Press Export.

Result

You read, for example, “128 contacts exported”, and the browser downloads a CSV file named after the workspace and the date.

The Export contacts window over the VIP customers list, with “Only the ones you are viewing” and the “For Excel (semicolon)” format selected.
Export only the contacts you're looking at, in a CSV ready for Excel.

#What the file contains

One row per contact, with the columns in this order and the headers in the console language:

ColumnContent
Full name, First name, Last name, CompanyThe personal details.
EmailAll the addresses, separated by semicolons. The first is the primary one.
PhoneAll the numbers in international format, separated by semicolons. The first is the primary one.
LanguageThe language code, for example “it”.
NotesThe contact note, that is, the team's internal notes.
Instagram, FacebookThe social accounts.
Contact variablesOne column per variable, with its display name.
ListsThe names of the contact's lists, separated by semicolons.
Created onThe creation date, YYYY-MM-DD.
SourceWhere the contact came from.
BlockedWhether the contact is blocked.

The block reason, the Change history and the conversations aren't included.

The file also contains the team's notes. The “Notes” column carries each contact's note, which the customer never sees. Before giving the file to anyone outside the team, check that column or remove it.

Fixing many contacts at once. Export, fix the file in Excel, save it and import it with Import: the columns are recognized automatically and the contacts are updated, not duplicated. “Lists”, “Created on”, “Source” and “Blocked” aren't imported back. See Importing contacts.

Watch out for phone numbers: Excel tends to drop the “+” and turn long numbers into figures like 3.93E+11. In the file, numbers come out with an apostrophe in front ('+39…) precisely to prevent this: if you see it, leave it, because it's removed automatically on import. If you add new numbers, set the column to Text first. To change a contact's number, use their card, not the file: contacts are also recognized by their number, and a different number in the file, without an email already in the contact book, would create another contact.

#Limits

You can export up to 50,000 contacts at a time. Beyond that, the button is disabled and you read “You can export up to 50,000 contacts at a time: narrow it down with a list or a filter.”.

#Frequently asked questions

In Excel, the whole file opens in one column.

The file's separator isn't the one your Excel expects. Export again with the other format: Standard CSV (comma) if your Excel uses commas, as is usual in English-speaking countries, or For Excel (semicolon) if it uses semicolons, as in Italy.

Can I also export the contacts' conversations?

Conversations are exported separately, one agent at a time: see Exporting and deleting.

#See also