Export Contacts

You can download your Sfax contacts as a comma separated value (CSV) file. Use it to keep an offline copy, to edit a lot of contacts at once in a spreadsheet, or to move contacts to another Sfax account. To load contacts into Sfax, see Import Contacts.

Before You Start

Every export contains both address books.
  1. The file always includes your My contacts and all of your account's Shared contacts, whichever item is selected in the left pane. Choosing My contacts or Shared contacts before you export does not change the file – use the Type column in the CSV to tell the two apart, or filter on it in your spreadsheet.
  2. My contacts are private to each user, so your export contains yours and nobody else's. If you need every user's contacts in a single file, contact Sfax Support.

Export Your Contacts

  1. Log into Sfax at https://app.sfaxme.com.
  2. Click the Contacts icon under the Sfax header, then click Export in the toolbar.
  3. In the Export contacts dialog, click Export.
  4. Depending on your browser, the file downloads automatically or you are prompted to save it. It is named ContactsExport_yourusername.csv.

What the File Contains

The exported columns match the fields the Import Contacts wizard accepts, so exporting, editing in a spreadsheet, and importing again is a practical way to update many contacts at once. Try it with two or three rows first to confirm the result is what you expect.

Columns In the File

Column Contains
RecordId Sfax's reference for the contact. Leave this column and its values exactly as they are – it is how Sfax recognises a contact you already have, so an edited row updates that contact rather than creating a second copy of it
FaxNumber The contact's fax number
Type Shared or My – which address book the contact belongs to
FirstName First name
LastName Last name
Organization Company, practice or group name
Position Job title
MobileNumber Mobile number
PhoneNumber Phone number, including any extension
Email Email address
WebSite Website
Description The contact's notes

Contacts created using the Full Name field rather than separate first and last names have empty FirstName and LastName columns.

What Is Not In the File

  • Contact groups. Group names and membership are not part of the CSV and cannot be restored by importing. Make a separate note of your group structure before you make bulk changes.
  • Deleted contacts.

If You Plan to Import the File Back

  • Keep the RecordId column and map it during the import. Sfax uses it to match each row to the contact it came from, so your edits update those contacts. If you remove the column, leave a cell empty, or change a value, that row is imported as a brand-new contact and you will end up with duplicates.
  • Keep the Type column as Shared or <strong>My</strong>. Anything else, including a blank, is treated as My. Importing also cannot move an existing contact from Shared to My – to change that, edit the contact in the portal.
  • Fax, phone and mobile numbers must still be 11 digits. See the spreadsheet note below, because this is where most re-imports go wrong.
  • Remove line breaks from the Description column first. If a contact's notes contain a line break, that contact is written across two rows in the file and every value after it lands in the wrong column. Those rows will not import correctly. Replace any line breaks with spaces before you import the file back.

Working With the File In a Spreadsheet

Do not double-click a contacts CSV to open it.

Excel reformats number columns on the way in, and commonly strips the leading + and any leading zeros from fax, phone and mobile numbers. That breaks the 11-digit check and your file will be rejected.

Open Excel first, then use Data › From Text/CSV (or the Text Import Wizard), set the fax, phone and mobile columns to Text, and choose UTF-8 as the file origin so accented characters come through correctly.

Troubleshooting

Scenario Description
The download file is empty An empty file means Sfax found nothing to export – there are no contacts in either your My contacts or your account's Shared contacts. When there is nothing to export the file has no column headings either. Add a contact, or check with your Sfax administrator whether Shared contacts exist on your account.
The file contains an error message instead of my contacts If the downloaded file contains the text There was an error when exporting contacts. L07, the export did not complete. Try again, and if it keeps happening contact Sfax Support and quote the code L07.
Fax numbers lost their + or leading zeros
This is your spreadsheet reformatting the column, not a problem with the export. The data in the file is correct, which you can confirm by opening it in a plain text editor. Re-open it using Data › From Text/CSV and set the number columns to Text.
Some rows look shifted or split across two lines A contact whose Description contains a line break can split across two rows in the file. Find that contact in Sfax, remove the line break from its notes, and export again. Do this before importing the file back, or those contacts will not import correctly.


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