What this is
Your contacts, out of Tether, in a format something else can read. No request form, no waiting period, no support ticket.
Before you start
Decide what you want the file for, because the format follows from that:
- vCard — importing into another address book, including the iPhone’s own.
- CSV — spreadsheets, mail-merge, a card service.
- JSON — a complete structured copy, including the fields the other two flatten.
Steps
- Open Settings and choose the back up, export, or download option.
- Pick a scope — everything, or a single circle.
- Pick a format, or pick a destination if you are sending a circle somewhere specific.
- Save or share the file.
What to expect afterward
Exports are round-trip tested: what comes out can go back in.
For circle exports, the file carries only what that circle is allowed to see. Someone who has not shared their address with the circle is left out of an address export rather than exported with an empty column — so the gap is visible before you use the file, not after.
There are ready-made destinations for the common cases: Minted, Postable and Shutterfly for cards, Paperless Post and Evite for invitations, and Google Contacts, Outlook and Apple Contacts for address books.
Troubleshooting
A column is empty for some people. They have not shared that field with the circle you exported. That is not a bug in the file.
I want a scheduled or automatic backup. There is not one. Export is manual and on demand, by design — Tether does not hold a second copy of your address book somewhere to make that possible.
Deleting my account. Export first. Deletion removes your data.