# VCARD download **URL:** \ **Category:** Ask for Help\ **Created:** [August 1, 2025, 6:15pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612 "2025-08-01T18:15:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2025, 6:15pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/1 "2025-08-01T18:15:46Z")
Since most of this topic is from 2021/2002….just asking: Is their a simple/standard method to take information stored in columns and download it to a device as a VCard. Basically a button “download VCARD” which downloads a VCF file to the local device. PS…tried AI but didn’t get it to work (it pretended to work but didn’t download anything) TIA ---
**Author:** ![Nicolas\_Joseph](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/nicolas_joseph/32/76105_2.png) [@Nicolas\_Joseph](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Nicolas_Joseph)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/2 "2025-08-05T06:26:38Z")
Hi @MattLB 🙂 To be honest, I haven’t reviewed past topics in detail, but what you’re asking is easily achievable by following these steps: 1. Get a properly formatted vCard column. If you have different columns (such as `First Name`, `Last Name`, `Phone Number` etc.), you can use a _Template_ column to concatenate all data with appropriate prefixes. Here, to simplify things, I’m using a **fake vCard** : 2. Create a `vCard encoded` column (_Encode Text_), using **url** encoding: 3. Create a _Template_ column to define a **Data URL** (`vCard link`): 4. Now, in the **Layout** , you just need to create an _Open link_ action that references this last column. Here’s a screenshot with a single button, for demonstration purpose only: > When the user taps the button on a smartphone, they are prompted with a download option. > When opening the file, it’s recognized as a vCard and the user can import the contact 👍 > Tested successfully on a **recent Android smartphone using Firefox** , not tested in an Apple environment though 😕 Could you give this a try and let us know if it’s what you expected? ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/3 "2025-08-05T14:32:24Z")
First - thank you. First pass on MacOS downloaded the file from the builder (after a flash). I need to check out the data payload since I got this when I opened the Vcard…but it did successfully download to my local machine which was what I was looking for. I will keep you updated on the progress and will check on iOS and MacOS from the App not the builder. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/glideapps/original/3X/a/c/ac3e932c5f39fc893317b719dee4eb1097320f59.png) ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/4 "2025-08-05T14:35:18Z")
Quick follow-on, the downloaded file is “download(n).vcf”; is their a way to use the person’s name as the name of the file instead of ‘download’? Thanks again for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Nicolas\_Joseph](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/nicolas_joseph/32/76105_2.png) [@Nicolas\_Joseph](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Nicolas_Joseph)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/5 "2025-08-05T15:36:19Z")
Unfortunately, not to my knowledge. It seems that in some cases, you can add a **filename** property but it’s unreliable and completely unofficial. Some browsers or devices might use this information to rename the file _correctly_, according to forums or blogs where this trick is mentioned - but there’s no straightforward way to get a compatibility list (unlike ["uri" | Can I use... Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc](https://caniuse.com/?search=uri) for example). To be more specific: If the intended filename is _nicolas.vcf_; simply add this at the bginning or your template column: `data:text/vcard;charset=utf-8;filename=nicolas.vcf,{{vCard}}` More information can be found here: - [data URI scheme - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_URI_scheme) - [RFC 2397: The "data" URL scheme](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2397.html) It doesn’t work on my phone, and for the record, the downloaded file in my case was named: _jeandupont BDAY\_1980-05-01 Note\_… vCard.vcf_. Another difference in our experiences so far! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Hager](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/jeff_hager/32/43_2.png) [@Jeff\_Hager](https://community.glideapps.com/u/Jeff_Hager)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/6 "2025-08-05T16:06:58Z")
If you dynamically create a small html file as a datauri (HTML to URL column) and open it via a web embed, you can include javascript in that html that will generate and automatically download a file with any filename you want. I use this method to dynamically create downloadable invoice PDFs as well as using it to download files with file names that differ from the file name that is actually stored. ---
**Author:** ![MattLB](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.glideapps.com/mattlb/32/41284_2.png) [@MattLB](https://community.glideapps.com/u/MattLB)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://community.glideapps.com/t/vcard-download/83612/7 "2025-08-05T16:17:56Z")
BTW….when I asked ChatGPT how to do this task it suggested the web Embed/javascript method. JeffGPT ! I will try both methods and keep people up-to-date.