Restore or copy iPhone contacts to another phone using Linux
Other than photos and videos, the next most commonly requested recovery item from a damaged iPhone are the contacts. If you're a linux based workshop you may be wanting to do this using linux rather than Windows or macOS with iTunes, and fortunately there is a way and it's very easy.
  1. Backup/recover the original iPhone using idevicebackup2
    • idevicebackup2 backup myiPhone
  2. Convert the backup to human-readable form using ideviceunback
    • cd myiPhone; ideviceunback -i (only folder in here) -o unback
  3. Convert the AddressBook to vCard format using ios2vcard
    • ios2vcard -i unback/Library/AddressBook/AddressBook.sqlitedb > addrs.vcf
  4. Copy the vcard file to a webserver
  5. Access the vcard file via Safari on the iPhone where you want the contacts
  6. Open the vcf file using "Contacts" when asked, and add to your contacts
It seems like a lot of steps, but it's not complex, particularly if you're a linux workshop already.
Return to http://ctpc.biz