The way Microsoft has made Windows Phone is that it backs up your contacts to the Microsoft Account automatically. You can simply login to Outlook.com, and get access to your contacts there, and can even export them. The problem with this is that not many people are aware this option exists, and secondly it only leaves you at the mercy of Microsoft. So if for some reason you loose access to your MS account, you’re without a backup.

I frequently get asked if there is a way to manually backup contacts on Windows Phone, and this post answers that question. While there is no inbuilt mechanism that you can use, there is a free app that gets the job done. Download Contacts Backup from the Windows Phone store.

It gives you an option to include contact photos in the backup, and whether or not you want all the contacts in one big .vcf file, or have a separate .vcf file for each contact. The best part is that it can include contacts from your Google, Facebook and Nokia accounts as well.

Once you’ve made your selection, simply hit the icon on the extreme left, and that starts the backup.

Once the contacts are backed up, the app needs you to sign into your OneDrive account. The important thing to note is that you can sign into any OneDrive account and not just the one that’s tied to your phone. This is useful if you’ve (or most likely your parents have) forgotten the password to that MS account.

Once signed in, simply hit ‘Upload’ and wait. The zip file will now be available on your OneDrive. Inside will be the .vcf file(s).

That’s it.