CBK Converter

Extract text from CardScan backup files (CBK)


Drop or upload your .CBK file
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How to extract text from your CBK file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your CBK file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert CBK to another file type

To convert CBK backups to another format, you need Dymo CardScan or other Backup software.

Convert a file to CBK

To convert other file formats to the "Proprietary Backup or Database" file type, you need software like Dymo CardScan or a similar tool.


About CBK files

The .CBK file extension is highly fragmented and used by several completely different software applications, usually for backups or proprietary databases. The most common uses include business card contact databases created by Dymo CardScan, compressed database block backups for ComponentAce Absolute Database, software project backups for Buildsoft construction software, and data extract codebook files for the IPUMS Project. Because .CBK files do not follow a single standard, their biggest disadvantage is ambiguity. You cannot simply open a .CBK file without knowing which software originally created it. Furthermore, files like CardScan databases are locked in a proprietary format that requires the original, often outdated software to read properly. This makes archiving or migrating contact data exceptionally frustrating. Buildsoft backups, while essentially standard ZIP files, are masked by the custom extension, which confuses standard archive utilities. To overcome these limitations, conversion is usually necessary. For contact lists and IPUMS codebooks, convert .CBK to CSV or TXT to easily import the data into modern spreadsheet tools like Microsoft Excel or modern CRM platforms. For Buildsoft project backups, you can convert to ZIP to extract the contents.

Convert.Guru analyzes your CBK file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted ACR, A3D and CBU files.


FAQ

If you want to convert CBK file to BAK, BACKUP, OLD, TMP, TEMP, ARC, ZIP, TAR, GZ, 7Z, RAR or ISO, you can use Dymo CardScan or similar software from the "Proprietary Backup and Database Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert SNAPSHOT, OLD, IMG, RESTORE, ISO, COPY, VMDK, TMP, VHD, BAK, ARCHIVE or BACKUP files to CBK, try Dymo CardScan or another comparable tool in the "Proprietary Backup and Database Storage" category.



The CBK Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CBK converter.