CTT Converter

Extract text from Messenger contact lists (CTT)


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

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

Convert CTT to another file type

To convert CTT Contact lists to another format, you need Windows Live Messenger or other Data software.

Convert a file to CTT

To convert other file formats to the "Contact List Backup" file type, you need software like Windows Live Messenger or a similar tool.


About CTT files

The .CTT file format is primarily known as a Messenger Contact List created by Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger). Users created these files to export and backup their contact lists. Internally, the file uses a standard XML structure to store email addresses and display names. The main disadvantage of the .CTT format is that the original software was officially retired by Microsoft in 2013. Modern email clients and communication platforms like Gmail or Outlook do not support direct imports of .CTT files. To reuse these old contact backups, users must convert the file into a universally accepted format. The best conversion targets are CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or VCF (vCard), which easily import into contemporary address books. Standard online converters often fail to process .CTT files because it is an obsolete, application-specific extension. Just drag and drop your file to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. Our platform can inspect the underlying XML structure to help extract your valuable contact data. A less common use for the .CTT extension is an Acoustic Data Table associated with CATT-Acoustic, a highly specialized room acoustics prediction software. This secondary format is proprietary and strictly relies on the original CATT software to parse the acoustic metrics accurately. Because this format is closed, conversion is rarely supported outside the native software, but our tool can still analyze the file to confirm its origin.

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

Users also converted MCO, ML20 and XSPF files.


FAQ

If you want to convert CTT file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Windows Live Messenger or similar software from the "Contact List Backup" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to CTT, try Windows Live Messenger or another comparable tool in the "Contact List Backup" category.



The CTT 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 CTT converter.