Extract text from Address book files (WAB)
To convert WAB Address books to another format, you need Microsoft Outlook or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "Address Book File" file type, you need software like Microsoft Outlook or a similar tool.
The .WAB file stores contact data, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers, for deprecated Windows email clients like Microsoft Outlook Express. It functions as a local database for user contacts.
Historically, this format was managed natively by Windows 98 and Windows XP through Outlook Express. Modern systems handle these files via the import wizard in Microsoft Outlook or the legacy Windows Contacts folder.
The main disadvantage of the .WAB format is that it is a deprecated, proprietary binary file. You cannot open it natively on macOS, Linux, or mobile devices. Using it today requires importing the data into another client, which is highly frustrating because the original software no longer exists on modern operating systems.
To use your contacts today, you must convert the .WAB file to CSV for spreadsheet software or to VCF (vCard) for smartphones and modern address books. Converting to CSV preserves text data but will drop contact photos and custom formatting.
Standard online converters usually fail because .WAB is a closed format with an undocumented structure. It requires specific database parsers to extract the fields correctly. Even if full conversion fails, our analysis can often extract the raw text strings, allowing you to manually salvage old email addresses.
Convert.Guru analyzes your WAB file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted CONTACT, MP3, NPF, PST, M4A, DBX, TXT, EXE, WEBP, CSV, VCF, FLP and 3DS files.
If you want to convert WAB file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Microsoft Outlook or similar software from the "Contact Database Storage" 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 WAB, try Microsoft Outlook or another comparable tool in the "Contact Database Storage" category.
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 WAB converter.