ppl resources · Moving your contacts

Planning a move from Monica to ppl

Separate contact data from notes, reminders and relationship history before planning a Monica-to-ppl move. No one-click migration is promised.

Updated October 10, 2026 · ppl team

If you have used Monica for a while, your account may hold more than names and phone numbers. Conversation notes, activities, relationships and reminders can be the reason you value the account. Plan around that history before moving contacts.

Decide what must survive

Take a few records that represent how you use Monica. Include someone with several contact methods, a long note, a recurring reminder and a relationship to another person. Write down which details you expect to see in ppl afterward. That gives you a concrete way to check a transfer.

Monica’s current site describes data export and announces a forthcoming v3 with changes to its record structure. The format and options available to you depend on the version or hosted account you are using. Check that account’s export tools and documentation rather than following instructions for a different release. Review Monica’s current product information.

A full backup and an import file are different

Keep a complete source backup using the options your Monica installation provides. ppl’s contact import screens accept prepared CSV and vCard contact files. They do not accept a Monica database backup as a complete account migration. A shared ancestry or similar-looking field names do not make two applications’ databases interchangeable.

If you have a contact CSV, prepare the supported name, email, phone, birthday, organization and notes fields. If you have a .vcf contact file, use ppl’s separate vCard importer. If your export is another format, first establish a reliable conversion or ask for help; renaming the file does not convert it.

Give history its own plan

CSV import does not recreate activities, relationships or reminder schedules. Its notes mapping stores a short description, capped at 255 characters after the organization and import label are included. Preserve longer notes in the original export, and decide which ones to add to ppl’s checked contact records.

Do not delete the source account because a small import succeeded. Compare the important history as well as the contact count. If you cannot move a detail reliably, keep an accessible archive and say so in your own transfer checklist.

Try the new routine first

Start with a few people, add the follow-ups you need this week and try retrieving a saved note yourself or with an authorized assistant. ppl’s hosted beta is free for up to 1,000 contacts; self-hosting is coming soon. Compare current hosting and assistant options before deciding on a larger move.