topic Exporting Contacts in Digital Home Phone

Exporting Contacts

duncanC45 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:07:51 GMT

Has anybody found a way to export their contacts from the EE hub? It is shown in the Help Documentation that there is an Export and an Import function which was available on the old BT Hub. I recently had an EE Technician exchange an EE hub that would not connect to the Hybrid Connect unit and I lost all my 200+ contacts! I am currently reinstating my contacts and want to save them in case something similar happens again. EE Customer Services are hopeless and have no ideas! This is surely a basic function that should be there as indicated by the documentation!

Re: Exporting Contacts

JimM11 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 11:15:12 GMT

@duncanC45 What EE Router do you have!

Re: Exporting Contacts

duncanC45 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 17:17:13 GMT

It is a Smart Hub Plus type SH31B.

Re: Exporting Contacts

JimM11 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 18:12:48 GMT

@duncanC45 That specific hub has never had the ability to export contacts!

Re: Exporting Contacts

duncanC45 — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 21:49:06 GMT

That just seems ridiculous, the Help documentation says you can do it, the old BT hub did it, this one I should think you could claim is not fit for purpose! A major failing on the part of EE. But thanks for your input.

Re: Exporting Contacts

JimM11 — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 07:41:18 GMT

@duncanC45 No problems, few error's and dislikes to what the latest and greatest cannot do! And one off the reason's that the Factory Reset is a killer as it wipes all you have done since your re-load and newly applied contacts and with NO Backup even for the Router starting from scratch is all you can do!

Re: Exporting Contacts

Storm500 — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 18:38:00 GMT

When I was moving from BT to EE and digital voice I created a vCard file containing all the contacts I wanted. This was imported into the Smart Hub Plus to provide the initial contact list. When I add/delete/update the contact list in the phone I also make these manual changes to the vCard file so that if I have to factory reset the hub I can then reimport the vCard file.

The vCard format can be found on the BT community here Digital-Voice-Contacts in message #8.

Re: Exporting Contacts

ordessa — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:35:46 GMT

just to add to this...
EE wanted to replace my Hub (due to an unexplained issue)

When I discovered that some tech muppet had removed the option to EXPORT all my contacts I canned the replacement.

I have today escalated to senior management and then to Product team WHY ON EARTH do you have the ability to import, but NO (ZERO) ability to export.. - otherwise I loose ALL my contacts.
At one point the tech team said "buy a new panasonic digital phone and store them there... rendering the BT/EE handsets next to useless...
SO how is that going to allow me to recognise, divert/allow calls!
So OFCOM will get a message if the Exec/Product team cant get think this one through...for heavens sake I can export all my setting from my phone, my NAS my PC - but EE hub NO!
UPDATE
OMG you can no longer EXPORT your HUB config - so if you have pre-set ip addresses and VPN settings...
NO!

Based on current EE support documentation and community user experiences, the new EE Smart Hub (and Smart Hub Plus) does not support a direct, full configuration export and import feature to back up settings.

EE Community

If you are replacing an EE hub, you must manually re-configure settings (SSID, Wi-Fi password, and admin password) on the new device.

How to Manually "Export/Migrate" Settings

Instead of a file export, you can manually replicate your settings:

Record Current Settings: Before disconnecting your old hub, log in to the Hub Manager (192.168.1.254) and note your SSID, Wi-Fi password, and admin password.
Use the EE App: Download the EE app, select Manage > Broadband > Smart Hub, and use the "Change WiFi settings" option to set the same network name and password on the new hub.
Manual Configuration: Connect to the new hub via ethernet, log in to 192.168.1.254, and update the Wi-Fi settings manually to match your old ones.

Re: Exporting Contacts

JimM11 — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:57:07 GMT

@ordessa The wonderful world of a replacement EE Hub and has not supported Backup for years!

Re: Exporting Contacts

JonK48 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:14:54 GMT

I have just updated from a Hub 6 to Hub 7, contacted EE and they gave me the following to save Digital Phone contacts list to the new hub.

Transferring Phone Contacts:

-Connect to your old Hub?s settings by typing 192.168.1.254 into your web browser's address bar.
-Click on the Phone button, then select Contacts.
-Click Export and save the .vcf (vCard) file to your computer.
-Unplug your old Hub, set up your new Hub, and re-register your Digital Home Phone handsets via the WPS button.
-Log into the new Hub manager (192.168.1.254), go to the Contacts screen, click Browse to locate your saved .vcf file, and click Import.

It worked first time; the crucial thing to remember is to register the phone(s) to the new hub.

Blocked numbers are different as they are saved on EE systems, so they can intercept blocked numbers before they get to you. The advised solution was to change the new Hub's credentials to that of the previous hub (Network name or SSID, WiFi password and Admin password). You will then be able to see your blocked number list ( and change it) through the EE web based app. The other advantage of changing the credentials is that devices already connected to your WiFi network still work without having to re-register them with the new hub credentials. For some sytems (eg Solar Panel Controllers) this can be more than headache if the re-registration procedure is opaque.

Re: Exporting Contacts

ordessa — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:22:09 GMT

glad it worked...

for a while they REMOVED the option to export - and after extensive
emails/calls with the Senior office I think the message got back !!
As a result I can do it again.

Cant believe some muppet removed the option to export when its got an
import function!
🙂
Steve

--
Steve
Authorised Assessor for Canine Concern. Hampshire and nearby region
reMarkable tablet writing experience advocate

Re: Exporting Contacts

JimM11 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:35:55 GMT

@ordessa Do you think you could hound them some more, and see if a Hub backup/restore function could be added and made to work as well?