Univik ACT ADF File Converter

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Convert ACT! ADF Database Contacts to CSV, Excel, VCF and More

Univik ACT Converter unlocks ACT! ADF database files without requiring ACT! to be installed. Every contact, company, note, history record and opportunity is read from the binary ADF file and exported to clean, portable formats you can actually use. No licence required. No data leaves your machine.

Free Download
Windows 7 / 8 / 10 / 11

See Output Formats

*Free trial exports the first 50 contacts per database. No registration required.

  • No ACT! Required: Reads ADF files directly. Works even when your ACT! licence has expired or your version no longer runs on Windows 10 or 11.
  • Complete Data Export: Contacts, companies, groups, opportunities, notes, history and custom fields all extracted in a single run.
  • All ACT! Versions: Supports ADF files from ACT! 2.0 (1987) through all current Swiftpage Act! releases.

Univik ACT ADF File Converter

LEGACY DATA RESCUE ★ 2024 ★

Trusted by CRM Administrators

IT teams and database administrators use Univik ACT Converter to rescue decades of contact data from locked ADF files across all ACT! versions.

 ACT! Database Fields Extracted

 Output Formats

Export ADF to 6 Formats

Each format is designed for a specific destination. Import into a new CRM, archive for compliance or move contacts to Outlook.

📊
Excel (XLSX)
Contacts, companies, groups, opportunities and notes each on a separate sheet. Custom fields in their own columns. Ready for filtering, pivot tables and CRM import preparation.
📋
CSV
Universal import format for Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, Monday.com and every major CRM platform. Separate CSV per table. Encoding and delimiter configurable.
👤
VCF / vCard
One VCF file per contact or a single combined file. All phone numbers, emails, addresses and company details mapped to correct vCard properties. Import directly into Outlook, iPhone or Android.
📄
PDF
Formatted contact directory or full database report for archiving, handover documentation, legal discovery or compliance purposes. Printable and shareable without software requirements.
📧
Outlook PST
Export ACT! contacts directly into an Outlook PST file. Contacts appear in the Outlook Contacts folder with all fields mapped. No manual import steps or CSV reformatting required.
📝
Plain Text
A readable TXT summary of each contact record. Useful for auditing, reviewing database contents before migration or creating human-readable reports from ACT! data.

 Key Features

Why Choose Univik ACT Converter

Built for IT administrators, CRM managers and businesses that need reliable, complete extraction from ACT! databases.

No ACT required

No ACT! Installation Required

The converter reads the ADF binary file directly using a proprietary parser developed for all ACT! database versions. You do not need ACT! software installed, a valid licence, or even internet access. This is the single most important feature for businesses with expired licences or legacy Windows environments.

All ACT versions

All ACT! Versions Supported

From ACT! 2.0 (1987) through ACT! 2000, ACT! 2005, Sage ACT! 2011, Sage ACT! 2013 and all current Swiftpage Act! releases. The converter detects the database version automatically from the ADF header and applies the correct parsing rules without any manual configuration.

Notes and history

Notes and History Fully Preserved

Notes and history are the most valuable and most often lost data in ACT! migrations. The converter exports every note with its creation date, linked contact and full RTF-to-plain-text content. History records include date, type (call, meeting, email, task), the Regarding field and the full description. Both export alongside the contact records.

Custom fields

Custom Fields Auto-Detected

ACT! lets users create unlimited custom fields on contacts, companies and opportunities. The converter reads the ALF companion file to discover every user-defined field in your specific database and includes them as additional columns in the Excel and CSV output. No manual field mapping or configuration required.

Offline privacy

100% Offline and Confidential

ACT! databases contain years of customer relationships, sales pipelines and private business intelligence. Univik ACT Converter runs entirely on your local Windows machine. No files are uploaded, no cloud processing occurs and no internet connection is required. Your data never touches an external server at any point.

Opportunities groups

Opportunities and Groups Exported

Sales opportunities export with their value, probability, close date, stage and linked contact. Group memberships export with the group name, description and every member contact listed. Both are critical for recreating your pipeline and segmentation in a modern CRM without rebuilding them from scratch.

 How It Works

ADF to Clean Data in 3 Steps

From locked binary file to structured export in minutes. No technical knowledge required.

1

Load Your ADF File

Point the converter at your .adf file. The matching .alf companion file must be in the same folder. The converter finds it automatically. A database summary shows you the contact count, company count and history record count before you export anything.

2

Choose What to Export

Select which tables to include: contacts only, full database with all tables, or a custom selection. Choose your output format: Excel for a complete multi-sheet export, CSV for CRM import, VCF for contact portability, PST for Outlook or PDF for archiving.

3

Export and Import

Click convert. Your output files are ready in seconds regardless of database size. Use the CSV to import into Salesforce, HubSpot or Zoho. Open the Excel file to clean and review data before migration. Import the VCF into Outlook or your phone.

 Migration Destinations

Where ACT! Data Goes Next

The CSV and Excel outputs from Univik ACT Converter import directly into every major modern CRM and contact platform.

Salesforce

Salesforce

CSV import via Salesforce Data Import Wizard. Contact and account fields pre-mapped in the output.

HubSpot

HubSpot CRM

CSV contact import. HubSpot column headers generated automatically in the output file.

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM

CSV import for contacts, leads and accounts. Compatible with all Zoho CRM import templates.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive

Contacts, organisations and deals import via CSV. Opportunity stage mapping included.

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook

VCF import for contacts or direct PST output. All phone, email and address fields mapped correctly.

Google Contacts

Google Contacts

Google CSV format generated on export. Import directly into Google Contacts for Gmail and Google Workspace.

Monday.com

Monday.com CRM

CSV import for Monday Sales CRM contacts and accounts board. All standard columns supported.

Excel

Microsoft Excel

Full XLSX export with one sheet per table. Pivot tables, VLOOKUP and Power Query all work immediately.

 Use Cases

Who Converts ACT! ADF Files

The businesses and professionals who rely on Univik ACT Converter every week.

IT departments

IT Departments Decommissioning ACT!

When a company retires ACT! for a modern CRM, IT needs a clean data extract before wiping the old system. The converter produces audit-ready CSV files covering all tables, which the project team can then import to the target platform without manual re-entry.

Business acquisitions

Business Acquisitions

When you acquire a company that used ACT!, you inherit its ADF database but rarely its ACT! licence. The converter extracts the acquired firm's contacts, opportunities and history without needing to buy or reinstall ACT!, saving thousands in licence costs.

Legacy rescue

Legacy Database Rescue

Old ADF files from ACT! 2007, 2009 or 2012 often cannot be opened because the software no longer installs on Windows 10 or 11. The converter bypasses the software entirely and reads the database directly, recovering contacts from files thought to be permanently inaccessible.

Sales migration

Sales Team CRM Migration

Sales directors moving their team from ACT! to Salesforce or HubSpot need contact data, opportunity history and notes to move together. The converter exports all three in one run, so your team arrives at the new CRM with their full sales history intact. For very large databases, our professional migration service handles the full project.

eDiscovery

Legal eDiscovery and Compliance

Legal teams and compliance officers sometimes need to extract and produce ACT! database records for litigation or regulatory review. The PDF export produces a clean, printable document of contacts and communication history that can be submitted as evidence or included in a compliance file.

Univik ACT ADF Converter Features

 Why Univik

An ADF Converter That Actually Works

Most tools that claim to convert ADF files either require ACT! to be installed, support only one or two ACT! versions, or lose notes and history entirely. Univik handles all three properly.

  • No ACT! licence or installation needed at any point.
  • All ACT! versions from 2.0 (1987) through the current Swiftpage release.
  • Notes and history exported with dates, types and full text content.
  • Custom user-defined fields auto-detected from the ALF companion file.
  • Opportunities with stage, value and probability all preserved.
  • Group memberships exported with every member contact listed.
  • 100% offline. No data uploaded. No cloud dependency.
  • Free trial. No registration. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Learn About Univik Our Compliance Standards Professional Services

 ADF File Reference

Understanding the ACT! ADF Format

What the ADF file actually contains, how it is structured, and why standard tools cannot open it without a purpose-built parser.

What is an ADF File?

ADF stands for ACT! Data File. It is the proprietary binary database used by ACT! CRM since 1987. The format has been maintained through five ownership changes and remains in active use today under Swiftpage.

ADF files are binary and undocumented. Standard database tools and spreadsheet applications cannot read them. Every ADF database travels with a companion .ALF file that holds the schema, field definitions and user settings. Both files are needed for a complete export.

ADF File Quick Reference

Extension.adf (with .alf companion)
FormatBinary proprietary, undocumented
CreatorContact Software (1987), now Swiftpage
DataContacts, Companies, Groups, Opportunities
Child dataNotes, History, Activities, Custom Fields
ALF fileRequired. Holds schema and field map.
Referencefileformat.com/database/adf

Why Standard Tools Fail

  • ✗Excel / CSV
    ADF is binary. Excel cannot open it and will show garbled characters.
  • ✗MS Access / SQL tools
    The internal table structure is proprietary and undocumented.
  • ✗ACT! software itself
    Requires a valid licence. Export is gated behind an active subscription.
  • ✓Univik ACT Converter
    Reads the binary ADF directly. No ACT! licence or installation needed.

 What the ADF Database Contains

PRIMARY
Contacts
Name, title, phones, emails, address, website, custom fields
Linked recordsNotes, history, activities
PRIMARY
Companies
Name, address, phone, industry, revenue, custom fields
Linked recordsContacts, notes
PRIMARY
Groups
Group name, description, member contact list
Linked recordsMember contacts
PRIMARY
Opportunities
Name, value, probability, close date, stage
Linked recordsLine items, history

All four record types and their linked child records are extracted in a single conversion run. Custom user-defined fields are auto-detected from the ALF schema file.

Why People Need an ADF Converter

Your ACT! Data is Locked In. We Get It Out.

ACT! has passed through five owners since 1987. Each ownership change brought licence breaks, version incompatibilities and users stranded with ADF files they could no longer open. Today, three scenarios push businesses to seek a converter.

Expired ACT! licence Old version on new Windows CRM migration IT system decommission No ACT! installed Acquired company data

Common Situations

Scenario 1
ACT! subscription lapsed. Files open but export is locked behind paywall.
Scenario 2
Old ACT! 2008 database. Software will not install on Windows 11.
Scenario 3
Company merger. Acquired firm used ACT!. No licence included in handover.
Scenario 4
Migrating to Salesforce, HubSpot or a modern CRM. Need clean CSV data first.

 Version Coverage

Every ACT! Version Supported

35 years of ADF databases. Five different owners. One converter that reads them all. The current vendor is Act! by Swiftpage.

Contact Software Era

1987 to 1993

1987
ACT! 1.0: Original release for MS-DOS
1991
ACT! 2.0: Windows version introduced
1993
ACT! 3.x: Symantec acquisition

Symantec Era

1993 to 2001

1993
ACT! 4.x: Symantec ownership begins
1999
ACT! 2000: Y2K release, major UI update
2001
ACT! 6.x: sold to SalesLogix

Sage Era

2001 to 2013

2005
ACT! 2005: Sage branding begins
2009
Sage ACT! 2009: SQL backend
2013
Sage ACT! 2013: Last Sage release

Swiftpage Era

2013 to Present

2013
Act! by Swiftpage: ownership transfer
2019
Act! v21: cloud integration added
2025
Act! v27: current release, all supported

 FAQs

Common ADF Questions

Answers to what IT admins and business owners ask most about ACT! ADF conversion.

No. Univik ACT Converter reads the ADF binary file directly without requiring ACT! to be installed. This works regardless of whether your ACT! licence has expired, whether your ACT! version is too old for Windows 10 or 11, or whether you simply do not have ACT! on the machine at all. The converter handles all ADF versions internally.

The ALF file is the companion metadata file that ACT! always saves alongside the ADF. It stores the database schema, field definitions, custom field names and table relationships. Without the ALF, the converter can still extract the core contacts table but will not be able to map custom fields or access the full database structure. If you only have the ADF, the converter will attempt a best-effort extraction of standard fields. If you have both files, keep them in the same folder and the converter will use both automatically.

All ACT! versions are supported: ACT! 2.0 through 6.x (Contact Software and Symantec era), ACT! 2000 through ACT! 2005, Sage ACT! 2006 through 2013, and all Swiftpage Act! versions (v17 through the current v27 release). The converter reads the database version identifier from the ADF file header and selects the correct parser automatically.

Yes. Notes and history are often the hardest data to migrate and the most commonly lost. The converter exports all notes with their creation date, the linked contact or company record, entry type and full plain-text content (RTF formatting is stripped to clean text). History records export with date, history type (call logged, meeting held, email sent, document attached), the Regarding field and the full description text. Both are included in a separate sheet in the Excel output or as a separate CSV file.

Yes. The converter handles ACT! databases of any size. There is no contact limit in the paid version. Databases with 50,000 or more contacts, extensive notes history and multiple opportunity records have been tested and convert successfully. The conversion time scales with database size. A 10,000-contact database typically converts in under two minutes on a standard Windows PC.

ACT! allows database-level passwords. If your ADF file has a database password set by the administrator, the converter will prompt for it before proceeding. Standard ACT! user-level permissions (read-only vs. administrator) do not apply when using the converter, as it reads the file directly rather than through the ACT! application layer. If you do not know the database password, contact our support team for guidance.

Unlock Your ACT! Database Today

Free trial. No registration. No ACT! licence needed. Your data stays on your machine.

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Windows 7, 8, 10, 11  |  100% offline  |  30-day money-back guarantee

Written by Univik Research Team

The Univik Research Team has been building data conversion software since 2013. Our engineers specialize in proprietary CRM database formats including ACT! ADF, the ALF companion schema, and all ACT! versions from the Contact Software era through the current Swiftpage release. This page is reviewed and tested against real ADF files from multiple ACT! versions. Read more on the Univik blog.