Vanished Address Book data

iMac running OSX10.2.8, Mail 1.2.5, and Address Book 3.03. Yeah, yeah, I know - a bit dated, but it works for me (I can remember using punch-cards, dangling chads and all!). Address Book (AB) has run flawlessly for long time. Opened AB earlier today and it was empty. ALL addresses vanished. Only a blank AB window saying ""No Card Selected". Considered doing "Revert To Backup Database" under AB File menu, but didn't since it is non-reversible step and I didn't want to risk losing address file - if it still exists. Used Finder to locate "addressbook" files. Several were found in Users/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (AddressBook.data, ABPerson.index, AddressBook.data.previous, etc.), all about 150-300KB in size and w/ todays or very recent (last address addition) dates. Opened files w/ Text Edit and recognized many AB names & emails amongst all the "gibberish". No clearly complete, coherent AB file. Have rebooted (no effect) and run Norton Util (no problems found). Considered reinstalling AB, but hesitant to do so until I'm sure it will not write over/delete old address file - if it still exists. Any suggestions on where AB data file might be and how to restore it to my AB - short of re-entering all the data (couple hundred names, emails, phones, etc.)? Thanks for any & all help!!!
iMac Mac OS X (10.2.x)

you can try the revert command, but it may not work. it sounds like the data is corrupted, and reinstalling might be the only thing that will work for that. you could also try moving the file addressbook.data to the desktop and renaming it to addressbook.data.old or somesuch thing. then rename the addressbook.data.previous file so that it reads addressbook.data. (this is in application support<address book, if you don't know, i imagine you've been looking at these files). hope that is helpful. [ 8 ) ]

Similar Messages

How can I access Address Book data from an older version of the application to transfer it to a newer version of Mac OS running on a second hard drive on the same MDD G4?

I installed a hard drive from one PowerPC Dual 1.25 GHz MDD into another one with an older version of the OS X. all my Address Book data are on the older hard drive, from which I now boot the computer. When I launch Address Book as an app on the hard drive with the newer version of the OS, I get an error message that says I cannot run the version of Address Book from the older hard drive on the newer OS. How can I access the data on the older hard drive version of the Address Book app so that I can transfer it to the newer version of the app on the boot drive? The "Import" functionality will not work. I will be grateful for any help I can get. I would also like to uninstall the older version of OS X from the older hard drive.

Boot from the older version of OSX, then in AB use the File>Export>Export vCard after selecting all in AB.
Then boot from the new OSx & use the new AB to import that VCF file.

How can I delete my address book data

Running Lion. I've read in several post that the data file is in home folder/library/application support/AddressBook.
To test this I set up a temporary user account, added a few contacts to the address book, quit the application, deleted the entire AddressBook folder and contents in home folder/library/application support/AddressBook, re-launched Address Book and the new contacts I just created are still there.
I quit address book, deleted this same folder and contents again, this time also deleted all address book preference files in library/preferences, re-launched address book and the new contacts are still there.
Anyone know where the data file is really kept? In a brand new user account there aren't many files in home folder/library so it shouldn't be too hard to find but I sure can't seem to.
Any help would be appreciated.
PS. For those who want to know "why". I believe my daughter's Mac has a corrupt address book data file so I want to start over "fresh" but can't seem to locate where the true data file is.
Thanks,

"Perhaps for recovery or sync, don't know"
This was just a possible but the sync part of it really isn't possible in this case. In setting up a new temporary account on my Mac it would be an account without an iCloud or MobilMe account so there would be no syncing involved.
Address Book data for each user's account will be stored only within that users account. The fake contacts I've created in the temporary user account certainly don't show up in any other account.
Your behaviour "if I delete the files mentioned, there is absolutely nothing left." is exactly what I would expect. Just can't figure out (yet) what's going on, on my Mac because this expected behaviour is not happening.

Access Address Book data from terminal

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if there is a way to access Address Book data from the terminal. For instance, I would
need a command that would output an address of a given person.
Thanks in advance for your input

this script could be used in Terminal (save the code below as
"getaddress" and mark it as executable):
case $# in
2) firstname=$1; lastname=$2;;
*) echo 'Usage: getaddress <firstname> <lastname>' 1>&2; exit 1 ;;
esac
count=`osascript -e "tell application \"Address Book\" to count (people whose first name is \"${firstname}\" and last name is \"${lastname}\")"`
case $count in
0) echo "$firstname $lastname is not in Address Book." 1>&2; exit 1;;
1) ;;
*) echo "There are multiple entries for $firstname $lastname in Address Book (unhandled error)." 1>&2; exit 1;;
esac
osascript -e "tell application \"Address Book\" to get formatted address of address of first person whose first name is \"${firstname}\" and last name is \"${lastname}\""
Message was edited by: jazzy79

E51 address book data access via Bluetooth to Garm...

I have a new E51 but cannot access address book data via Bluetooth from a Garmin Sat Nav (model 310). Worked perfectly with old Nokia 6310, but returns a 'no can do' message when using the E51. Lack of this feature is a big problem - surely Bluetooth communication is supposed to work to a common standard. This is not good. Does anyone have a solution or know of a patch to cure this? Thanks.

All metioned problems are Samsung's fault. Blame them.
I've been assuming it was a Samsung problem, and have posted help requests in cell phone forums that Samsung engineers and/or support allegedly reads. I was hoping there might be some way to automate a workaround from the computer end...
Now, if Address Book had an option to define the fields that are to be exported or perhaps automatically sub Company Names for last names the problem would be solved when exporting for cell phones. I can't belive no one has ever encountered this before -- it has been a problem with every cell phone I have ever owned.

How can I get my address book data back?

After upgrading to OS6, my address book has gone from almost a thousand entries to being totally empty.
This is a *very* big deal for me bc I have no address book application on my PC.
I had always assumed that if iTunes were backing up my iPod, that I would be able to restore from those backups, but now I cannot figure out how to tell iTunes to restore from a backup. I've got a backup... just cannot restore from it.
There's got to be a way.... and I'm probably looking right at it and not seeing it.

It has been a very long time since I used 10.1.5 but Address Book data is not stored in a .plist file.
The Address Book data should be located in an Addresses folder at Home > Library > Addresses.
Locate this folder and with the Address Book application quit, move it back to the proper location.

Mail and address book data file location

Does anyone know where mail and address book saves its data?
My old mac died but I was able to remove the hard drive and mount it in a external firewire case. The drive mounts and appears in good shape. I tried using the migration utility to transfer my data into my new iMac. While a lot of data and applications did make the move, my mail files and folders did not show up on my new iMac. I'm hoping I can transfer the mail files manually. The problem is I can't find where they are located on my old computer. I was using Max os 10.4.11 on my old computer.
The same problem with my address book data. It did not transfer over with migration app. and I can't locate this data either.

The majority of Mail is in...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
AB...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

How do I Export Address Book data?

Is there anyway to insert Address Book data into other (non-Apple) applications, e.g. Word?
I want to send out some letters and I would like each letter to have the recipiants address at the top of the letter. Even if I could export the data to Excel first would be OK but I only seem to be able to export vCards from Address Book and Excel (nor Word) can read them?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,

Yink,
you can use some third-party applications to export Address Book data as plain text files (e.g., csv) which you should then be able to import without any problems in Excel and the like.
Some options are:
• Export Addresses from Mail Scripts
http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/
• Address Book Exporter
http://www.gwenhiver.net/address-book-exporter.html
• Export Address Book
http://software.dibomedia.de/ExportAddressBook
Andreas

What is the smallest data structure record in a .TXT file record to be recognized as an Apple Address Book "Data Card"?

Hello! This is my first time in this discussion group. The question posed is the subject line itself:
What is the smallest data structure record in a .TXT file record to be recognized as an Apple Address Book "Data Card"?
I'm lazy! As a math instructor with 40+ students per class per semester (pCpS), I would rather not have to create 40 data cards pCpS by hand, only to expunge that info at semester's end. My college's IS department can easily supply me with First name, Last name, and eMail address info, along with a myriad of other fields. I can manipulate those data on my end to create the necessary .TXT file, but I don't know the essential structure of that file.
Can you help me?
Thank you in advance.
Bill

Hello Bill, & welcome aboard!
No idea what pCpS is, sorry.
To import a text file into Address Book, it needs to be a comma delimited .csv file, like...
Customer Name,Company,Address1,Address2,City,State,Zip
Customer 1,Company 1,2233 W Seventh Street,Unit 543,Seattle,WA,99099
Customer 2,Company 2,1 Park Avenue,,New York,NY,10001
Customer 3,Company 3,65 Loma Linda Parkway,,San Jose,CA,94321
Customer 4,Company 4,89988 E 23rd Street,B720,Oakland,CA,99899
Customer 5,Company 5,432 1st Avenue,,Seattle,WA,99876
Customer 6,Company 6,76765 NE 92nd Street,,Seattle,WA,98009
Customer 7,Company 7,8976 Poplar Street,,Coupeville,WA,98976
Customer 8,Company 8,7677 4th Ave North,,Seattle,WA ,89876
Customer 9,Company 9,4556 Fauntleroy Avenue,,West Seattle,WA,98987
Customer 10,Company 10,4 Bell Street,,Cincinnati,OH,89987
Customer 11,Company 11,4001 Beacon Ave North,,Seattle,WA,90887
Customer 12,Company 12,63 Dehli Street,,Noida,India,898877-8879
Customer 13,Company 13,63 Dehli Street,,Noida,India,898877-8879
Customer 14,Company 14,63 Dehli Street,,Noida,India,898877-8879
Customer 15,Company 15,4847 Spirit Lake Drive,,Bellevue,WA,98006
Customer 16,Company 16,444 Clark Avenue,,West Seattle,WA,88989
Customer 17,Company 17,6601 E Stallion,,Scottsdale,AZ,85254
Customer 18,Company 18,801 N 34th Street,,Seattle,WA,98103
Customer 19,Company 19,15925 SE 92nd,,Newcastle,WA,99898
Customer 20,Company 20,3335 NW 220th,2nd Floor,Edmonds,WA,99890
Customer 21,Company 21,444 E Greenway,,Scottsdale,AZ,85654
Customer 22,Company 22,4 Railroad Drive,,Moclips,WA,98988
Customer 23,Company 23,89887 E 64th,,Scottsdale,AZ,87877
Customer 24,Company 24,15620 SE 43rd Street,,Bellevue,WA,98006
Customer 25,Company 25,123 Smalltown,,Redmond,WA,98998
Try Address Book Importer...
http://www.sillybit.com/abee/

Address book data is XML-encoded in LDAP ?

Hi,
We are trying to find out how address book data is stored in the LDAP, and we've found several different ways apparently. Some format seems to use an XML encoded format (this is when you go in the UWC (JES5) and add a new group and in stead of selecting contacts to add, you just type a name, and an email address).
This is how it looks like in the ldap:
absi@nagios ~/ $ ldapsearch -D "cn=Directory manager" -w Jxxxxxxxxxx -b "o=PiServerDb" -h 192.168.xxx.50 "displayname=test_manueel"
version: 1
dn: piEntryID=e115cc045b373f,piPStoreOwner=adresboekadmin,o=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxt.be
,o=PiServerDb
piEntryID: e115cc045b373f
objectClass: PITYPEGROUP
objectClass: piEntry
objectClass: top
memberOfPIBook: e114db3c213216f6
displayName: test_manueel
pipEntryXMLData:: PG9saT4KIDxHcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPnRlc3QzJTVFU01UUCU1RXRlc3QzJTQ
wdmxhYW1zcGFybGVtZW50LmJlPC9Hcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPgogPEdyb3VwRXhNZW1iZXI+a2llcmV
3aWV0JTVFU01UUCU1RWtpZXJld2lldCU0MHZsYWFtc3BhcmxlbWVudC5iZTwvR3JvdXBFeE1lbWJ
lcj4KIDxHcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPnRlc3Q0NSU1RVNNVFAlNUV0ZXN0NDUlNDBhYnNpLmJlPC9Hcm9
1cEV4TWVtYmVyPgo8L29saT4K
However, I can't find any usable reference to this ldap attribute 'pipEntryXMLData' , except that it's used by JES 2005Q1 onwards
I'm also concerned by the following:
- in case of problems, are there tools to read out / export this XML data in anything that is human readable / parseable ?
- what about scalability, we will be having members with thousands of entries in their addressbook, is this method scalable or will we be experiencing delays when users are looking up contacts in their address books ?
All info on this is more than welcom!
regards,
Tom.

The ldapsearch tools are producing LDIF format (RFC 2849) which requires that non ascii values and values with some specific characters be Base64 encoded.
XML is out of these formats that start with a special character with regards to LDIF ('<') and for which values must be base64 encoded.
There are many decoders for base64 encoding.
Alternately, you can use an LDAP API (C or Java) and the value will not be encoded.
Regards,
Ludovic.

Address book data is XML-encoded ?

Hi,
We are trying to find out how address book data is stored in the LDAP, and we've found several different ways apparently. Some format seems to use an XML encoded format (this is when you go in the UWC (JES5) and add a new group and in stead of selecting contacts to add, you just type a name, and an email address).
This is how it looks like in the ldap:
absi@nagios ~/ $ ldapsearch -D "cn=Directory manager" -w Jxxxxxxxxxx -b "o=PiServerDb" -h 192.168.xxx.50 "displayname=test_manueel"
version: 1
dn: piEntryID=e115cc045b373f,piPStoreOwner=adresboekadmin,o=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxt.be
,o=PiServerDb
piEntryID: e115cc045b373f
objectClass: PITYPEGROUP
objectClass: piEntry
objectClass: top
memberOfPIBook: e114db3c213216f6
displayName: test_manueel
pipEntryXMLData:: PG9saT4KIDxHcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPnRlc3QzJTVFU01UUCU1RXRlc3QzJTQ
wdmxhYW1zcGFybGVtZW50LmJlPC9Hcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPgogPEdyb3VwRXhNZW1iZXI+a2llcmV
3aWV0JTVFU01UUCU1RWtpZXJld2lldCU0MHZsYWFtc3BhcmxlbWVudC5iZTwvR3JvdXBFeE1lbWJ
lcj4KIDxHcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPnRlc3Q0NSU1RVNNVFAlNUV0ZXN0NDUlNDBhYnNpLmJlPC9Hcm9
1cEV4TWVtYmVyPgo8L29saT4K
However, I can't find any usable reference to this ldap attribute 'pipEntryXMLData' , except that it's used by JES 2005Q1 onwards
I'm also concerned by the following:
- in case of problems, are there tools to read out / export this XML data in anything that is human readable / parseable ?
- what about scalability, we will be having members with thousands of entries in their addressbook, is this method scalable or will we be experiencing delays when users are looking up contacts in their address books ?
All info on this is more than welcom!
regards,
Tom.

Hi,
tom_absi wrote:
We are trying to find out how address book data is stored in the LDAP, and we've found several different ways apparently. Some format seems to use an XML encoded format (this is when you go in the UWC (JES5) and add a new group and in stead of selecting contacts to add, you just type a name, and an email address).This isn't surprising as there wasn't any pre-existing attribute which could be used to add these values. So it appears they are using an XML 'blob' instead.
This is how it looks like in the ldap:
pipEntryXMLData:: PG9saT4KIDxHcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPnRlc3QzJTVFU01UUCU1RXRlc3QzJTQ
wdmxhYW1zcGFybGVtZW50LmJlPC9Hcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPgogPEdyb3VwRXhNZW1iZXI+a2llcmV
3aWV0JTVFU01UUCU1RWtpZXJld2lldCU0MHZsYWFtc3BhcmxlbWVudC5iZTwvR3JvdXBFeE1lbWJ
lcj4KIDxHcm91cEV4TWVtYmVyPnRlc3Q0NSU1RVNNVFAlNUV0ZXN0NDUlNDBhYnNpLmJlPC9Hcm9
1cEV4TWVtYmVyPgo8L29saT4KThis is base64 encoded and decodes as (http://www.opinionatedgeek.com/dotnet/tools/Base64Decode/):
<oli>
<GroupExMember>test3%5ESMTP%5Etest3%40vlaamsparlement.be</GroupExMember>
<GroupExMember>kierewiet%5ESMTP%5Ekierewiet%40vlaamsparlement.be</GroupExMember>
<GroupExMember>test45%5ESMTP%5Etest45%40absi.be</GroupExMember>
</oli> However, I can't find any usable reference to this ldap attribute 'pipEntryXMLData' , except that it's used by JES 2005Q1 onwardsAppears to be a 'private' attribute. Although you can access the data because it is stored in an LDAP server I don't believe it is a public interface so it is bound to change.
I'm also concerned by the following:
- in case of problems, are there tools to read out / export this XML data in anything that is human readable / parseable ?The base64 decoded version seems parseable to me?
- what about scalability, we will be having members with thousands of entries in their addressbook, is this method scalable or will we be experiencing delays when users are looking up contacts in their address books ?Assuming you have a sufficiently scoped/tuned directory server I don't see there is going to be a problem.
Regards,
Shane.

Address book data ALL GONE

I got a blackberry bold recently with a few contacts in it. Wanting to wipe it first before I sync it, I changed "user/library/application support/AddressBook" to "user/library/application support/AddressBook2" hoping that it would clean all the data in my blackberry first.
Well, address book is all empty that's for sure, but when I rename AddressBook2 to AddressBook, nothing happened. ALL my data is GONE.
Please I beg for your help.

I'm sorry but if there are no .abcd cards in the Metadata folder then your address book data is really gone and there is no way to retrieve it. you can try using data recovery software like Filesalvage or Data Rescue II but chances of getting it back are very slim. In the future I strongly recommend you start backing up to an external drive. there are plenty of excellent backup programs for Mac and external drives are quite cheap these days. see this post http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7495315#7495315

Address book data but missing Address Book application

This is strange but after upgrading to Snow Leopard, I seem to be missing my Address Book application. I can see my address book data but I cannot launch the Address Book application.
I have my contacts synced with Mobile Me & I'm not sure where the app went. I can still sync but just can't open up the Address Book app (obviously)
I am not sure how to get my Address Book app back....any suggestions?

you don't need Pacifists for this one. insert the snow leopard DVD, open it in finder and double-click on optional installs->optional installs.mpkg. follow the instructions and choose to install Address Book. then reinstall 10.6.2 combo update to bring AB to its current version.

Sharing address book data

I have tried to export my address book data so I can import it into a contact management program. But Mimbers cannot open the files, nor can excel. Can address book NOT create a comma delimited or tab delimited file? And if so, why not?

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
No, Address Book cannot export to anything but VCF. It's not a new issue.
Have you tried one of the online free or paid VCF to CSV converters?
Using your favorite search engine with the term 'VCF to CSV converter' brings up lots of links:
http://soft.udm4.com/downloading/csv_to_vcf_converter_freeware/
Apple isn't going to address it, because others already solved the problem.

HT2486 Address book data loss / iMac 10.5.8 / despite backing up on a NAS all data lost, including in the backup. How can I retrieve it? Thanks

Help! All my address book data disappeared from one day to the next. I entered my NAS back-up but all the address books going back in time are empty.
Then I got clever and thought I would sync my contacts from my iPhone 4 to my iMac. Brilliant idea - now all my iPhone contacts are gone as well except for 14 address that must have been input after my last sync with iTunes.
Can anyone help my find my lost data?
Thanks
Paul
P.S. all help appreciated, especially in simple English as I am not a techi!

Paul, get one of these...
Find Any File...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30079/find-any-file
I'd get EasyFind...
http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/
Search your whole drive for...
AddressBook.data
Do we find a bigger one?

Vanished Address Book data

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