Abbu | iCLOUD vs. ADDRESSBOOK

Hello!
You can open and watch an .abbu with ADDRESSBOOK. But which programm makes it possible to really go deeper into the file, in order to fix any problems if there is any?
I’m on 10.7.5 and here is the issue:
iCLOUD (empty) overwrites my ADDRESSBOOK’s content.
The local backup (my .abbu) seems to be corrupted. The former .abbu-versions I exported used to be around 90 MB – that was fine. But for any reason, the actual backups now occupy nearly 1.8 GB! And therefor something seems to go wrong.
Contacting the APPLE Support this spring, they made two propositions which lead to bad compromises:
- instead of saving my contacts into an .abbu-format, they told me to use a .vcf -> but once the .vcf is uploaded, you loose the groups’ repartition of your contacts, so this option doesn’t work for me, nor for anyone I guess.
- in a second step, the APPLE Support took my .vcf and uploaded it by themself on iCLOUD. They ran a check for duplicates, apparently found a few, but at the end, a few dozens of contacts also were missing. So it’s not really working and as I’m not in control of my data. I mean I cannot administer it on my own, this is more a workaround than a satisfying solution.
So, I took my former 90 MB .abbu, ran a manual duplicates test by myself (with "Address Book Clearout.app"), updated a few contacts and saved the whole thing into a new .abbu. As long as I work just local, this version works fine in ADDRESSBOOK. But as soon as I try to sync with iCLOUD, iCLOUD erases my (local) ADDRESSBOOK. And it also aborts uploading from ADDRESSBOOK to iCLOUD, even if the OS says he’s about to do it.
Help would be much appreciated.
Thank you

I reply to myself after a few other tries and errors – here are my steps:
- I interrupted the synchro to iCLOUD.
- I trashed the iCLOUD account in the addressbook prefs panel.
- In Addressbook/Main panel, I selected all my contacts.
- I dragged them onto my harddisk. At this point the OS asks if I really want to drag 3612 contacts. I accepted.
- The OS copies a few minutes, then shows a .vcf named the "first name out of my contacts’ list + the 3611 other .vcf."
- The point here is to have a file with a brand new time entry (newer than anything else on iCLOUD)
- In Addressbook, I import this new .vcf
- I relink/sync to iCLOUD (recreating an iCLOUD account in the ADDRESSBOOK prefs panel and selecting the checkbox in the SysPrefs/iCLOUD panel)
- Now the upload takes a few minutes from ADDRESSBOOK up to iCLOUD.
BUT !!! The repartition of the contacts into the groups now are missing!

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IPhone,icloud and addressbook contacts gone

Hi All
Out of my sudden after i made a phone call all my phone contacts were gone and overwrites by few contacts that i don't know. i tried to revert it from iCloud but worst is the contact were overwritten as well. Is there a way i could revert the iCloud or my phone contact? Those contact were very important to me i thought i've back it up on icloud but im not sure how it got overwritten as well.
Please help to advise how can i restore to a 1 day ago addressbook or if there's any other resolution to resolve this issue ?
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I have a very similar problem! When I set up my daughter's iphone5, I used my iCloud account. When she backed up her contacts to iCloud, it replaced all of MY contacts with hers.. even on my phone. I need to revert my iCloud back up a week ago... I've been asking around and everyone says "It should be possible..." but no one could tell me how. Help!!

AddressBook groups lost after migration to iCloud

Hey everyone, just to share the solution with you.
If bought my wife an iPad2 2 weeks ago and in order to allow for a smooth transition I upgraded her MacBook a week earlier to Mac OS X Lion and set up her iCloud account, i.e. I migrated her Mobile Me account to iCloud.
However, during the migration (Mac MobileMe > iCloud) her AddressBook lost all Groups (I checked this with the corresponding date of out Time Capsule backup). Any attempt to restore the backup and sync the contacts again does not restore the groups. After some reading on the Apple Support Communities and on other sides here's the solution.
Note: I assume you use Time Capsule and your backup is properly working.
1. In case you've changed/added addresses create a back-up of all contacts:
    - On the Mac user AddressBook make sure you have "All Contacts" selected, then click on one contact ans select all by CMD-A
    - export all contacts by FILE > EXPORT ... > EXPORT vCard ... and save the file on your Mac (don't worry about duplication - we merge the contacts later)
2. Now switch of iCloud sync for Contacts on all devices
    - Mac: Open System Preferences > iCloud > untag Contacts and delete data on your Mac
    - iOS 5 devices: System Preferences (Settings) > iCloud > Contacts OFF and delete data on your iOS 5 device
    - Rem: you have to do this on all devices you sync with your iCloud account
3. Open your account on www.icloud.com and delete all contacts
NOW all should be clean!
4. Do a full restore of the AddressBook data from your Time Capsule backup. In order to to this you need to open the Library folder of your account on the Mac. Since the advent of Mac OS X Lion this folder is hidden. However you can easily open it by CMD-Shift-G and type in "~/Library/". Then go to the folder "Application Support" and leave the "AddressBook" folder selected (blue background).
5. Open Time Capsule and go back to the date when the AddressBook still contained all groups. Then restore the entire folder "AddressBook". Time Capsule will ask you if the existing folder should be "Replace"d. Confirm "Replace" and your AddressBook is (Tip: If you do not know the date, Leave AddressBook' group view active and open TimeCapsule and while moving back in time you'll see the groups re-appear at the appropriate date).
6. Now import the earlier vCard backup into Address Book (in case you've added, changed contacts)
NOW your Mac AddressBook should be up to date, including Groups.
7. Connect one of your iOS5 devices via USB cable to your Mac and open iTunes. Click on the name of your device under DEVICES.
8. Click on "Info" on the top row menu in iTunes. Tag the option "Sync Address Book Contacts" and press the button "Sync".
9. After the Sync eject the iOS 5 device from your Mac
Now your iOS 5 device is updated with all contacts and groups. (check if you want)
10. on your iOS 5 device open SETTINGS > MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDAR and choose "iCloud". Switch Contacts ON.
11. Check your iCloud account on www.icloud.com if all contacts and groups are properly restored.
Now your iCloud is updated and we can execute the final step.
12. On your Mac: Open System Preferences > iCloud and switch Contacts ON and/or tag Contacts.
13. In your Mac AddressBook> Check (this may take some minutes) if all contacts and groups are properly sync'ed.
DONE!

Sakahara wrote:
A: No. If you want access to iDisk.
I assumed everything switched over to iCloud. So what happens to iDisk when MobileMe is finally no more in June?
When Mobile Me ends on 6/30/2012 iDisk will cease to exist.

Once i open the iCloud or address book I lose my administrative privileges, Mac OSX Mountain Lion

Mac OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.2
The problem did not exist before this upgrade.
If I open iCloud, or AddressBook, or if assistantd asks for Keychain Access password, I lose all my user's administrative privileges, I can't copy and paste files anymore and everything that comes with that.
The error I am getting is:
The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.
If I go GetInfo on the file, I can no longer access the lock-unlock feature in bottom right.
My user was migrated from another Mac with OSX Lion, but I've had NO ISSUES until after the latest updates to 10.8.2.
This is really annoying and I do believe it's only because of the update, so any help would be highly appreciated.
Thank you.

Back up all data now.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.
Step 1
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:20 ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ 2> /dev/null
Be sure to select the whole line by triple-clicking anywhere in it. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command.
The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2
Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar. A text window opens.
In the Terminal window, type this:
resetpassword
That's one word with no spaces. Then press return. A Reset Password window opens. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select  ▹ Restart from the menu bar.

I can't get MobileMe Gallery to stop trying to move pictures from it to Aperture. I never posted pictures to MobileMe Gallery. HELP

MobileMe has been discontinued
Aperture will move albums you have published to Mobile Me Gallery into the Albums section of your library to preserve them.
If I chose OK it will say aperture is moving mobile me gallery and it takes forever but I've never posted pictures to that gallery.
HELP

If you migrated from MobileMe to iCloud your Addressbook will now be synced with iCloud and not with MobileMe.
Make sure, the AppleID you are using with iCloud is the same you when upgrading from MobileMe to iCloud. Your iCloud account has to be enabled in the Addressbook and your contacts should appear in the iCloud accounts section.
To sync your Contacts, they have to be enabled in the iCloud preferences, like this:
But please, take your iCloud- Addressbook question to the "iCloud On my Mac" forum: https://discussions.apple.com/community/icloud/icloud_on_my_mac
There you will find the better experts for syncing between Mac and iPhone.
Regrads
Léonie

Upgraded to leopard and Cant delete podcast in itunes please help

after leopard upgrade.....when i try and delete an old played podcast my itunes immediately pops up an error message and says it quit unexpectedly. this happens w. any podcast and i have the current version of itunes, i also recently upgraded to leopard so i dont know if that has something to do with it, but i CAN play music and videos and podcasts, i just cant delete a podcast, or update them?
any help would be great

Good girl.
"though a bit sluggish" 512 to one gig memory is just making it. two gigs you'll be more satisfied or at minimum 1.5 gigs of memory.
1) I can't answer that based upon normal itunes migration. I just keep my mp3 music on hard drives and when I re-do a computer from scratch just copy them over(they are all metatagged) and use the itunes "add to library" function then change the view using itunes, set my equalizer and I'm basically done.
2) Tiger and Leopard bookmark file are interchangeable. user/library/safari/bookmarks. You should always save that file elsewhere and just drag it over to user/library/safari of course the Safari folder is not created until you launch Safari at least once.
3) use Mail's import function, just direct it to where your mailboxes are stored.
4) address book you can do this function and save it after done. In Tiger under user/library/application support/addressbook there will be a file called addressbook.data Now create a new folder(do it on the desktop) and name it TigerData. Copy that addressbook.data file into that new folder. Now re-name that folder to TigerData.abbu in the addressbook program use the file, import, addressbook archive menu item and choose TigerData.abbu Once done save that file for future Leopard installs.

When syncing some contacts are deleted

Since I upgraded to Lion and installed iCloud, when I sync my iPhone (that's a 3GS running software 4.0) weird things happen and the last time I synced it several contacts were deleted.
I think that the problem is with iCloud, since I could not install iCloud in my iPhone.
I would like to uninstall iCloud from my Mac. How can I do that?

Today I found the problem. I had to turn off iCloud in AddressBook preferences. It solved my problem.

Major Bug with ADDRESSBOOK .abbu vs. iCloud

Hello!
I’ve been trying to fix this issue with APPLE’s second level support here in Europe, but with no success
Which is why I’m now turning toward the community, in the hope Cupertino is reading this. Come on guys!
I presume some sort of inherited bug, either from
- me.com times – as the contacts synchronisation never really worked flawless, which forced me to use ADDRESSBOOK only locally.
- or perhaps because being partly using apple products in France and Germany (2 languages)
- or because of both reasons – don’t know.
The issue:
For the above described reasons, I administrate my contacts locally. In other word, my local ADDRESSBOOK is the “Master” database and I don’t sync my contacts with iCloud although it would be nice, …if it worked reliably.
I do some backups at least every half year on 20XX-12-31 and 20XX-06-30. Sometimes also inbetween. Over the years, these .abbus increased their sizes up to…
2012-03-25_abbu : was 95 MB. It seems pretty normal as I gathered nearly 3000 contacts mostly including pictures or logos.
BUT ! :
in the weeks after this date, the .abbu suddenly began to grow up to 1.8 GB !!! …for no traceable reason, as I only added let’s say 200-300 new contacts. This exponential increase in size is just weird. It led to two steps:
a) I opened a copy of my 1.8 GB .abbu (context-menu/show package content) and found out a huge amount of “sub-abbus”.
Is it normal or it there some kind of bad loop occuring here and responsible for the size-increase? It’s pretty hard to find any information on .abbus. I’d like to analyse the data-structure in order to find out if the bug is sitting here. Which program is appropriate to achieve this? The ideal case would be to get a fix from APPLE itself, but even the support structure itself seems not to be provided with enough information. So, regarding “contacts syncing”, one consequence here is that I have to stay offline – for a couple of years now. Another consequence is, that I can’t purchase any iPhone or iPad before this issue is not fixed.
b) I consider my 2012-03-25_abbu as THE reliable database. In order not to lose any information, I started to backup each new contact separately. Each time I create one or do some changes on a card, I export the card as a .vcf. So, with the 2012-03-25.abbu and these additional new .vcfs, I’m pretty sure to be able to rebuild my whole contacts’ database each time after it’s been destroyed by iCloud.
Apart of the incresing size issue of the .abbu, some problems occur as soon as I connect ADDRESSBOOK with iCloud:
iCloud overwrites my local ADDRESSBOOK content instead of uploading the data. This also occurs/ed with an empty iCloud.com account – just weird. The data is inconsistent and coming from a no identified source. Even the second level support has no explenation.
The second level support and I tried every possible approaches with test accounts and so on – e. g.:
- uploading the 1.8 GB .abbu – doesn’t work
- uploading the .vcf of the whole database (approx. 3900 contacts now) – looses the groups’ affiliations.
Resuming it all, it’s just impossible to work with an inconsistent database, because you know you loose data permanently.
Is there any chance to forward this HELP CALL to Cupertino, for someone exactly knowing the subject will hopefully find a fix, please !
Desperately yours
G
<Personal Information Edited by Host>

so to clarify, it appears that the multitasking snapshot for the following scenario will not update: open safari and turn to landscape, exit safari using home button or multitasking bar, then double press home button. That snapshot that appears for safari doesn't ever seem to refresh. Whatever is there is stuck there and whats more it will always pop up in the actual browser for 1-2 secs the next time safari is opened after completing those steps. Im not sure when the snapshot is initially created - it must be the first ever time you close safari but as I said in my post, it also appears to be stored in iCloud backups. So I've tried:
a) hard resetting
b) clearing safari cache and history
c) resetting all settings
d) restoring from iCloud (as mentioned)
e) opening and closing closing safari using the multitasking menu (both the landscape multitasking menu that appears when you're actually in safari in landscape mode, and the multitasking menu that appear when you double press the home button on the home screen).
f) same as above except closing all tbs open in safari before then exiting.

Issue importing .abbu backup and syncing to iCloud

Here's the issue:
I accidently deleted some information I needed in my address book. I thought everything would be okay because I could just import the backup .abbu file I recently exported. I tried to import the .abbu file and it looked okay for about 3 seconds. Then, all of my conacts disappeared! I scowered the internet and found other people have had similar issues.
I struggled to find a way to fix this or at least find a workaround. Needless to say, I did find a workaround, but it's very time consuming. I'm posting on this board to see if anyone knows what the real issue is here. I have already conacted apple support and they basically gave me the same workaround I came up with. They weren't able to provide me with a straight answer.
Here's my workaround for people having issues with importing their .abbu backup:
1. Disconnect from the internet to prevent icloud from trying to sync.
2. Import your backup .abbu file (which will import perfectly)
2. You have to drag and drop all of your groups individually onto your desktop to export them in the vcard format.
3. Once you do this, delete all of the contacts in your address book
4. Then, create a new group and name it after one of your old groups you exported into a vcard.
5. Drag and drop the appropriate vcard file into the group. Do this for all of the remaining groups.
6. Connect to the internet and everything will sync again.
This is a very tedious process since I have about 20 groups. The SENIOR apple support guy basically told me this is how I should backup my address book and not to delete large amounts of contacts if I didn't want them restored easily. This solution makes no sense to me.
My question is this: What's the point of backing up an .abbu file if it can't import it back in and have it sync to iCloud with all of my groups? I thought that was the way it was supposed to work.
If anyone can shed some light on this, it would be most appreciated.

There is actually a solution that will require less overall work if you have a lot of groups. The basic strategy is to get the system to copy everything with groups intact to the On My Mac contacts, and then pull everything back into iCloud. That effectively updates all the timestamps and gets around iCloud not wanting to import old contacts.
1) DISCONNECT ALL NETWORK CONNECTIONS - ethernet, WiFi, everything.
2) Create a new account on your Mac, so you have a fresh Address Book with nothing in it. (Note that the new account shouldn't have any passwords in the keychain, so disconnecting from the network is just a safety precaution. If it asks for a password, hit 'cancel.' You don't want to connect to iCloud until the end.)
3a) If using a .abbu backup, copy the .abbu file that has your iCloud contacts to the new account. Double click the .abbu file to restore all the contacts.
3b) If you're attempting to restore from a file level backup solution, replace the ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder from your backup. Make sure the user id matches, and change it if necessary.
4) Open the Contacts application. You should see everything as it was at the time the backup was created. If you have other accounts besides iCloud that you're not having issues with, you can remove them using Contacts->Preferences...->Accounts. And if there is anything in On My Mac that you don't want pulled into iCloud, you should remove those entries now. If asked whether you want to keep contacts on your Mac, just delete them. To restore iCloud cleanly, you ONLY want iCloud contacts from this point forward.
5) At this point, if you want to, you can export to a .abbu file as a checkpoint so that if something goes wrong, you can start over without having to clean things up again.
6) Under Contacts -> Preferences... -> Accounts, delete the iCloud account. You will be asked if you want to delete contacts or keep them. Click KEEP CONTACTS! This makes a copy on the local system, under My Contacts, complete with the all of the group information intact.
7) Reconnect your Mac to the network if you disconnected it at step 1.
8) If you're going for a clean restore, and you're happy with exactly what is in the On My Mac contacts, log into iCloud through a web interface. Make sure all contacts AND groups have been deleted from iCloud. (If empty groups are in there, they'll still be there looking like duplicates. If you have a lot of groups, start by clicking the last one, hit delete, hit return, hit delete, hit return... repeat until they are gone.)
9) Add your iCloud account back to Contacts. It will attempt to merge all contacts. Since you only have a pristine copy in On My Mac with all of the group information, it will look exactly as it did at the time of the backup when you are done.
Now when you go back to your regular account, or your iPhone, etc.; your iCloud contacts should be restored after synchronizing.
I had 34 groups, and this saved me a lot of time over trying to work with .vcf files. It also ensures an exact restore, instead of accidental duplicates if you have contacts in multiple groups.
Mike P.

HT204150 Addressbook keeps removing just imported ABBU records.

I have a Addresbook backup file ABBU format by Apple.
I want THIS file as my iCloud addressbook. What I try it always results in a few records of iCloud and immediately disappearing of the 1000 records I imported,
Tried the Apple troubleshooting: iCloud on/off addressbook prefs etc etc.
What can be wrong? Seems 1980 technology of syncing databases. What a mess!!

Thanks Winston for taking the time to give a solution.
Alas did not work. I deleted ALL icloud content from my macs. Then re-entered all iCloud login data. iCal and Mail popup, but Addressbook on Mac stays empty, allthough online I had for a moment after the import my 2000 contacts. Now all is empty again.
I have years and years experience in listbroking, mail merging and even marketed an app based on Addressbook. This iCloud thing is one big drama.

HT201342 i have a 10.6.8 mac os x system in a intel processor computer. how can I addressbook contacts to icloud. I tried exporting my import my addressbook and failed, then exportind a vcard from all contacts and failed and finale only one vcadr and fai

i have a 10.6.8 mac os x system in a intel processor computer. how can I addressbook contacts to icloud. I tried exporting my import my addressbook and failed, then exportind a vcard from all contacts and failed and finale only one vcadr and failed. Something might i doing wrong

I just had the same problem, I've updated to 10.6.8 yesterday, and since then the browsing are very slow, no matter what broswer I am using, the upload download speed are still the same. But browsing just take forever, It takes for example google.com 30 seconds to load. I have Extream high speed internet connection, 3 other computers, and the only one is having this problem is the Mac after the update.
Something in this update screwed my browsing capabitilties, I tried downloading Crome browser, same issue.
I hope there is a way beside TimeMachine to revert the latest update. I don't want to reformat as I am sure as soon as I am going to do the update it will cause the same problem.
Model Name:    iMac
Model Identifier:    iMac11,3
Processor Name:    Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.93 GHz
Number Of Processors:    1
Total Number Of Cores:    4
L2 Cache (per core):    256 KB
L3 Cache:    8 MB
Memory:    12 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed:    4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version:    IM112.0057.B00

ICloud Server Error: Can't add/edit contacts + it overwrites AddressBook edits

I originally posted this in the MobileMe forum. I am totally frustrated and disgusted with the unreliable and buggy iCloud. I am hoping smarter people than me can help resolve this. Thank you.
My primary data source is/was my MacBook Pro. It was all synced to MobileMe. (Contacts and iCal). iCloud came along. I "upgraded" to iCloud {the frustrating process of "your account needs to be upgraded, create an appleID..." was a whole different pain}.
To make life simple, I even allowed iCloud to be the source of data for my iMac as well as iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S by deleting everything and letting everything be populated from iCloud. Now, supposedly, all my contacts and calendar/reminder data is in iCloud and all the data on the iMac and iPhones if from iCloud.
Except, I cannot make edits to contacts in iCloud or even Add a new contact. When I Add or Save an edit in iCloud, EACH time I get an ERROR and the error report going to Apple is given below.
Worse, I spent an hour cleaning up the freshly downloaded contacts in the iMac's AddressBook. NONE of those changes went up to iCloud.
EVEN worse, iCloud overwrote the changed fields back to the old/blank fields, wasting my hour of work.
Adding cards in AddressBook on the computer also does not propagate to iCloud, though edits to or changes to iCal DO show up in iCloud. But, adds/deletes/edits to Contacts on iMac OR iPhones do NOT show up in iCloud.
Your help appreciated. Regards,
Imran
===
This is from the iMac console when I tried to delete a contact:
11/20/11 6:05:09.289 AM Address Book: Process com.apple.AddressBook deleting 1 contact
11/20/11 6:05:10.045 AM Address Book: [CardDAVPlugin-ERROR] -getHomeInfo:[_controller containersAtURLs:{(
https://MYNAME%[email protected]:443/########/carddavhome///MYNAME%[email protected]:443/########/carddavhome/
)}] Error Domain=CoreDAVErrorDomain Code=1 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (CoreDAVErrorDomain error 1.)"
The rest of the log is at: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3508969 and not repeated here.

I added this comment to a thread about trying to get rid of iCloud once it has been used... it is much harder than you'd imagine... I am sharing it here because it includes steps I took after the problem we are discussing above....
====
I love Apple since it started and been a Mac user since it came out. Much that MobileMe was frustrating and had a lousy launch, I thought it was impossible to make something worse than MobileMe. Apple succeeded with this disaster, data destroying, heart burning, stomach churning and hours wasting beast called iCloud.
See iCloud Server Error: Can't add/edit contacts + it overwrites AddressBook edits By IMRAN Happy to have your thoughts on how to solve that nightmare. My last attempt (manually restorying my 5000 contacts in AddressBook, then painfully manually deleting contacts in iCloud {Select All > Delete there gives Server Errors also}. Finally managed. Then resyncing the MacBook Pro to iCloud led to 1000 contacts NOT syncing and no way except manually listing each address list side by side to figure out which ones it missed pulling in. Horror. Disaster. Shame.
For the user who says that turning off iCloud on the Mac and accepting its offer to delete data will delete data only on the cloud, sorry, but, unless I misunderstood you, that is dangerously wrong.
Like an evil spawn of SkyNet and a PC Boot Sector Virus, once iCloud has grabbed your data IT becomes the master of your data, your digital life. Deleting stuff means the stuff on your DEVICE (e.g. MacBook Pro, where you created and have all the ORIGINAL data in that iCloud sucked in) is what will be destroyed. Be careful.
If you're playing with this beast, not only make backups of your data in AddressBook and iCal, but invest in an external drive and clone your whole hard drive.
I am literally having to make a decision tonight, keep my MacBook Pro as the master, and sync via iTunes to the iPhone 4S and 4. I have an iMac mostly for music and video, which it was "cool" to have synced iCal and AB on, though not regularly used. But, after the hours wasted with iCloud, and the repeated data loss, I can live without the iMac being a synced device.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Imran Anwar

How do I remove my AddressBook folder from dropbox on my old imac and transfer it to my new imac with lion so I can use iCloud?

How do I remove my Address Book folder from dropbox on my old Imac and move it to my new mac so I can use icloud

Is there a reason that you don't want to use Migration Assistant to automatically transfer all your user files from one Mac to the other?
If you absolutely want to do it manually, copy the contents of the user/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder from the old Mac to the new. Use Dropbox or a flash drive or whatever you prefer, but it must end up in the same location you copied it from. You must hold down the Option key and click the Go menu in Finder to see the Library folder, or use Go - Go to Folder and type in "~/Library".
Matt

I cannot import .abbu contact back up into iCloud.

I have lost my contacts. Fortunately, I did back up the contacts through the Contact back-up program. Now I only need to know how to import these contacts into my iCloud account. I have two iCloud accounts, one for home, one for work. If I try to import into my contact account into my home Contacts program, I get a message that all the existing contacts will be deleted. Can someone help me?

Ok. The story is a little long. I have three iCloud accounts. One for 'home', one for 'work', and one for a 'new job' I recently started.
I have all three files showing in my contacts application on my iMac.
I wanted to import the .abbu back up from my 'work' contacts file into my 'new job' contacts file on my iMac. When I tried to do this, a pop-up stated that it will delete all my contacts. Since I had only one contact in my 'new job' account, I thought that would be alright. Instead it deleted all the contacts in both the 'work' account and the 'new job' account leaving me with both those files empty. My 'home' contacts file was left unchanged. A funny thing happens when I try to import the file. all of the contacts show, but after about three seconds, they all disappear again. So they must be in the file. I just can't get them to stay.
There are about 3,000 contacts in my 'work' account and 275 in my 'home' account. I am scared of loosing my 'home' account at this point.

HT4489 I'm a novice so be nice. I have a list of contacts exported to a .abbu file which I'd like on my iCloud contacts but whenever i try to import them, they don't copy across only into "all contacts"

I'm a novice so be nice. I have a list of contacts exported to a .abbu file which I'd like on my iCloud contacts but whenever i try to import them, they don't copy across only into "all contacts"
Can anyone help, any would be appreciated.

You have exported as an Address Book archive file: you need to select all the contacts and choose to export them as a vCard - this is the only format you can import into the iCloud website.

Abbu | iCLOUD vs. ADDRESSBOOK

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