Adding address book to a backup

I'd like to backup the address book database with Retrospect.
Where is the address book data stored so I can add it to be backed up? I know that I can make a backup of it with exporting it but that's not what I want - I want it to be automated.

~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

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Contacts disappeared from Address Book...backup anywhere

I turned on my computer this morning and opened Mail to send out a message. I began typing an address only to find that Mail was not suggesting the address like it usually does. I opened Address Book and all my contacts were completely wiped.
I went into my .Mac account online and they were still there, only the account said it had last synced in April. I have had my system, set to Autosync for quite some time. Apparently in never synced those. I tried syncing it downward back to Address Book and it never filled up. Additionally, I have added many contacts since April and those are not on .Mac. A couple of days ago, I had to take my computer down to another office where I had to work for a couple of days and then I had to bring it back home last night. That is the only thing I have done since I last used my Address Book.
The last time I rememebered using it was yesterday at that other office. I was very careful last night when bringing it home. Does anybody have any idea what could have happened? And also, if there is an auto backup that Address Book puts somewhere? Please help!!!

That's the other weird part to this whole mess. When I reset the sync data for the Address Book and told it to overwrite the computer with .Mac, it never downloads even a single item. Furthermore, I have noticed a problem for about 3 months now when I click on my iDisk icon in the Finder I get the following error message:
The volume for "iDisk" cannot be found.
I have updated everything and this is still happening. .Mac hasn't really been up to what it was supposed to be the last few months. Especially when it said that my online addressbook had not been synced since April when I have had it set to auto since then, and have made many additions.

Address Book vs. Backup?

I recently upgraded my hard drive. Before swapping the drives out in my MacBook Pro, I did a backup of my Home Folder so that all my documents and settings would be saved.
After installing MacOS onto the new drive, I then Restored the backup. Everything looked fine. All of my files were there (iPhoto, Documents, etc.) with one notable exception... My Address Book is completely empty.
When I look in the AddressBook folder in Library, I see a file there called AddressBook.data.beforesave that is 4.8MB in size. I assume that file has all of my old addresses in it. Is there some way to import that data back into my Address Book?
Thanks for any help you can provide...

Never mind... further research yielded the answer. I deleted the file that ended in .data. I then renamed the file that ended in .beforesave so that it ended with .data. This restored my address book. Woohoo!!!!

I lost my entire Address Book with no backup!!!

It's all gone. I do not have a .mac account. I do not have a PDA. I do not have a backup. Is there any hope of finding them somewhere else?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

If your address book is gone you can try this for a tiny bit of consolation.
Look for this preference: ~library>Preferences>com.apple.mail.plist
That is your Previous Recipients List. If it's there, open your mail app and go to: Window>previous recipients
Then select all and click "copy to address book."
That is probably not all of your contacts, and it is only e-mail addresses, but it's a start. You could then send out a request to everyone for their current info. Sorry to hear that you lost everyone.
Let me know how it works out.
Good Luck
Bruce
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2x Caviar SATA 3GB/s: 2x Sony Superdrive; 2x 1GB OWC ram (3GB total)
G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

How to restore contact info, etc, in Address Book from a backup drive?

I accidentally deleted the entries (names, contact info, etc) in Address Book. My hard drive is fully backed up on another drive.
How do I replace the deleted contacts from my backup file? Or, how do I replace the current Address Book with the undamaged one on my backup drive?
Thanks.
Ed in Dallas

What kind of backup? If it's a TM backup then open Address Book and select Address Book Help from the Help menu. Search for "restore from time machine." You'll find an article on how to restore entries from a TM backup.
If this is simply a cloned backup then navigate to the /Home/Library/Application Support/ folder on the backup drive and copy the AddressBook folder to the same location on your hard drive.
Then navigate to /Home/Library/Preferences/ and copy the com.apple.addressbook.plist and com.apple.addressbook.abd.plist files from the backup to the same location on your hard drive.
Address Book must not be running.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Address Book, Bluetooth, text backup

Address Book is working well with my Sony Ericsson - so far, so good - now I'd like to move the old SMSs from my phone onto my Mac to free up SIM memory and keep an archive. Anyone know how to do this?
thanks, dg

David,
This is off-topic, but you had asked about converting old MacCIM e-mails in another topic -- I found a way to do it. There is a program called Emailchemy that reads your old CIS Filing Cabinet and converts the mail message very quickly. I recovered about 9K worth, stretching back more than ten years.
I think that I found the program through the products directory here -- it's by a company called "Weird Kid Software" or some such.
Good luck!

How do I import address book from time machine backup

My address book was populated on an imac running Lion and I used time machine to back up to an external hard drive.
The imac crashed and I've purchased another one running Mavericks.
How do I import the contents of my address book from the backup on the external drive to the address book on the new imac?
Whenever I try to select or open an earlier version of the address book in the backup applications folder on the external drive, I get a message saying that I can't open the file because it is a time machine backup.
There is also a diagonal line going through the address book thumbnail icon and various other applications in the backup applications folder and I get the same error message informing that these apps are time machine backups.
If you have a solution please be as clear and precise as possible with instructions as I am not a computer boffin.

Here's the situation:
I have a G4 with Tiger OS that has 2 years of saved emails and Address Book entries. I just got a G5, installed brand new drives, and did a fresh install of Leopard. I did not use Migration Assistant during the install, because I have no router.
Then I connected the 2 'puters with firewire, and started the G4 in Target Mode, and attempted to Import my old mail and Address Book. I diddled around and was able to import my old mailboxes. I did just realize, though, that only about half the emails were imported; there's a huge gap of nearly a year up until I stopped using the G4.
Also, when I go to the Address Book and try to import my old one, it shows up not as a solid icon that I can select, but a ghostly icon, for lack of a better word, and it will not let me select it.
I really thought this should be easier and less painful. I'm open to suggestions, including whether I should try to use the Leopard install DVD to try the Migration Assistant with a Firewire connection or an ethernet cable.
Thanks.

Address Book / iCloud Deletes Imported Contacts Shortly after Import

I ran into a incredbily frustrating problem recently whereby attempting to restore a backup of my Address Book resulted all my contacts being deleted once I reconnected my computer to the internet and my Address Book began syncing with iCloud. I wasn't able to find a solution here but I was able to eventually find one online. I thought it was worth sharing.
Upon exporting a backup of your Address Book you have the choice of slecting to export the Backup as a "Address Book Archive" or as "vCard". If you select "Address Book Archive" and are syncing with iCloud when you attempt to reimport your backup, after about 15 to 30 seconds, iCloud will delete all of the Contacts you've just imported.
Exporting a "Address Book Archive" creates a ".abbu" backup file whereas exporting as a "vCard" exports a ".vcf" backup file. Apparently iCloud doesn't like ".abbu" backup files, but if you didn't know that and you're trying to import your backup contact file you're pretty much screwed!
To get around this problem do the following:
1) Disconnect your computer from the internet
2) Import the "Address Book Archive" ".abbu" backup file into your Address Book
3) Select "All Contacts"
4) Select, File > Export > Export vCard...
5) Save the file to your Desktop
6) Reconnect your computer to the Internet
7) Select "Import"
8) Select the ".vcf" file that you just saved to your Desktop.
Importing your backup as a ".vcf" file will prevent iCloud from deleting all of your contacts upon syncing.
... at least it did for me ( :

I had the same problem on both my iPad & iPhone. I adding a contact on my iPad and now everything seems to sync properly. Hmmm, interesting..... THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION.

How do I reinstall Address Book for Leopard

I just bought a new iMac with 10.5. Thought I would be smart and insert the Address Book from a backup on my previous Mac. It replaced the 10.5 Address Book with my backup copy (like I wanted). However, I now get a message that tells me that version of Address Book doesn't work with 10.5. Now, I have no Address Book.
Anyone know how I can download or otherwise get the Address Book that comes with 10.5 on my computer?

Use Pacifist to extract the Address Book application from the iMac's original disks, and then copy over the Address Book database from the Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ of your home folder on the backup.
(27263)

Address Book app disappeared; how can I reinstall it?

Out of the blue, my Address Book app disappeared. The icon in the Dock has a question mark on it, and the application itself is no longer in my Applications folder, or anywhere on the drive. Even stranger, it's not in any of my Time Machine backups, even though it was working and present until yesterday.
Mind you, I'm not talking about the data. it's that the app itself is gone. Interestingly, my email still seems to act as if the Address Book contact information is still present. But if I select an address in an email "from" field, for example, and say "Open in Address Book," nothing happens.
Now here's an even weirder part. I also have a recent backup of my Apple Mail and Address Book using Email Backup Pro. After seeing that the Address Book app seems to have also disappeared from my Time Machine backups, I opened Email backup Pro and did a restore of my Address Book. The program reported that the Address Book was successfully restored, but nothing changed -- the Address Book app was still nowhere to be found. I've done this twice.
I also have my Address Book data on my iPod Touch (thankfully). Synching does nothing -- nothing changes on the iPod or on the hard disk, in terms of Address Book.
I'm baffled. Although I'd like to know what caused this, my more immediate concern is to get a functioning Address Book installed again. I booted from the Snow Leopard disc, but could see no option to install just the Address Book.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks, John.

click here for instructions.

Lost all but eight contacts from my address book on iMac, Macbook Pro and iPhone all lost by iCloud

When I try to access Address Book from my backup HD I cannot ... and I get this message: "You can't use this version of the Application "Address Book" with this version of OS X. You have address Book 5.0.3. So what! It worked until this morning. Now what?

Mail by default will show everything in your inbox, irrespective of how old it is. The only way I know you might be able to change that is by creating a Rule that alters how older emails are treated. Most likely you would know about any such Rules, assuming this is your personal machine. You can see if anything like that exists on your account by looking at Mail>Preferences>Rules tab.
I presume you are just talking about your regular Inbox?

How can I import my .mac address book from online to my computer?

My macbook was stolen last week, and I am now using an older iBook that we had, but I haven't been able to retrieve my mail address book from the backups I was making. I have most of the contacts in my address book when using .mac web-based email, but not on my computer. I am afraid to turn on syncing because I don't want my computer to erase all the addresses stored online. How can I reverse sync, and get my online address book to import to my computer?
Thanks.

go to 'system prefernces > .Mac > advanced > reset sync data'
Then choose to replace everything on your compu with .Mac data. (Back up before you begin! or is there really nothing to back up, then don't bother of course)

Address Book in swirling rainbow mode

I have tried to merge address cards but instead have sent address book into a swirling mess. I think it is trying to merge all information into all cards. Help Is there anyway I can undo my large error?
What I did was to highlight all 802 names in one of my groups and hit the drop down pane (the one that looks like a gear) and hit merge card choice. I was trying to merge duplicate cards. Have I ruined the entire address book? Thanks for any help. Pegs

Oh dear. Merge cards is for taking the data from two or more cards and making one card. Sometimes for example I have email details for someone in Address Book and phone details for them on my phone. When I do a sync (a handy way of backing up your phone!) I have them on two separate cards - so I select both and merge them. You have asked AB to make one card from more than 800 - no wonder it puts up the swirling pizza of death!
Try this (but I don't know if it will help in this case):
Quit Address Book.
In folder ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook drag file AddressBook.data to the desktop. Rename AddressBook.data.previous to AddressBook.data and restart AB. If it starts OK and your group has its 800 cards breathe a sigh of relief, otherwise quit AB again and repeat the drag/rename process, this time with AddressBook.data.beforesave.
Remember that Address book has a backup function!
The operation that you actually wanted in AB was Card/Look for Duplicate Entries. I have not used it recently, but the last time I looked it doesn't give you a lot of flexibility in dealing with them. I have an Applescript that I use for the purpose, as I have several apparent duplicates that are in fact separate contacts. If you would like a copy I will post it.
AK

Address Book's entries have disappeared - all except two

Hello everyone.
I'm hoping that members might be able to offer me some advice about a problem I'm having with Address Book.
I use an intel iMac running OS 10.4.11 and Address Book 4.0.6. This morning I used iSync to synchronise my Palm TX with the iMac and found that all the entries in the Palm's Contacts had disappeared (except for 2 — Apple Computers and my own entry). When I loaded Address Book I found the same situation, all the records were gone except for my own and Apple's. The last time I used Address Book, with no problems, was yesterday at about 2.00pm.
I've been wandering round the web since then finding a number of variations of my problem and I've tried the solutions suggested, with no luck. I've renamed AddressBook.data.previous as AddressBook.data and I've copied the whole Application Support folder for Address Book from my backup (I clone the iMac onto an external hard drive) to the iMac's hard drive, both without success. I still have the files ABPerson.skindexinverted (220K) and ABSubscribedPerson.skindexinverted (8K), but the data file itself is only 8K.
One of the discussions I found mentioned records in a MetaData folder for Address Book, so I went to Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/MetaData on the iMac's disk and found 2 files, presumably the two records which are still left in Address Book. Their names begin with a long alphanumeric sequence and continue /ABPerson.abcdp. The same folder on the backup hard disk contains 535 such files. Is it possible that these are the lost records?
All help gratefully received!
Susan

Hi
Sorry about the delay in replying to your last message, but I've had a print deadline to meet, which always puts everything else on hold.
I've opened a few of the .abcdp files with Text Edit and the information is in there, buried among loads of code, so many thanks for telling me that. I've beamed the address book from my other half's Palm (which used to be mine) over to mine, so I should have most of the current contacts which I hope I can transfer onto the iMac. The missing ones, distant members of my family for instance, I will have to search for in the .abcdp files and enter manually into AB (always remembering to take a backup regularly!).
Unfortunately I don't know anyone with a Mac running Leopard, in fact I only know one other person with a Mac. We freed ourselves from the thralldom of the PC only three years ago and are still the odd ones out with colleagues and friends. Having the Macs has made using a computer enjoyable for the first time in 25 years, ever since we bought a Commodore 700 and I began the daily struggle with various pieces of user-hostile software.
Many thanks for helping me out. I've put Snow Leopard at the top of my shopping list by the way.
Regards
Susan

How to copy address book contacts to Numbers 3

I updated to OSX 10.9 and Numbers 3. I can't drag or copy address book contacts to spreadsheets anymore. Apparently this feature has been removed. Any work arounds out there? Any ideas how to do this? I am utterly dependant on adding Address book contacts to Numbers spreadsheets.

Pete,
We feel your pain. Nothing keeps you from continuing to use version 2.3. Just carry on as though nothing ever happened. It's not as though you'll be missing much by not running the latest version.
Jerry

Adding address book to a backup

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