Address Book Backup

How can I backup Address now? The File>Backup option is not available. I tried to file>export>address book archive, but when trying to restore the archive, only the first 'library' entry appears, all the others are gone. Also after this restore, when I quit the programme and re-open it, all the contacts are intact, as the restoration never happened (its not the list of the archive).
Please advice

file->export->address book archive should work. however, when you import an address book archive it wipes out the existing data (or so i understand). something is wrong with your address book data. you might want to rebuild it.
another easy way to back up your address book is to select all your contacts and drag them to the desktop. this save the data in vcard format which can be easily imported into various email programs, not just address book.
P.S. to rebuild your address book, quit address book and Mail and trash the file homedirectory/library/application support/address book/AddressBook-v22.abcddb and start address book. that file will be rebuilt from metadata and this will hopefully fix your export/import issues.
Message was edited by: V.K.

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Problems with Reverting to an Address Book Backup

I keep my address book updated on my iMac at home that is running OS v10.6 Snow Leopard. At work, I am now using a G5 that is running OS v10.4 Tiger. I have created a +Backup of my Address Book+ at home and brought the .abbu file with me to work so that I could +Revert to an Address Book Backup+ on my G5.
I've done it twice already and I'm still missing vCards (mostly recently added). Also, some of the other vCards have old information. Is there something I'm not doing right? If the solution is to highlight all vCards and +Export vCard...+ then what is the point of +Back up Address Book...+

Dear Pat,
Thank you. I have received the exact same reply from Amreso.
I thank you both for your replies. If the problem occurs again, I shall follow your advice.
I just need to pluck up the courage. I get so nervous with the computer when it plays up.
Regards
Anthony
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:11:29 -0700
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Problems with reverting to an earlier version
    Re: Problems with reverting to an earlier version
    created by Pat Willener in Installing Flash Player - View the full discussion
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Importing Address Book Backup file [.abbu]

Hi
I just wondered if anyone has ever imported from a .abbu file successfully?
I have an iMac and an old Powerbook, and have to update the contacts in Address Book on my Powerbook when I go on a trip. So I make Backup files from Address Book on my iMac just before I go away. I also export as VCards which gives me 'vCards.vcf', and finally I simply choose Select All and drag all the contacts over to the folder i'm backing up into – which gives me 'Joe Bloggs and 801 others.vcf'
The reason I use these 3 methods is because I found that when using my Powerbook, whenever I import the .abbu file I end up with a very very old version of my data – even though I only backed up the day before. I have just tried once again, and having had 802 contacts on my iMac, when I import the .abbu file I end up with 700.
So I'm having to load in a batch VCF file, which is a solution of sorts but doesn't include my Groups of course. It is concerning that these Address Book Backup files don't seem to be complete back ups at all.
Is anyone else aware of this?

however, if it was an OS difference issue, why would it only import some of the contacts?
That, I'm not sure of; possibly because there was no change in 102 of them, so it may have ignored those. It's also possible the backup was somehow corrupted in those particular records. So many possibilities, so little time to test them all.
But the .abbu contains a lot more than just your contacts; it's a really a package, just like any application, so you can open it and see what else is in there, too. I've restored from both before and I've never had a problem, but I use the Export to vCard format most often, just to be sure I don't run into problem with changes in later or previous versions of Address Book.

How do i erase a corrupt contact list from iCloud,iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro and restore Address Book backup to all devices and cloud?

how do i erase a corrupt contact list from iCloud,iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro and restore Address Book backup to all devices and cloud?
I saved a corrected, most up to date version of my master Address Book Contacts as a back-up on my Mac Book Pro.
then in an effort to "simplify my life" i attempted to sync my I phone contacts - ( pre clean-up version) with my clean list on Mac Book Pro, New I pad and newly available icloud. DUH!! Using iTunes to do the sync caused the clean MacBOOK Pro list to be commingled with the dirty iphone contacts. amd now the whole mess is in the cloud.
I need to clear out the contaminated lists from all iplaces, and startover with Back-up on my macbook pro. BUT HOW???
Help
Karen

I had exported an address book backup: abbu
so since i wrote, i have found my way into the cloud: selected all entries - deleted them all from the cloud.
This wiped out contacts on my iphone and i pad, and MBP, as well as on the cloud. I then imported the abbu back into my now empty address book.
To repopulate the crowd, i selected all in my address book and created a single card vCard for export to my desktop. I then dragged that vcard into my empty cloud. Now my cloud has the same clean contacts as my MBP addressbook. The cloud then pushed the clean contacts into my empty ipad and iphone contacts.
I had to go back to Address Book>preferences>Accounts and Add an I cloud account - but if you accidentally create a second i cloud account - all of a sudden your address book will duplicate itself. I quickly reversed it by deleting one of the icloud accounts in my Address Book>preferences>Accounts.
I created a new entry on my MBP and it is now on all devices and in cloud
I also created a new entry on my iPhone and it is now in the address book on my MBP.
I feel empowered!!
Have i missed anything??

Can't import address book backup...

Hi,
I used to have 10.5 installed on my computer but it was very slow... So I decided to make a clean install of 10.4.
I backed up my address book contacts from 10.5 but when I try to import them back to 10.4 nothing happens and the computer plays the default alert sound.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,

Thanks BDAqua...
Sorry for not responding earlier, I supposedly configured my forum account so it would let me know if someone posted something on my question, yet I didn't received any notification about this... Maybe it ended up in my spam folder.
The scenario is this:
I had 10.5 and used the backup address book function... It created a file with a .ABBU file with the name Address Book 2008-04-05 and 1.2 Mb of size.
Then back in 10.4 the Mac recognized the .ABBU file and displays the address book icon on it... When I double click it, Address Book App opens and warns me that I'm about to replace the contents of my Address Book with the contents of the Backup. I click OK and it does nothing but to play the default alert sound.
Recently I opened the backup file in a friends computer using 10.5 and it opens and restores the contacts just fine, the problem is that I want my computer to have them in order to put them in my iPhone and be able to use them in Mail.
So, other that upgrading again to 10.5 (that is a no-go since my laptop is dreadfully slow on it) and opening my backup file on a 10.5 machine, export each and every one of my 150+ plus contacts as VCards and then reimporting them back to 10.4, is there any other way to get this working?
Thanks!

Address Book backup restores all but Groups

I have my Address Book organized into a lot of groups. Yesterday, for some reason, the Groups disappeared - it may be related to my experimenting with synching to MobileMe. Fortunately, I had created a backup Address Book archive before I played around with MobileMe synching.
But when I replaced the messed-up Address Book with the archive, none of the Groups were restored. I even went into Time Machine and pulled up an Address Book from the day before - which showed all the groups - but when I restored it, none of the Contacts were assigned to groups.
Am I doing it wrong? Is there any way to restore Address Book from an archive backup or from Time Machine and maintain your Groups structure?

first, there are no promises of anything when mobileme is concerned. That said. Address book is integrated with time machine but I had similar problems as you restoring groups so this may be a bug. the following should work for sure. quit address book, delete the folder homedirectory/library/Application support/address book and then restore it from TM backup. start Address book. your groups should be back.

I cannot revert to address book backup

Clean installed Leapord last night, I backup the user home folder, how do I revert the address book contact, I can't seem to find it anywhere.

The address book data are all in a folder,
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
where
~ is your home directory.

Address Book backup file seems to be corrupted

I have a backup Address Book file on and external hard drive that seems to be corrupted. I am getting messages like this when I restore from backup:
2008-09-26 06:47:11.655 Address Book[296] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/Address Book.app/Contents/Resources/Aqua2RemovePressed.tif
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
Error in createMutableDictionaryValue:1012 for property 'Email' 'XML parser error:
Unexpected character 9 at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected ';' or '=' after key at line 1
I've restored and trash the file twice and the message doesn't point to the same tiff file. I think it has to do with the xml metadata format. I don't know much about metadata repairs or even much about the protocol for it.
Any ideas on how to repair my backup file? (I have over 2,000) contacts and retyping them all would be rather time consuming)

I'm not convinced there's anything wrong with the backup file, since the error message points to a tiff file, and a different one each time you trash it or restore it. But if the file is just an AddressBook.data file, you should be able to copy it from the hard drive to Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (after you rename the one that's already there to AddressBook.bak, and after you quit Address Book). Then restart AddressBook and see if that restores your contacts.
Mulder

How do I import contacts from address book backup into mavericks?

After upgrading to Mavericks, I cna not access my user files to restore the content of apps such as address book. Help please?

Sorry, I'm confused by your post. What does I cna not access my user files mean? Which user files? On a backup that you made before you upgraded?
Did you make a backup before you upgraded? How did you make the backup?
How did you upgrade?

Address Book Backup from Curve to Bold 9700

Hi,
I just upgraded from my elderly Curve to a Bold 9700 and tried to restore everything which I had backed up from the Curve to the new handset. Everything restored to the new phone except what I wanted most which was my address book. It had backed up ok onto my desktop but when I tried to restore the address book, it said the following words:
"Databases that are unavailable in the list have been configured for wireless synchronisation or wireless backup and are read only. You cannot restore them".
Well as you can imagine, I am tearing my hair out!! Does anyone have any suggestions - preferably ones that don't involve self-harm!!
Thanks and regards,
Mike

MichaelJacobsen wrote:
Hi Bifocals, thanks for that - much appreciated. I am now going to show my ignorance by asking how I get into "Blackberry Manager" I've searched the BB website and my desktop manager to no avail. I won't be needing a haircut for quite a while!!
Regards
Mike
Hi Mike,
As you won't be needing the money for a haircut, can I borrow enough to get some new BIFOCALS? I auto-inserted "desktop" in between "Blackberry Manager".
I think that the wireless sync option is enabled on the device. Read Option 1 in the attached link for resolution.
Sorry to cause you more heartburn.
Post back and let us know how it goes.
Thanks,
Bifocals
KB04461
Unable to restore read only databases when using the Advanced Backup and Restore function of BlackBerry Desktop Manager
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Backup address book and transfer to another account wont work !

I have 2 accounts and i want to transfer the address book info to the other account (on the same computer)
i used export from address book and saved it to the shared folder. I then found that there was a folder ico with a red explanation mark in the folder and could not access it.
So I went back to the original account and changed the persmissions and ownership of the backup file to match the account I was trying to import it into and the folder with red explaination mark had now changed but it still wont import it.
any ideas on how to do this.. it almost seems that if you backup an address book then it can only be used on the original account even after changin the ownership and persmissions
this sure seems wierd. I amanaged to get my email folder across and account details onf my mail across.. so what the heck is up?

You're welcome.
I'm not sure how Export and Backup terminology is confusing.
The export function can export all contacts as a single vCard file or as a separate vCard file for each contact which can be used to import into other email client address books as long as a vCard import is supported. Not sure why this didn't work as you tried.
The Backup function creates a backup file of all Address Book data which can be used by the Apple Address Book only via File > Revert to Address Book Backup.
I always create an Address Book backup before adding to, removing or making any significant changes to Address Book data.

BACKUP only ONE group from address book

One of my groups was accidently deleted from address book (I guess, anyway it is gone). I have a backup but I only want to restore that ONE group in the book. When I click on the backup file it says it will completely overwrite my address book. I don't want to do that.
How can I retrieve just the one group (which has about 150 addresses in it)? I do not know which of the names in my ALL list should be in this group.

The Address Book filing structure is similar to the filing structure used by iTunes.
You can't place a song in a new or existing playlist group without the song being added to the primary iTunes database first and the same with Address Book contacts.
As you know, deleting a contact from a Group or deleting the entire Group does not remove the Group contacts from the primary Address Book database.
You can't import a Group only from an Address Book backup file.

Address Book importing Mac to Mac

I need some help with moving (really just copying) my address book from one mac to another. I don't know where to start...but, I think moving a .plist file would do it, but I have no idea where to find that file.
Also, a bit off topic in this forum, but how do I do the same with Safari bookmarks?
Thanks.

At the Address Book menu bar on the Mac to be transferred from, go to File and select Back up Address Book.
The default name for the backup file is Address Book - (and the date).
On the Mac to be transferred to, at the Address Book menu bar go to File and select Revert to Address Book Backup selecting the Address Book backup file created on the other Mac.
Regarding Safari Bookmarks, using the Finder go to Home > Library > Safari > Bookmarks.plist.
Copy this file and with Safari quit on the Mac to be transferred to, place the Bookmarks.plist copy in the same location.
If you want to transfer all Safari data, copy the entire Safari folder at Home > Library > Safari and with Safari quit on the Mac to be transferred to, place the copy at Home > Library.

How do I transfer an address book from one computer to another?

I'm trying to transfer an address book from my G4 to my Imac G5 and can't seem to figure out how to do it. I've tried exporting out of one, but the other doesn't read it. These computers are not connected so I'm transferring via cd.
Thanks,
Dick Skover

Hi Dick
If they are both running Tiger
Use "Backup Address Book" in Address Book > File to make a copy then
"Revert to Address Book Backup" on the iMac
I use this for backing up both Address Book and iCal as a matter of course (it is the Apple recommended way in the Help files) I put them into a folder in my "Documents" and clear old copies once a month. If you use .Mac I would certainly recommend it seeing the problems with data loss some folks have had.
chris

Lion Address Book problem - all of over 2,000 contacts disappeared - one mysteriously reappeared - then they all reappeared during resync with Gmail!

The subject iine pretty much describes what happened.
I am wondering if it is anything to do with what looks like an odd file in the directory ~ Library -> Application Support -> Address Book
As well as the "real" database file there is this zero bytes one:
AddressBook-v22.abcddb.0F392545-78F2-4AE6-8D30-457C138332B2.unknown
From the date, it might be something to do with installing and linking Cobook to Address Book maybe?
These are the files and folders in that directory (sub-directory files not shown):
I have enabled the debug menu in Address Book but have not been able to find any info about how to use it. I lie! I did read that I might possibly have been able to "retrieve" the contacts using the debug menu "Force Refresh" - however that was after I had started to resync with Gmail contacts.
I realised that something odd was going on during resync when I saw that there were over 4,000 contacts being processed rather than the 2,000 or so that I was expecting. Initially, none of the contacts groups from Gmail were showing in Address Book after this partial sync (I stopped it when I saw what was happening). However, after quitting and restarting Address Book, the groups appeared again.
I have not lost my contact data - as well as Gmail contacts I also have an Address Book backup from about two weeks ago and also the backup created by Cobook about two weeks ago. (Installed Cobook as it looked like a very efficient way of getting to view individual contacts quickly - Quicksilver just isn't finding them at all). I used third party app "Contacts Sync for Google Gmail" to link Address Book with Gmail as it gives you options about what to do for each duplicate card that it identifies.
I then spent a lot of time sorting through the contacts on Address Book, finding duplicates, updating data, etc. with the intention of managing contacts in Address Book from then on, rather than in Gmail. Not all of these changes are reflected in the Cobook backup or Gmail.
My worry is, with Lion being such a god-awful Pig's Ear in so many more ways than this, that this Address Book mess might happen again.
I seem to have spent most of my time over the last month wrestling with the numerous problems that keep cropping up with Lion and getting little to show for it.
WARNING! FOOT-STAMPING WHINGE ABOUT LION - LOOK AWAY AND DOWN TO THE HOWLING FACES - IT WON'T BE ANYTHING THAT YOU HAVEN'T HEARD BEFORE:
I gave up on OSX when I tried Panther - that was dreadful - but was lured back by Tiger, have used Leopard very comfortably for about 5 years, had a very happy couple of months with Snow Leopard and now - this mess that is Lion! I have repaired OSX install permissions and "home user" permissions time and again, TinkerTooled it until I am blue in the face and it seems that every few days I manage to fix something and then almost immediately something else screws up. I can't upgrade to Mountain Lion on this machine and am seriously considering installing or running Linux as these problems with Lion are just never-ending - and then there are all the other stupid changes that have subsequently been sensibly reverted, mitigated or worked around in ML).
I have never bothered much with Address Book or Mail in the past as I have found them too limited. I have used either the Gmail web interface or Thunderbird. However, Gmail has started crashing my favourite browsers (Seamonkey and Firefox), Thunderbird has got just a bit too complicated and I cannot get Quicksilver to play ball with Gmail. The Lion version of Address Book is better than Gmail Contacts and Mail Smart Folders can emulate Gmail filters and labels - a huge improvement. So, just when these apps look good enough to be worth bothering with, they come part and parcel with what I have seen mocked, and rightly, as "Apple Vista"!
Sorry for that but I am about at the end of my tether with it all ;-/
I would be very grateful if anyone can offer any advice about:
1) That strange looking zero bytes file in the Address Book folder.
2) Whether the Address Book debug menu options might be of any help in this situation?
There seem to be lots of people having problems with Address Book in both Lion and Mountain Lion, if not exactly this issue, so maybe the answers will help others too.
Fingers crossed!
Ms Mousette
ps. In the product list to tick for this question they are grouped so I cannot specify that this is actually nothing to do with the iPhone. I have got a load of contacts on my iPhone too but I am not going to sync them until I have got this issue sorted out.

Could this font be the cause of the problem?
Possibly, since that font is not the one that Address Book uses and there is no method to specify or change the font used by Address Book. You could have recovered your Address Book contacts without syncing, so that could also be part of the problem. You should always make a keep a backup of your Address Book on your computer and in another safe location whenever you make any change to it.
May I ask why you haven't updated to 10.4.11 yet, as it provides various bug fixes and security enhancements?
Mulder

Address Book Backup

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