Address Book, blank, can't add anything

I haven't used AB for years, and probably did so on a 2004 version on my first laptop.
But, when I went to open it (on a 2011 MBP and a 2007 MBP) it opens to a blank page, and nothing "works."
When I try to add a new card, nothing happens.
When I try to open a vCard file using AB, nothing happens.
I went to the App Support folder and found my Address Book folder, and deleted the abcddb file per the instructions found on this site.
userhome>Library>Application Support>Address Book>AddressBook-v22.abcddb and then trashing AddressBook-v22.abcddb.
Still no go.
I have files in the metadata under the same folder, but can't access them.
Anyone have any ideas?
I thought maybe I could find a download of AB and just start over, but no such thing.
I'm hesitant to keep deleting stuff in the hope I can start fresh.
Ideas appreciated.
S

First back up your Contacts. Easiest is to use the Export>Contacts Archive.
Triple click the following line, then right-click and choose Open from the Services submenu.
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Inside that folder, delete the AddressBook-v22.abcddb file.
Then, go into the Sources folder and its subfolders and delete any files of the same names.
Open Contacts and see how it runs.

Similar Messages

Can't set alarm in ical with email. tells me open address book but can't get anything to happen

using version 4.0 I was able to just a few days ago set an alarm in Ical using my email address, but now i can not. I open alarm and click on email and it tells me to open address book and select my card and email. I can open the address book and find my card and email but i don't know where to go from here.. not sure what has happened over the last couple of days for it not to work. any idea's how to get this working again.

Ron,
Open Address Book, find your card and make sure that you choose Card>Make This My Card.
If that is unsuccessful, delete and recreate your card, making sure to once again choose "Make This My Card."

When printing a list in Address Book, how can I select more than the default Attributes and keep them selected when I print again? I want to print ALL information for contacts so I have email address, notes, phone, company, title, etc all on one page.

When printing a list in Address Book, how can I select more than the default Attributes and keep them selected when I print again? I want to print ALL information for contacts so I have email address, notes, phone, company, title, etc all on one page. I don't want to have to check off an additional 5 or 6 attributes each time I print out contact information. Is there a way to change the default setting for printing lists, so it is not just "phone," "photo," and "job title?"

I have a user who wants to do this same thing. I did not find any way either to default the attributes to anything other than what you see the first time. Seems like such a trivial thing, hard to believe they do not allow it. I did find a program for this called iDress but I can't seem to download it from any links on the Internet. Not sure if it is free or not, but it was recommended by a link on the Mac support site.

Label Printing Using Address Book - How can I Print multiple labels of the same name?

Label Printing Using Address Book - How can I Print multiple labels of the same name?

I used to be able to print multiple copies of the same picture on one page using iphoto. There was a customise button when you went through to print and it was there somewhere. I can't see it anymore - maybe since an upgrade.
It's gone. But as a work-around, duplicate your photo (⌘D) to create as many versions as you want copies and select all at once. Then use the "Custom" print layout and set the photo size you want.
After printing, trash the added versions.

In Address Book, how can i modify several contacts (several cards) at the s

Hello,
In Address Book, how can i modify several contacts (several cards) at the same time ?
for exemple : I have 100 contact which live in Paris, I select all of them together, but when I put "Paris" in the field "city", it puts "Paris" only in the fisrt contact !
how to edit several contact at a time ?
And I would like to put some kind of "tags", or words, in "remark", also by selecting several contact and edit them together...
Thanks by advance !
Alexandre.

Welcome to the discussions, Alexandre1975 et bonjour.
Just using Address Book this can't be done, but if you are prepared to try a little Applescript it is easy. This script will set the city for example - but only if there is already an address.
AK
click here to open this script in your editor<pre style="font-family: 'Monaco', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; overflow:auto; color: #222; background: #DDD; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 10px; width:400px">tell application "Address Book"
set ContactList to the selection
repeat with ThisOne in ContactList
set city of first address of ThisOne to "Paris"
end repeat
end tell</pre>
(The recent upgrade to the discussions has disabled the link that allows direct opening of a script, so run Script Editor and copy in the script.)
Message was edited by: Austin Kinsella1

Can't add anything to sidebar

I'm running Lion-
I can't add anything to my sidebar. I have EVERYTHING checked when i go to Finder-Preferences, but nothing is showing up.
I can't drag anything in there either. What the F?

Show sidebar is already checked that's the problem. I didn't say the sidebar wasn't showing!!!
I said I can't add anything to it!
I said "What the F?" That's G rated. Go police and give false info somewhere else.

How do I get contacts to be sync'ed to my powerbook address book? When I add a contact to my 4S, it doesn't get added to my address book.

How do I get contacts to be sync'd to my powerbook address book? When I add a contact to my 4S, it doesn't get added to my address book when I sync.

You may be interested in this app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bookmarks-on-the-go/id550037184

My contacts have been transferred from my iPhone5 to iPhone6 . I now need to back them up in a new PC in a separate address book How can I do it without adding all contacts from Outlook when I synch from iTunes ?

My contacts have been transferred from my iPhone5 to iPhone6 . I now need to back them up in a new PC in a separate address book How can I do it without adding all contacts from Outlook when I synch back from iTunes ?

From the OP: "My old computer got a virus and when that happened all my music was lost. "
They don't have the music on their computer so they cannot transfer the iTunes folder, from the computer to their iPod and then to the new computer. And if they try to enable disk use on the iPod it will erase all the music that is on it. The method you cited is moving the files in a data format using the iPod as a flash drive. It doesn't work if they are in music format. That is why I suggested Yamipod.

HT3952 Why can't Address Book allow me to add "spouse" to the print job?

I can add "spouse" to a card, so why can't Address Book allow me to print the name on the card plus the spouse name? So if I try to print "Ravi" I have the option in the print dialogue to add "Mei"? Seems simple, even Word can do it.

Hi,
It doesn't look like the "Country" field on the cards need to match. I changed one of the spouses to a different country and the label (as shown in the print dialogue panel as you suggested) still shows "John Smith and Jane Doe." Most of my country fields are blank.
It does matter that the Country Code be the same for both. After selecting the card and clicking on edit, the Country Code can be checked or changed by clicking on the address label (home, work, etc.) and moving the mouse down to "Change Address Format..." You'll see a long list of countries. If the cards for Jane and John don't have the same country code, the label won't show both names.
The lines of code like:
     <key>us</key>
     <true/>
in the ABRelatedNamesConfig.plist file determine which countries the related names functionality will work in. Using the plist shown in an earlier post, they need to live in ca (Canada), uk (United Kingdom), us (United States), or fr (France) and both need be be in the same one. Adding other country codes to the plist file should enable that country to work as well (I haven't tried it).
The related names functionality was removed with the release of Snow Leopard (10.6) so I've editied the plist file in 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8. All have worked.
The only other thing I noticed is that the following two lines shown in the earlier post are really one line in the plist file.
As shown in the earlier post, the code:
      <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
is really all on one line. Here is a screen shot of my plist file as viewed in TextWrangler:
The good news is we have 358 days to figure this out before Christmas.
Jay

Address Book- blank and Mail app preferences- gone! (and iphoto and firefox

Hello,
Suddenly, my address book is blank. After starting the computer this morning, the doc came up in its basic original form. Mail app has lost its preferences (when it opens it says "You have no email accounts configured to use Mail..."). Iphoto has also lost all the preferences. The pictures and are there in the computer but they don't appear in iphoto; further, firefox also seems to have lost its preferences.
I have no idea what to do....
Any help out there?!
Thanks
Omar

Thank you for the replies.
It does appear that my contacts are in the metadata folder.
I deleted the AddressBook-v22.abcddb file and opened Address Book but it was still blank and I still could not add my contacts back. I noticed that the file did rebuild itself. I restarted and still nothing changed.
There is a second file, AddressBook-v22~.abcddb, I deleted that as well and it did not rebuild itself and had no effect.
I did make a copy of the complete folder. Any other suggestions or even just insights will win my undying loyalty. I believe this is the first awkward problem I've had with my Mac and I am really uncomfortable not knowing what is going on.
I can only think of a few things I've done since I last checked Address Book, but I don't see how it would create this problem
- Deleted my windows partition through bootcamp
- ran disk permissions for the first time
- unintentionally had my contacts placed on my ipod (I have no need for them there and it really wasn't what I was trying to do)
I don't think there was anything else. Oh, yes - I purged my computer of all hidden google related files. I had already done this before but it turned out there were more more more. Geez, if a google related hidden files broke my Address Book - there are larger problems at hand than my contacts. (I did Not have my contacts synced with a google account or do I do any syncing with any mobile devices at all)
Also, I do not have any AV software.
Thanks again.

When I access the address book, how can I copy an address without having to open the person's info in the edit window?

When I find a person's address in the address book and highlight their name in one pane, in the lower pane their info shows up. Unfortunately, highlighting the information I want is disabled. So, I open their info in the edit window, and then click on the appropriate tab.
Getting a single piece of information is not so inconvenient, but when you're putting together lists it is rather onerous to do it that way.
Being able to highlight and copy off the address book panes would be cool. Thanks

In an earlier communication, I had said that this was possible, at least with TB on Windows, but I realize now that it's only possible when a certain add-on is enabled: [https://freeshell.de//~kaosmos/morecols-en.html MoreFunctionsForAddressBook]
http://chrisramsden.vfast.co.uk/3_How_to_install_Add-ons_in_Thunderbird.html
Install the add-on, and see if you can now highlight info in the Contact Pane by dragging the cursor. Ctrl-C (or the Mac equivalent) to copy the highlighted text to the clipboard.
You may notice that right-clicking an address in the Contact Pane now shows a Copy command, but a bug in the add-on prevents this option from being active.

Address book how do i add an attachment an image of a sign

i want to be able to add an attachment to an address book entry, how can i do this

Gotcha. No, Address Book isn't that flexible. You might want to look into Bento, which is a pretty nice database manager that links to your Address Book and allows you to add any kind of media to a database.
Matt

All of my Internet Explorer addresses disappeared from my address book - how can I get them back (I do not use Outlook)??

I just downloaded the newest version of Firefox (from 3.6 to 4.0). I went into my address book, and only a couple of names appeared - all the rest (groups and individuals) disappeared. I found them in an old version of Explorer. How do I copy and export them to Firefox (I don't use Outlook)?

What happened when this change occurred? What is an "IDN update"?
Can you provide a screenshot (suitably obfuscated) to demonstrate the "my name appears broken seemingly into columns" effect?
I don't know of anything formally called a "group" in Thunderbird's address book, so any other words or names that appear might help here. For instance, my Address Book has mentions of Address Book Contact, Address Book and List. The "List" is perhaps the closest to the group concept used in other address book environments.
Finally, what version of Thunderbird and what OS are you usng?

Addresses from all mail received is saves in my address book & I can't delete them!!

How do I stop Firefox from saving the addresses from every email I respond to in my address book. Also, it won't let me delete them.

Well, typically one of the fixes that I would suggest is to try to delete the waiting icons. WIFi in a public places like McDonalds, Starbucks, B&N, etc. is not the greatest and I would avoid those places for downloading and updating apps. But I do realize that not everybody has access to Wifi in their homes.
These are all things that have worked at one time or another for other users. Hopefull one of them will work for you. Just ignore whatever does not apply or anything that you have already tried.
Reboot the iPad by holding down on the sleep and home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.
Make sure that you do not have a stalled download in iTunes - a song or podcast .... if you have a download in there that did not finish, complete that one first. Only one thing can download at a time on the iPad so that could be what is causing the problem.
If that doesn't work - sign out of your account, restart the iPad and then sign in again.
Settings>iTunes & App Store>Apple ID. Tap your ID and sign out. Restart the iPad by holding down on the sleep button until the red slider appears and then slide to shut off. To power up hold the sleep button until the Apple logo appears and let go of the button.
Go back to Settings>iTunes & App Store>Sign in and then try to update again. Tap one waiting icon only if necessary to start the download stream.
You can also try deleting the waiting icons - tap and hold down on an icon until it wiggles - the tap the X on the icon to delete it. Then try to download again.
You can try resetting all settings. Settings>General>Reset>Reset All Settings. You will have to enter all of your app preferences and device settings again.
If all else fails, download the updates or the apps in iTunes on your computer and then sync the content to your iPad.

Address book not responding to add contact from Mail

I recently switched from a 4 year old MacBook Pro (Tiger) to a new one (Leopard). I migrated my address book by importing my old address book archive. However, now when I try to add contact to address book through Mail (by clicking on the email addresses) it doesn't appear in the address book! It worked before I did the migration.

I appear to have a similar issue. I am trying to add an address from the body of the email. A card is created when I select the toggle that appears over the phone number when the pointer hovers over it. The details are correct. I then select "add to address book", the card disappears but nothing is added to the address book?? The address book was first created in Leopard and I recently upgraded to SL. I am not sure if it worked under Leopard.
Can anyone help?

Address Book, blank, can't add anything

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for