Address Book Cards and Mail Contacts have suddenly disappeared!

Help! The power went off for a minute here at the office, shutting everything down. When I restarted, the contents of my address book and all the contacts I had in mail have disappeared. Anybody got any ideas on what I can do? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to the discussions, malbright.
Try the suggestion in Loading “Apple - Support - Discussions - Address Book has suddenly LOST all my ...” - but it doesn't always work.
AK

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Lost address book settings and mail box whilst trying to copy inf

I have been trying to copy my old disc (onto an external hard drive) as i have a new machine and different disc.So i have been copying stuff from old disc to external but it has been interrupted a few times so had to go back and start process again.And because i had to do this I got rid of stuff on original hard disk , such as library , as i did not want it to copy this again.But in doing this I seem to have lost my mail box and emails and info which was in my address book such as email contacts.I have looked onto where copied library too but can not find the address book and mail stuff i need to bring back in order to get my old info back.I have tried importing from new copied library but am not sure where to go ? Does anyone know a way i can get old info back (mail and address book) (which i would then export in some way to get onto new disc ?).I have tried copying new library back onto/onto old disc but get message as it begins that something ? port something is in use so it can not be copied.Basically does any one know what i need to copy and paste back into/onto old disc (library ?) to get my old info back into mail and address book.I can not understand how else i could have lost it ? (apart from deleting
library ?).Any suggestions please.
thanks
rick

Hi Rick, there are actually 3 Library folders...
/System/Library/
/Library/
/Users/YourUserName/Library/
This last one is where your Mail & AB info would be.
On Mail...
First Quit Mail & Address Book.
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail Downloads
(Could be a different folder here if you chose such in Mail Prefs)
Only the plist is separate.
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
For Address Book...
Files...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist
Folders...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/

Address book stuck and all contacts gone

when i open up address book none of my contacts appear and switching from directories to all contacts just resizes the empty window back and forth. when i try to resize the window using the handle on the lower right corner it keeps stretching out horizontally till it runs off the screen. I checked for the Helvetica font in system/library/fonts and it is there. it is also activated in font book. tried dumping com.apple.AddressBook.plist from my user/library/preferences, and tried various recommendations i found on these forums for renaming and replacing files in user/library/application support/address book. also tried dumping the address book from applications and reinstalling using pacifist.
nothing has worked.
in console i get either:
Address Book[614] * -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (2) beyond bounds (2)
or
Address Book[614] * -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (0) beyond bounds (0)
i was considering reinstallling the 10.3.9 combo update. anyone have any other suggestions?
thanks

My BB is Curve 8310 Version 4.5.0.182 (platform 2.7.0.106

Moving Safari bookmarks, address book info and mail messages to new machine

I recently got a new powerbook and would like to transfer my safari bookmarks, mail messages and address book information over to the new machine. What would be the best way to do this? I'd like to keep the old information on the desktop and simply add the information to the new machine.

Yeah - but the kicker is, I don't want to transfer everything, just the safari bookmarks, the address book information and selected mail folders that are "On My Mac"

Can someone tell me if there is a way to sync address book, calendar and mail ONLY, no music from Itunes to Iphone 4s from my Imac G5, OS 10.5.8? I bought a 16 GB and have too much music and no icloud on my machine (or my ipod 5th gen)

I was told I CANNOT only sync part of my music from my Imac Itunes, and since I have an ipod and itunes with the music, I don't really need it on my iphone, but if I sync all the rest, is it going to sync the music too! It is too much data if it does!! And did Icloud take the place of "mobile me". If so can that be used to get some music if I want to from my hard drive mac or ipod?

You were told wrong. You can sync only what you want to sync.
Yes, iCloud is taking place of Mobile Me over time. MM will be turned off in June of next year.
With iCloud, you can store the music in the cloud and download the tracks that you want to listen to without having to sync to your iTunes.

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.

Different Address Book name and Mail recipient name

I sync my mobile phone with my mac so all my contacts are in Address Book (and hence are the same as my Mail.app addresses).
I add details to the name fields in my mobile phone (eg wife's and children's name) to remind me when someone calls.
eg.
Bill Smith's wife's name is Jane and his kids are Tom and Sue. So the mobile phone contact might be:
Bill (Jane, Tom, Sue) Smith
That works fine for my mobile phone, but when I use the same contact for email the recipients see "Bill (Jane, Tom, Sue) Smith". Not very professional.
I realise I could maintain two contacts for Bill (one with his phone numbers, and the other with his email address) but is there another way? Can I tell Mail to use a different field for the name or even just display the email address with no name at all?

This is a very strange problem that I am suffering since 2 years ago.
It seems that Mail.app likes to autocomplete your address book contacts with mail information but it makes it wrongly.
This can be avoided by several ways:
-unchecking that option in Mail/Preferences/Composing (I'm Spanish, so I'm not sure if that is the correct menu) but this also turns off the autocompleting when entering addresses in the "To:" form.
Apple should make different checkboxes because they are different options...
-putting spaces when surnames not needed so Mail thinks it is completed and won't autocomplete it
-Checking and deleting "Previous Receipts" menu because here starts the problem. If here the name is ok, it will remain ok but if here appears dupicated it will be duplicated very soon (I'm not sure when actually) so check it, correct it in address book and delete the entry from previous receipts.
-LAST AND BEST. Stop using previous receipts, it will still autofilling the "To:" form with your addressbook contacts but you don't have to check previous receipts every time you send a mail. Delete all the list, close mail and enter "defaults write com.apple.mail SuppressAddressHistory -bool true" in Terminal.
Greeting from Spain.

Address Book groups and Mail

Have updated to Maveriks 10.9.4. Now when I want to write an e-mail in Mail to a group from my Address Book (some of which have groups within them), none of the "groups in groups" work anymore. Also the smart groups don't work. This used to be fine in Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion. How do I fix this bug?

DrankMacKoolAid wrote:
When composing a new email with Mail, is it possible to filter a user to only see a specific group or groups within Address Book? I am using MobileMe to sync our computers, so all contacts and contact groups are in the Address Book app on all computers. My wife only wants to see the contacts in her group when composing an email instead of all contacts and all groups.
Is there a way to limit which groups she has access to use when composing an email?
no. all address book entries will be available when you are composing a message.
the only option you have is to completely turn off automatic address completion. that's done in mail preferences->composing.

Synching Address Book with Apple Mail contacts

I have recently cleaned out and reorganized Address Book. I deleted dead people, replaced old email addresses, phone numbers etc. But the contact list that comes up when I click the Address icon after New Message is clicked is not the same email list as Address Book (though its icon is).
How can I synch the two? There is no pull-down "synch with Address Book" command.
Grateful for any help

I looked and found Previous Recipients under Window (never noticed it before). But that is manually repeating what I have just done with Address Book. That took two days. I'm looking for a way to sync the two with one click

Font book is sick and causing Address Book, Safari, and Mail problems

Address Book, Mail, and Safari will only run if I have Font Book open. If I try to open the programs without opening Font Book they don't appear and I have to Force Quit and reopen after opening Font Book.
I run a publishing company and load and unload lots of fonts to Font Book. I guess its something I loaded recently because I now have the problem on both the computers I work on. I have no idea which fonts might be causing the problem.
What can I do?

Hello Dave,
If you've already tried cornelius' suggestion and wound up in the same place, then you've likely added a corrupt font or two to those two Macs. While the steps to clean up Font Book are correct, a bad font will immediately corrupt the new Font Book database when loaded.
So try this. Create an empty folder on your desktop and move all of the fonts you added to those Macs to the empty folder. Then perform the funtion to clean up font book again. Lastly, download and run Mark Douma's Font Finagler to clear the font cache files on the system, since they will also be damaged.
If that clears things up, then use Font Doctor to examine your fonts in the temporary folder on your desktop to repair them (if possible) before adding them back to the system.

Jumbled fonts in Address Book, Safari and Mail apps

The fonts become jumbled (just weird characters, where names in the Address book should be and in fine print on web pages and the To/From boxes in Mail) in these OS apps after the computer has been on and to fix it I have to restart or if that doesn't work, throw away the Cache folder and sometimes the Preferences folder in the Library on my HD
Is this a glitch in System X? I've had the same thing happen to my G5 at work.
What is the fix?

The fonts become jumbled (just weird characters,
where names in the Address book should be and in fine
print on web pages and the To/From boxes in Mail)
The usual fix is to get rid of bad fonts and clean your font caches (use Fontfinagler for caches, use google to find it). The most common bad fonts are Helvetica Fractions and Times Phonetic. Send me a screen shot if you want (click on my name for the address).

Restoring address book data and mail

I wonder if anyone can help. I lost the hard drive of my iMac PowerPC G5 to a crash, from which no recovery was possible. Fortunately I had backed up all my data to a LaCie external hard drive. I have had the iMac hard drive replaced, and in the process the OS was upgraded from Tiger to Leopard.
I am now trying to restore data from the external drive to the iMac and am finding it challenging. I have found the address book data file but the icon is like a blank sheet of paper i.e. a file in an unsupported format. I have tried dragging and dropping into address book, but to no avail. I would also like to find my Safari bookmarks as well but worry that I will have exactly the same problems.
Alternatively should I just be dragging the whole library (myusername/library) into library on the new hard drive?
Any thoughts on this plus general tips on how to restore data much appreciated.

I have just followed your instructions for restoring Mail and Address Book files after I did an Erase and Istall. I didn't do a restore from my back up but reinstalled all the software from discs and am carefully bringing files back into my clean laptop bit by bit.
I got my address book files back but I don't have all the Mail files back....just my Inbox and Smart Mailboxes. I don't have the emails I put into all the files in my side bar....they are still empty.
Also, I could not find: /Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/ on my back up.
Thank you
Macbook Pro. 10.6.8.

Address book, ical and mail.app

Dear friends,
I have a serious question to ask. I am a mac user since panther. Why applications like address book and ical remain the same as back then ?? They have created killer application on the cloud regarding mobileme. How difficult is to create something similar as mac os x application ????
Yours,
A fan

Note that you are not talking to Apple here. Also note that we, as users, cannot answer "why" questions like this.
However, I find your questions to be ridiculously generic. We can't help you solve whatever problem you're having if we don't know what it is. What is it that these applications don't do that you need them to?

All my contacts have suddenly disappeared!! I just changed my email exchange details as have changed my company and 5 mins after that my contacts were all gone.!! am going through messages to understand the contact person and saving numbers.

I just changed the details of my mail exchange and suddenly after 5 min.s all my contacts are gone??!!!!! I am trying to go through all messages to recognize the people who have sent me their messages.. PLEASE help. How can I get my contacts back??
I dont really have my backup. The laptop I used to sync with, is with my old company now.
Cheers,
Shivani

I just changed the details of my mail exchange and suddenly after 5 min.s all my contacts are gone??!!!!! I am trying to go through all messages to recognize the people who have sent me their messages.. PLEASE help. How can I get my contacts back??
I dont really have my backup. The laptop I used to sync with, is with my old company now.
Cheers,
Shivani

In Address Book, I would like to have a field "File As". So, l can list "Joe Smith", as "The Smith Family". I will use this when I print labels for Xmas cards and such. Thanks!

In Address Book, I would like to have a field "File As". So, l can list "Joe Smith", as "The Smith Family". I will use this when I print labels for Xmas cards and such. Thanks!

In Address Book, I would like to have a field "File As". So, l can list "Joe Smith", as "The Smith Family". I will use this when I print labels for Xmas cards and such. Thanks!

Address Book Cards and Mail Contacts have suddenly disappeared!

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