Address Book creates 12,000 duplicate contacts!

I'm running mail on 10.4.9 on a G4 iBook.
Address book spontaneously duplicates all of my contacts. 30 minutes after restoring my 683 contacts from a backup, the iBook grinds to a halt and then I note that I have in excess of 12,400 contacts! It's worth noting that the database runs perfectly on my 24" iMac.
I've switched off syncing with dotmac and yet it still does this.
Any ideas?
J

If you are going to reactivate synchronization, then do this first:
• launch iSync
• open the Preferences… dialog
• press the Reset Sync History… button
This will leave your sync clients registered and your data intact, but remove any indication that you have ever synchronized before, clearing the truth database and triggering an initial slow synchronization once you re-enable to process and initiate your next event.
Read this document to gain a clearer understanding of how the framework operates:
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/syncservices.html

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Address Book changing fields on duplicate contacts ?

My Address Book is duplicating contacts, BUT mixing the fields.
Original contac: last-name = "Rosales A", first-name = "Eduardo". No middle-name used.
I get a second contact with: last-name = "A", first-name = "Eduardo". No middle-name apears.
Then yet another with: last-name = "A", middle-name = "Eduardo" and first-name = "Rosales".
Forget about physical addresses that will by magic put a "country" when there was none defined.
Forget also that it (Address Book) is adding pictures to contacts, I don't want to, some correct (when asked to some friends) but some incorrect (a friends photo on a Company contact with no relation).
I'm aware of using iCloud and "on My Mac", will duplicate info, this is already taken care of.
It all started when I was using and syncing ONE MacBook and ONE iPhone. By magic, I did not change anything.
Now I'm using iCloud, Lion on the MacBook, iOS 5.0 on the iPhone-4 and the iPad-2.
Now, if I delete one instance of a contact, say on the iPhone, it will disapeare on the MacBook.
BUT tomorrow, during a "sync over the air", again the "A" last-name will show up.
Best regards,
Eduardo Rosales.

If you are going to reactivate synchronization, then do this first:
• launch iSync
• open the Preferences… dialog
• press the Reset Sync History… button
This will leave your sync clients registered and your data intact, but remove any indication that you have ever synchronized before, clearing the truth database and triggering an initial slow synchronization once you re-enable to process and initiate your next event.
Read this document to gain a clearer understanding of how the framework operates:
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/syncservices.html

Address Book creating thousands "No Name" cards

Thought I had a MobileMe syncing problem, but have now narrowed it down to Address Book creating hundreds and thousands of Contact cards for "No Name" all by itself. I go in and delete them and they reappear seconds later. It's a loop: delete them, Empty trash, they come back.
Just installed Aperture 3 last night. Could this be the problem?
HELP!

scalz wrote:
Thanks! Unfortunately, throwing away the plist file has not helped. I delete the extra thousands of "No Name" cards in Address Book and they come right back. I have MobileMe syncing turned off right now, so it is out of the picture. But, did a reset of the sync data last night in during the middle of all of this, and that still did not help.
quit address book.
reset your sync folder.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627
then delete the file homedirectory/library/application support/address book/AddressBook-v22.abcddb. then start Address Book and see how it works now.
To repeat: deleted all "Address Book" plist files, launched Address Book, deleted 4000 "No Name" cards, waited a few moments, Quit and re-launched Address Book, waited a few moments, 4,000 + "No Name" cards add themselves back into Address Book.
YIKES!

How do I set up a mail group on mac mail? All the advise on line seems to refer to 'address book' and I only have 'contacts'. The guidance does not work when using 'contacts' - can anyone help me?

How do I set up a mail group on mac mail? All the advise on line seems to refer to 'address book' and I only have 'contacts'. The guidance does not work when using 'contacts' - can anyone help me?

Create a group and send mail
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-a-basic-contact-group-in-mac -os-x-li.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/1165582/how_to_email_groups_with_mail.html
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Address Book won't sync with contacts on mobile.me anymore

I have a iMac 5,1 with MacOSX 10.6.4, mobile.me and an iPhone (4.0.2). For many, many years I have had Address Book which quite happily was in sync with the more recently acquired Contacts in Mobile.me. But now, my Address Book isn't syncing with Contacts. And the Contacts on my mobile phone syncs with the Contacts in mobile.me rather than with Address Book. I've tried all sorts of combinations of syncing to no avail. Can anyone please tell me how to ensure that Address Book syncs with Contacts in mobile.me and I would want Address Book to overwrite Contacts. The huge ongoing number of duplicates is another problem but there are many threads I can see that will help me solve that problem.
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Address Book creating multiple duplicates!!

My address book keeps creating multiple duplicates for the names in my address book. I have the wireless sync off and I also have no duplicates allowed setting off, but it still creates them.
What is going on with my blackberry?

I answered (or ask you an additional question about this) already where you posted in the other thread.
Posting duplicate questions causes problems, wastes time.
1. If any post helps you please click the below the post(s) that helped you.
2. Please resolve your thread by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!
3. Install free BlackBerry Protect today for backups of contacts and data.
4. Guide to Unlocking your BlackBerry & Unlock Codes
Join our BBM Channels (Beta)
BlackBerry Support Forums Channel
PIN: C0001B7B4 Display/Scan Bar Code
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If I have customer "xxx" in Adress Book and I am planning on visiting this customer tomorrow. Is there anyway for me to transfer/import this info to iCal without physically typing "xxx"? When I look at my appointment I would love to see the contact info for "xxx" in iCal when I click on individual appointments.
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Hi,
You can link to the Address Book entry with a URL. See my script +Link to Address Book+ on this page http://www.nhoj.co.uk/applescripts/ which creates a link from the currently selected person in Address Book. These can then be added to the URL field in iCal or the notes field if you have more than one per event.
Best wishes
John M
<hr />As I sell software on my site and ask for donations, the Apple Discussions Use Agreement requires that I state that I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Empty address book in PC removes all contacts in 3g iPhone??

I downloaded my contacts from my old phone onto my PC and saved them into a address book file then into Outlook Express and then initially loaded them into my iPhone, without problems. I then spent hours making adjustments and amendements on the iphone, including adding new numbers. The next time i synced my iPhone I expected it to update the PC with the new information but instead it changed the contacts stored in the phone back to the original (incorrect) ones!!
This has happened twice so much so that I am afraid to sync the contacts again as I will lose my new numbers which are on the iPhone.
I have now manually made the corrections and additions to the address book file and saved them BUT i although I can open Outlook Express when trying to open the address book I get an error telling me to re install it. When OE opens the address book fields are completely empty!!
OE came pre-installed thus i do not have the disc to do this!!
Any suggestions as I have no back up of contacts now?

Hello StreetTriple,
Based on what you've described, it seems very likely that there is a fundamental issue with Outlook Express on the computer. Outlook Express is a pre-installed program that you should be able to reinstall from the Vista install disks that came with your system.
If you do a web search for "reinstall Outlook Express Vista" you may find the means to get a fresh copy of Outlook Express onto your Vista PC. Otherwise, you'll need to contact your computer manufacturer or Microsoft Support to get it back onto your system.
You can try this syncing troubleshooting article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1692
If Outlook Express opens successfully in a new User on the computer, you can use it to backup your contacts. You need to create at least one contact in Outlook Express before syncing, otherwise there won't be an Outlook Express data file for iTunes to sync your contacts into.
Charles H.

Once Mac address book synched from iphone and contacts deleted they won't resynch back

I have a problem and have spent hours researching but to no avail
1. I got a new iphone 4S and put in my mail info from yahoo, gmail and low and behold I had a contact list now in my phone. I thought, "I just love Apple!"
2. I spent all afternoon on my iphone updating my contact list with contact photos, birthdays and all the stuff I never put in on my email program or my MacPro Leopard mac addressbook.
3. With trepidation, I synched via usb with itunes my contacts and suddenly I had 3 (or more versions of my contacts on every site or device). To see what was going on (as I wasn't sure if my mac would erase iphone contacts or add to them etc) I tried putting a test contact "iphone test" on my phone, yahoo test on my yahoo account, and mac test contact on my laptop address book, and gmail test in my gmail's contacts, and synched again.... For the most part every test contact showed up everywhere (not yahoo test in gmail's account mind you)
4. GREAT I thought. I will just DELETE the contacts in the mac address book, yahoo, gmail accounts, fix my iphone duplicate contacts so I have one perfect set on the iphone and resynch and I should have my iphone contacts filling in all the right places (yahoo, gmail, and mac address book from the iphone) and they will all now be identical... SO WRONG!
5. None of the prior contacts would sync. Only new contacts will synch (ones that were never before synched, ie, a new iphone test contact WILL show up in my Mac address book but the other 100 won't (apparently the computer knows they were already synced or something.)
I am now left with all my contacts on my phone and none in my computer! I have synched in itunes about 10 times with "contacts" checked trying different settings for yahoo, gmail but no source will retake my iphone contacts now that it was synced and the mac address book deleted...
Can anyone help???

Thanks for your timely response. I really appreciate the heads up on the My Contacts Backup App since when you have gone from 4 copies of contacts to one you are starting to feel insecure...
Unfortunately, after following this to a "T" (2x) no luck... The mac address book was empty to begin with so I added three new contacts, synched and then started from there...
I unchecked the sync box and synched. Deleted 2 of the 3 contacts and checked the "sync contacts"--all contacts (I have no groups). It synched without prompting me for a merge and the new single contact did not show up in the iphone... bummer. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.
SORRY, I ACCIDENTALLY GAVE MYSELF HELPFUL POINTS AND THEY WERE FOR RANDERS4....

Address Book: how to review duplicate before merging

If I remember correctly Address Book used to have the facility to review duplicated information before doing something with it. In Apple's infinite wisdom they seem to have removed this feature and now expect us to trust Address Book to merge duplicated info.
Is there any way around this? Is there any 3rd party software that will do a better job?

This one, run in Script Editor, will list in the results pane any duplicates it finds based on name. You can uncomment the delete part, but I prefer to just use it for finding them. It has been posted before, and some people have found it doesn't work for them, others have found it helps. What I do is run it from time to time, review the duplicates it finds - typically two eg John Smiths who are actually two separate contacts - and fix any that need fixing, and then let Address Book look for dups and see if I can work out why it still finds the odd one.
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 TheLot to {}
set Surplus to {}
set ThePeople to every person
repeat with APerson in ThePeople
if name of APerson is not in TheLot then
set TheLot to TheLot & (name of APerson)
else
set Surplus to Surplus & (name of APerson)
-- delete APerson
end if
end repeat
end tell
Surplus</pre>

Address Book creates 12,000 duplicate contacts!

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