Address book data in application support folder

I need to use two sets of addresses/phones in my address book to sync with two different mobile phones.
When using tiger I used to copy the contents of the (user folder)/library/application support/AddressBook folder and kept it as a backup of each set.
I now upgraded to leopard and deleted the contents of the folder and replaced it with the other set, however the address book appears completely blank. I then replaced the contents of the folder with the original set of files, but the address book appears black again.
I tried to delete the preferences of the address book application, but had no success with that either.
Any ideas on how to recover my "lost" data?

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Address Book missing from Application Support

I need to locate the unique ID from Address Book in Application Support to use on my iPhone 3G to use iCloud, only Address Book is nowhere to be found in Application Support - anywhere.
Please can someone show me how to find it, in easy terms?

Open Finder, hold down the option key while selecting Go menu. Select Library. From that window, navigate to your AddressBook folder.
You were likely looking in the main Library, not your own Library.

How to import Tiger Address book data into Leopard?

How do I import the Address book data I had in Tiger, into Leopard. I backed up all my applications and the Application Support folder before I upgraded to Leopard but I can't find a way of importing the old data into the new program. I tried just copying the contents of the Address Book subfolder of Application Support but the new Leopard folder has completely different files in it....??
Thanks

Like all user preferences they are in /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder.
Here's some additional info:
Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (* This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ copy any preferences needed for third-party applications
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
For FireFox:
/Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
/Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.

Address book disappear, Application Support folder can not be opened

My address book disappear from my MacPro, I know it is in the User Library-Application Support folder, but when I try to open that folder, it has a red tag on the folder and it said I have no Authority to open that folder, I am the only one using this machine, never have this problem. And it will not allow me to restore the address book from Time Machine back to this folder. What's wrong? I think I need to figure out why it wont let me open the Application Support folder, could anyone help? thanks.
One Symptom: when I run the address book App, and try to import address file, the Menu bar- File-the Import dialog was greyed-out and can not be used.

Could you please check the Sharing &permissions of these two folders (command +I). Check to see if you have "Read&Write access to these folders. It should be your user name with read&write privileges.
     You will have to open the lock on the bottom right and it will request the admin password. Should your name not be there, select it by clicking on the plus sign on the bottom right and selecting your user name. Select Read&Write privilege and under the gear wheel beside the plus and minus signs,Make sure you apply to enclosed items.
      It sounds like you somehow got them buggered. Rebuilding the permission table should of cleared up the problem. This could be a case of booting with your install DVD and rebuilding permissions from there.
                                                        Food for thought.
Next time you even think of modifying anything in you user library, Duplicate the whole folder and then you have a reference to go by. Just make sure that it is deleted after you are finished. This should be a standard step when troubleshooting. Changing something.....make a copy.

Address book data but missing Address Book application

This is strange but after upgrading to Snow Leopard, I seem to be missing my Address Book application. I can see my address book data but I cannot launch the Address Book application.
I have my contacts synced with Mobile Me & I'm not sure where the app went. I can still sync but just can't open up the Address Book app (obviously)
I am not sure how to get my Address Book app back....any suggestions?

you don't need Pacifists for this one. insert the snow leopard DVD, open it in finder and double-click on optional installs->optional installs.mpkg. follow the instructions and choose to install Address Book. then reinstall 10.6.2 combo update to bring AB to its current version.

How can I access Address Book data from an older version of the application to transfer it to a newer version of Mac OS running on a second hard drive on the same MDD G4?

I installed a hard drive from one PowerPC Dual 1.25 GHz MDD into another one with an older version of the OS X. all my Address Book data are on the older hard drive, from which I now boot the computer. When I launch Address Book as an app on the hard drive with the newer version of the OS, I get an error message that says I cannot run the version of Address Book from the older hard drive on the newer OS. How can I access the data on the older hard drive version of the Address Book app so that I can transfer it to the newer version of the app on the boot drive? The "Import" functionality will not work. I will be grateful for any help I can get. I would also like to uninstall the older version of OS X from the older hard drive.

Boot from the older version of OSX, then in AB use the File>Export>Export vCard after selecting all in AB.
Then boot from the new OSx & use the new AB to import that VCF file.

How can I delete my address book data

Running Lion. I've read in several post that the data file is in home folder/library/application support/AddressBook.
To test this I set up a temporary user account, added a few contacts to the address book, quit the application, deleted the entire AddressBook folder and contents in home folder/library/application support/AddressBook, re-launched Address Book and the new contacts I just created are still there.
I quit address book, deleted this same folder and contents again, this time also deleted all address book preference files in library/preferences, re-launched address book and the new contacts are still there.
Anyone know where the data file is really kept? In a brand new user account there aren't many files in home folder/library so it shouldn't be too hard to find but I sure can't seem to.
Any help would be appreciated.
PS. For those who want to know "why". I believe my daughter's Mac has a corrupt address book data file so I want to start over "fresh" but can't seem to locate where the true data file is.
Thanks,

"Perhaps for recovery or sync, don't know"
This was just a possible but the sync part of it really isn't possible in this case. In setting up a new temporary account on my Mac it would be an account without an iCloud or MobilMe account so there would be no syncing involved.
Address Book data for each user's account will be stored only within that users account. The fake contacts I've created in the temporary user account certainly don't show up in any other account.
Your behaviour "if I delete the files mentioned, there is absolutely nothing left." is exactly what I would expect. Just can't figure out (yet) what's going on, on my Mac because this expected behaviour is not happening.

Address Book Spinning Beach Ball of Death Crashes -- Lost Address Book Data

Over the past three weeks Address Book has suffered spinning beach ball crashes three times. Each time resulting in total loss of the data in the address book.
I can understand that from time to time an application might crash, but there is NO excuse for the crash to result in the TOTAL loss of data associated with the application.
And having to revert to manually stored backup archives is NOT acceptable.
Is there a way to restore the Address Book database to what it was IMMEDIATElY before the crash?
I notice that there are unix executable files with data in them in the address book subfolder in the address book folder in the Applications Support Folder.
Can they be used to restore the database?
If so, what is the method and why is it not more clearly documented?
If not, why not?
Why isn't one able to set the application to automatically make backups every so many minutes?
What are the primary factors that cause Address Book to Crash?
Is there a file size limit to Address Book?
Is there a need for a minimum amount of RAM?
Why hasn't the dev team fixed these bugs?

This same thing happened to me. Did you ever figure out what to do?

Address book data ALL GONE

I got a blackberry bold recently with a few contacts in it. Wanting to wipe it first before I sync it, I changed "user/library/application support/AddressBook" to "user/library/application support/AddressBook2" hoping that it would clean all the data in my blackberry first.
Well, address book is all empty that's for sure, but when I rename AddressBook2 to AddressBook, nothing happened. ALL my data is GONE.
Please I beg for your help.

I'm sorry but if there are no .abcd cards in the Metadata folder then your address book data is really gone and there is no way to retrieve it. you can try using data recovery software like Filesalvage or Data Rescue II but chances of getting it back are very slim. In the future I strongly recommend you start backing up to an external drive. there are plenty of excellent backup programs for Mac and external drives are quite cheap these days. see this post http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7495315#7495315

Where is Address Book data located?

I know the Address Book application is located in applications but I can't find the old address book data from my previous internal hard disc (which information I am now accessing via an external reader).
Thanks all!

It's in your home folder, in Library/Application Support/AddressBook. Quit Address Book completely, and copy all files and folders therein to the same location on your new drive.
Matt

Why does Lion KEEP reversing changes you make in address book and other applications without your consent and without wanting it to??? Plus address book will NOT import old address book contacts from Snow Lepoard 10.6 and keep them. This Lion OXS 7 is ..

Why does Lion KEEP reversing changes you make in address book and other applications without your consent and without wanting it to??? Plus address book will NOT import old address book contacts from Snow Lepoard 10.6 and keep them. This Lion OXS 7 is .. becoming very frustrating ... it will NOT keep changes made in the Address Book and it has destroyed my contacts which I only have electronically since 10.4 in my address book. I am NOT happy with this OS7 it has a lot of issues and faults. How can one stop automatic reversing of data when inputting???
Please help!
Wished I NEVER upgraded to this Lion!!!
Carmelo

Relax. Your address book database is corrupted.
If you are syncing your Contacts with MobileMe or something else, disable it for now.
Backup your address book by going to File>Export>Address Book Archive.
Quit Address Book.
Open your Library by holding down the Option (alt) key while selecting the Go menu in Finder. Select Library. Navigate into your Application Support/AddressBook folder and delete the addressbook-v22.abcddb file.
Open Address Book. It will recreate the database from the raw data.
See how that works. If it is ok, then reenable syncing and see how that works.

How can I get my address book data back?

After upgrading to OS6, my address book has gone from almost a thousand entries to being totally empty.
This is a *very* big deal for me bc I have no address book application on my PC.
I had always assumed that if iTunes were backing up my iPod, that I would be able to restore from those backups, but now I cannot figure out how to tell iTunes to restore from a backup. I've got a backup... just cannot restore from it.
There's got to be a way.... and I'm probably looking right at it and not seeing it.

It has been a very long time since I used 10.1.5 but Address Book data is not stored in a .plist file.
The Address Book data should be located in an Addresses folder at Home > Library > Addresses.
Locate this folder and with the Address Book application quit, move it back to the proper location.

Mail and address book data file location

Does anyone know where mail and address book saves its data?
My old mac died but I was able to remove the hard drive and mount it in a external firewire case. The drive mounts and appears in good shape. I tried using the migration utility to transfer my data into my new iMac. While a lot of data and applications did make the move, my mail files and folders did not show up on my new iMac. I'm hoping I can transfer the mail files manually. The problem is I can't find where they are located on my old computer. I was using Max os 10.4.11 on my old computer.
The same problem with my address book data. It did not transfer over with migration app. and I can't locate this data either.

The majority of Mail is in...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
AB...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

Once on iCloud how do you recover lost address book data?

After moving to iCloud my wife suddenely lost all her contact info earlier today. When opening Address Book on her iMac & iPad all contact info was gone. We signed on to iCloud.com and it was gone there too. For some reason it was still on her iPhone. I tried to force a merge from her phone by shutting off iCloud Contacts; selecting to keep data on the device; then turned it back on hoping to get the 'merge data' option. I didn't get that message and sure enough in a few seconds the address book on her phone went empty.
So, this raised the question about where do I recover the data from? I looked in finder on her iMac under user/Library/Addplication Support/Address Book - there were some files and directories there, but nothing that looked like it was loaded with contact info. I'm assumming once she moved to iCloud the detail is no longer stored locally in OS X?
I went into System Prefs and shut off iCloud Contacts on the iMac, opened Time Machine, went back a week ago (prior to iCloud) and found contact info in the user/Library/Addplication Support/Address Book directory and restored the entire directory. Opened Address Book and it was populated with data. turned on iCloud Contacts and selected the 'Merge' data option which then populated her other devices.
So, the question is - what if it had been longer than a week - where is this data (and probably calendar data too!) being backed up and where (and how) would you restore it from if it did suddenly turn up missing?

RickTexas wrote:
So this gets back to my original question... not sure if bgbrobru is running Time Machine backups, but even if he is, I don't think the Address Book data is recoverable (unless you go back to a pre-iCloud backup) because it is no longer stored locally.
If I understand correctly the only thing we can do going forward is to run a periodic 'manual' export of iCal and Address Book data to insure we have a backup? In the event I do something stupid and mistakingly delete something or - like what happened to my wife today - the entire address book (or calendar entries) just disapear, we are screwed? I guess this would also apply to email stored in folders on iCloud?
Seems there should be some way to capture the iCloud data in a Time Machine (or some other mechanism) backup?
Sorry Rick but that's incorrect,
Here's a shot of the folder it lives in and the path to it, Time Machine backs it up.

Access Address Book data from terminal

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if there is a way to access Address Book data from the terminal. For instance, I would
need a command that would output an address of a given person.
Thanks in advance for your input

this script could be used in Terminal (save the code below as
"getaddress" and mark it as executable):
case $# in
2) firstname=$1; lastname=$2;;
*) echo 'Usage: getaddress <firstname> <lastname>' 1>&2; exit 1 ;;
esac
count=`osascript -e "tell application \"Address Book\" to count (people whose first name is \"${firstname}\" and last name is \"${lastname}\")"`
case $count in
0) echo "$firstname $lastname is not in Address Book." 1>&2; exit 1;;
1) ;;
*) echo "There are multiple entries for $firstname $lastname in Address Book (unhandled error)." 1>&2; exit 1;;
esac
osascript -e "tell application \"Address Book\" to get formatted address of address of first person whose first name is \"${firstname}\" and last name is \"${lastname}\""
Message was edited by: jazzy79

Address book data in application support folder

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