Address book entries disappear after MobileMe synchronization

Morning.
I've installed a clean MacOS X 10.6.8 installation from the scratch. I've found in the Address Book my own visit card and Apple's visit card. Then I've set to sync with my MobileMe account. After that I've set that MobileMe synchronization should replace all items on my local Address Book with the item stored in my MobileMe address book.
The result is: The items previously shown in Address Book disappear. The Address Book is completely empty. But in ~/Library/Application Support/Addressbook all the contacts are stored in the database and all the images as well. This is what ls -al has found:
drwx------   4 rafv staff      306 2 Feb 21:05 .
drwx------+ 24 rafv staff      850 2 Feb 10:17 ..
-rw-------@ 1 rafv staff    12292 2 Feb 21:08 .DS_Store
-rw-------   1 rafv staff       10 2 Feb 21:05 .database.lockN
-rw-r--r--   1 rafv staff 2439168 2 Feb 10:23 AddressBook-v22.abcddb
-rw-r--r--   1 rafv staff      328 8 Jan 15:15 Configuration.plist
drwx------   2 rafv staff      918 2 Feb 10:13 Images
-rw-r--r--   1 rafv staff    24576 2 Feb 10:23 MailRecents-v4.abcdmr
drwx------   2 rafv staff    56032 2 Feb 21:05 Metadata
Any idea how to fix this problem?
Thanks in advance and kind regards, Friedrich

Over the last few months I've had entries disappear - just one or two here and there. For a long time, I thought I was imagining things. But today I went to make some calls to my family and I did a search for the family last name. Only two cards came up... about 16 cards were missing. There's no way I deleted these. Fortunately, Time Machine saved me, but I didn't find the cards until about a week back, so they've been gone for a while (guess I don't call the family often enough).
My only guess is that there's some sequence I'm performing that ends up deleting a card (you know, something like editing a card, then switching to mail, then switching back to ABook and doing a search or something like that). But since I don't know when I've done it, I can't seem to track it down. I'm worried about vanishing data ... And unless I actually notice that it's vanished, I can't recover it, even with Time Machine.
I haven't had all my cards disappear - this is just an isolated few. Anyone else have this problem? Any thoughts?

Similar Messages

Address Book - entries disappear

Entries from my address book disappear. I can be a complete page with all information or it can be just an email on a page. Any ideas what is causing that?

Over the last few months I've had entries disappear - just one or two here and there. For a long time, I thought I was imagining things. But today I went to make some calls to my family and I did a search for the family last name. Only two cards came up... about 16 cards were missing. There's no way I deleted these. Fortunately, Time Machine saved me, but I didn't find the cards until about a week back, so they've been gone for a while (guess I don't call the family often enough).
My only guess is that there's some sequence I'm performing that ends up deleting a card (you know, something like editing a card, then switching to mail, then switching back to ABook and doing a search or something like that). But since I don't know when I've done it, I can't seem to track it down. I'm worried about vanishing data ... And unless I actually notice that it's vanished, I can't recover it, even with Time Machine.
I haven't had all my cards disappear - this is just an isolated few. Anyone else have this problem? Any thoughts?

Why have my Address Book contacts disappeared after uploading to iCloud?

I am using my MacBook Pro w/OSX Lion.
After having many, many problems with contacts, calendars and bookmarks in MobileMe, migrating to iCloud, encountering a huge mess of duplicates and even completely missing contacts I decided to start over. So I disabled the iCloud account on all Macs and IOS devices. I then ensured all contacts, calendars and bookmarks were deleted from the MacBook Pro. I then used the Address Book export I'd made just prior to the migration from Mobile Me to iCloud and imported this onto my MacBook Pro. I've completely gone though the Address Book and removed or merged duplicates and cleaned up all contacts with detail. I backed up my Address Book again at this point. I then logged into iCloud.com using my original Apple User ID (NOT the MobileMe/me.com account which I'm going to vacate) and ensured that there were no contacts in the cloud and I deselected the default calendars here as well. My intention was/is to begin by starting small and deal only with the MacBook Pro Address Book and iCloud Contacts. So after I confirmed there is no data in the cloud I go into the MacBook Pro System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details ensuring I was signed out of the me.com user and entered my original Apple ID I've had since I started using iTunes many years back. I quit the browser and the Address Book and verified the non me.com user was saved under the System Preferences. I then selected Contacts under these iCloud System Preferences and I was asked If I wanted to merge my contacts with those in the cloud. Because there were no contacts in the cloud I selected yes. The spinning indicator indicated that the upload was occurring. Now, there are no contacts in the cloud and the Address Book contacts are missing. Thinking that my doing the Address Book backup may have removed all the data from the Address Book, I deselected Contacts in the iCloud System Preferences, reimported the backup into Address Book that I'd just done, confirmed the contacts I just imported appear in Address Book and I reselect Contacts in the iCloud System Preferences and again I get the spinning indicator. Again, there are no Contacts in the cloud and the contacts are missing from Address Book.
What the heck am I doing wrong? I've simplified my original attempt with iCloud by concentrating my efforts to just contacts AND I'm only using the MacBook and the iCloud cloud and I've still got problems. I thought this approach would narrow down where the issue lies and allow me to monitor the process more easily but I seem to be worse off than before I'd tried to resolve the initial migration problems because now I have no contacts.
I'm new to Macs so if you have a solution, please help and please give specifics because I'm still learning the structure and don't understand a lot of the acronyms and jargon.
Thanx

If you have a back up file, I'd try turning off iCloud contact syncing on all macs from system preferences > iCloud –
DONE
as well as any secondary accounts from system preferences > mail, contacts and calendars –
DONE (this was confusing but I figured out that you meant System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars which is what you said in lowercase. For some reason without the capital letters I didn't clue in that Mail, Contacts and Calendars was an icon option under the System preferences and so I overlooked it multiple times. I see your use of "secondary account" which I note used also as a term in the User Tip link you referred me to view. Although, I still don't understand what this 'secondary' account is, I'm not interested in any secondary accounts because I've got my hands full with just iCloud for now. I did delete all accounts under the Mail, Contacts & Calendars).
If you have any iOS devices I'd do the same on those as well. –
DONE (not even introducing other Macs or IOS devices to the equation until I get the iCloud and MacBook syncing contacts correctly)
I'd log into iCloud.com and check my Address Book was empty and empty it if necessary –
DONE (it was empty already)
and then delete all contacts from every Address Book on every device
         DONE
Then I'd turn Address Book syncing back on –
DONE (This assuming that by ‘turn back on’ you mean System Preferences > iCloud and check marking the box next to Contacts)
and import my contacts from the backup file –
DONE (This assuming that by ‘import my contacts’ you mean importing the previously exported Address Book back up file back into the Address Book. I see contacts listed in the Address Book when I did this.)
No syncing seems to happen at this point?
you might also take a look at this User Tip, to ensure you understand the differences between the different accounts in Address Book before adding the contacts back.
         I did read this but understand is probably not an accurate term for my interpretation of what I read. I get that On My Mac will not sync with what is in the cloud and iCloud will sync with the cloud. In Address Book under the single head red ribbon I see neither account heading that is mentioned. I also was not asked at the time of import to select which ‘account’ I’d like the contacts setup under.
A) If there is no indication as to what Address Book account the contacts fall under, how does on find this out?
User Tips states
Your Address Book when synced with iCloud will have more than one account.
     My assumption is that I'm not synced with iCloud if I don't see either account option listed. I also would think that if I'm not synced and thus don't have more than one account then perhaps the All Contacts default to an On My Mac account but don't reflect an account heading of 'On My Mac’ as seen on the screen shot of the User Tips example.
Furthermore, User Tips also states
Default Account
Your 'default'account is set in address book preferences > general (the option is only displayed if you have more than one account).
         It would seem relevant to list which account your defaulted to even if you do not have more than one account because elsewise how are you supposed to know which account it is setup under?
B) How do you change which ‘account’ your contacts are setup under if they are under the wrong account?
         Assuming again that my contacts are ‘On My Mac’, then how do I move them to the ‘iCloud’ account of which is not listed?
C) Will any of this be affected by groups?
The five listings under All Contacts are groups that I set up as a sort of invitation list (so Christmas cards is one I’d probably setup this time of year). Although this question is secondary I would like to confirm that my interpretation of groups is accurate. I understand groups to be a sort of tagging of selected contacts from All Contacts but that the contacts in these groups are not duplicates to those in All Contacts. Is this correct? I ask because the User Tips states
To quickly duplicate a contact, drag it to your desktop, navigate to 'Groups', select the account you wish to duplicate to, double click the contact on your desktop.
            When reading this tip, I interpret that dragging and dropping contacts from All Contacts into a group would be similar to what is suggested in this tip which would indeed ‘duplicate’ the contact. I did drag and drop when I setup my groups so I’m concerned I duplicated the contacts in Address Book. I do not see two copies of the same contact under All Contacts though.
By the way, don't take it personally –
I don't, I have reading difficulties galore and am happy to accommodate if I can. I hope this is better. Helping you helps me if you're not struggling to read when thinking about the solution.
Thanx

Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6 Address book entries disappeared in upgradin toox x 10.6. Can I restore, retrieve the old entries?

I upgraded to snow leopard, mac os x 10.6. All entries in my Address Book disappeared. How do I retrieve or restore them?

Go to the Apple Store and have them install Snow Leopard if that's what you had on the old drive. If you did not have Snow Leopard then you need to purchase a copy:
If you need to purchase Snow Leopard you can still purchase a copy from Apple's online store's telesales agents.[1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753) or Customer Service and Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775.] Ask for a Sales Representative.
Third-party sources for Snow Leopard are:
Snow Leopard from Amazon.com
Snow Leopard from eBay

Address Book contacts disappeared after Mac OS X 10.4.8 upgrade

I opened my address book this morning to find it blank except for me and Apple. I did not delete anything at any time - the only thing I can think that happened between now and the last time everything was there was the 10.4.8 upgrade process.
The library/application support/address book directory on my home directory contains the following files (I didn't create them):
ABPerson.skIndexInverted (created yesterday)
ABPerson.skIndexInverted.285
ABSubscribedPerson.skIndexInverted
AddressBook.data
AddressBook.data.previous (created yesterday, later than above)
Please help get my contacts back!
Not newbie - but I thought updates were supposed to be transparent.
Promise faithfully to execute backup in future.

researchta:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. If If yo can't get the machine to boot into OS X try booting into Single User Mode and run the File System Check to repair the HD as follows:
FSCK - File System Check
To start up in single-user mode
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold both the Command (Apple) and "s" keys on your keyboard. The computer will display a series of text messages, at which time you may release these keys.
When the computer has started up, it will display a command line prompt (#). The computer is now in single-user mode.
How to Run the File System Check from the Command Line
Once you have reached a command line, follow these steps to use fsck:
1. At the prompt, type: fsck -fy (NOTE, there is a space between the k and the “-”)
The fsck utility will go through five "phases" and then return information about the disk's utilization and fragmentation. Once the check is finished, if no issue is found, you should see "** The volume <name of volume> appears to be OK."
If fsck alters, repairs, or fixes anything, it will display the message:
**** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***
IMPORTANT: If this message appears, repeat the "fsck -fy" command until this message no longer appears. It is not unusual for your computer to require several "passes" of fsck, because first-pass repairs may uncover additional errors. Run it until you get two consecutive times with an "OK" result.
3. When fsck reports that no problems were found, type: reboot
4. Press Return.
If this gets you to a normal boot the try the 10.4.8 COMBO updater as baltwo suggested. Good luck.
Do you Twango?

Address Book entries disappear & apps not starting at login when set.

On Friday, I created an address group for a class I'm teaching. After I finished creating the group, I left Address Book. Later, I was sending out email messages and email had lost its ability to complete the email addresses of people I correspond with, regularly. When it did this for several people, I went into Address Book and discovered that only the information for the new address group I created was in my Address Book. Furthermore, iChat, Calendar, and Mail are not starting when I login, as they are set to do. I rebooted my machine and they still didn't start. I disbled and re-enabled "start at login". That also didn't work. I disabled it, rebooted, logged in and re-enabled it, then rebooted again and that also didn't fix my problem. That these three programs are affected because all three of them read the Address Book data.
Has anyone else experience this problem and how did your fix it.
IUCeeJay
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Nothing???

Address Book Contacts disappeared after accepting Mac/Intel update

I received a normal update message from Apple this morning for my MacBook. I accepted and the update downloaded and installed. The MacBook rebooted. When it came back, my Address Book was empty. Any advice please?
thanks
Malcolm
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Hi,
I saw this happening various times, although not neccessarily connected to software updates...
Close your Address Book with Command+Q (if open). Then in the Finder go to /Users/youruser/Library/Application Support/Address Book
There you will find (among other files):
AddressBook.data
AddressBook.data.beforesave
AddressBook.data.previous
Move the first (.data) to your Desktop and rename the one with ".previous" to AddressBook.data
Now open Address Book. You may have lost recent changes, but should have back most of your addresses. If not, try the same steps as above, but rename the file ".beforesave" to AddressBook.data instead of ".previous"...
If you're done, you can delete AddressBook.data from your Desktop. This was just moved there so that you can rename the other.
Björn

Address book entries lost

I noticed on a parallel topic that no one had answered.
I just started a new Macbook. I transfered address book via fire wire.
It tranfered fine. I used it.
I shut down my computer and then re opened it.
All address book entries disappeared.
Also, the book marks which I had transferred disappeared.
Any one know what is happening?
Mac book Mac OS X (10.4.8)

From the first computer I made a back up of my address book. My zip drive would not recognize this.
I transfered it to my new computer on a flash drive.
Then I told the new computer to use the back up copy of the address book. It worked.

PLEASE HELP!!!! My Address Book Entries Keep Disappearing

I work on contract for multiple companies and have 6 different email accounts. Until today, I only had 1 profile in my address book that was marked with my main email address. Today I went to add my name and the corresponding email into Address book, and then my email and ical froze and I had to Force Quit. All Address book entries were gone. I reloaded my address book, went back to ical to view the invitation and AGAIN!!! all address book entries were gone. It appears that I can't set up "my info" with different email addresses. I would be ever so grateful if someone might have a solution.
Many Thanks for any ideas....
ibook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I recommend that you book a Genius session at an Apple Store. It sounds like your iMac or iPhone has a corrupted Contacts function and it will keep generating blank contacts.
If you can open Contacts on the iMac then create a new group (file menu), drag your genuine contacts to that group then File/Export the group with Export vCard. You can use this to recover the contacts later.
BTW - best not to post your iMac serial number and UUID online.

Can't find address book entries in Entourage after migrating from G4 Tiger

I was able (with some help from these discussion groups) to successfully migrate from G4 Tiger OS to a MacBook Pro. This is my husband's computer and he really needs the address book entries. Interestingly, some did appear, but not all.
I'm not sure where they reside in the files.
Please advise.
Thanks

Please post questions regarding Entourage on Microsoft's own forum for their Mac products, as this forum is for troubleshooting Mac OS X and Apple discussions only provide support for Apple products.

Address book contacts disappeared yesterday out of nowhere... how do I -

Hi,
Address book contacts disappeared yesterday out of nowhere... on my new MacBook Pro Core Duo. How do I re-import contacts from a "Carbon Copy" of my old MacBook G4 address book? I have a perfect copy of my Hard Drive on an External Hard Drive. However, I didn't set up my new MacBook Pro - and can't believe all my contacts just disappeared yesterday...
Suggestions? Step by Step instructions?
Thanks in advance...!

You’re welcome.
All you have to do is copy those files & folders from the backup to the location where they should be, replacing any files with the same name that may currently be there. Your home folder is /Users/username/. And you must first quit any applications that may access those files.
Things are more involved if you do any kind of synchronization, though. Actually that could be the reason your contacts disappeared in the first place. In that case, the procedure would be as follows:
1. If you have a .Mac account and .Mac synchronization of Address Book data is enabled either in Address Book > Preferences > General or in System Preferences > .Mac, disable it before proceeding.
2. You may also need to reset the entire sync history (iSync > Preferences > Reset Sync History) to avoid synchronization issues if you use .Mac or iSync to synchronize your Address Book with other computers or devices.
3. Quit Address Book, Mail, and any other applications that might use Address Book for something. Or just quit all applications to be on the safe side.
4. In the Finder, copy the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist preferences file and the ~/Library/Application Support/AddresBook folder from the backup to the corresponding location within your home folder, replacing the files with the same name currently there. Alternatively, to avoid accidentally overwriting any files, you may first move to the Desktop the files that should be replaced and trash them after checking that everything is OK.
5. If your data has been successfully restored and .Mac synchronization of Address Book data was enabled at the beginning, enable it again, go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the Address Book data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server.

Limitation on Address Book entries?

Along with the Desktop Manager locking on reading device calendar, most of my address book from Outlook does not appear on the 8300 Curve Address Book after synchronization. Could this be due to size limitation of the unit?

Did you select both way synchronization? Try the following -
Connect you HH with your desktop Manager in your PC. If you device is set to wireless sync then you need to turn off wireless synchronization. To do so go to Address Book -> click Menu -> Options -> Wireless Synchronization: No -> click Menu and Save the changes.
Click on the Synchronize button on Desktop Manager -> Click on Configuration Tab then click on Configure Synchronization -> Click on Choose under Address Book (on the right side of the pop up window) -> Click on you organizer apps (like, MS outlook, Lotus notes etc) -> Select desired apps -> select Synchronization radio button and click OK twice go back to Synchronize tab ->click on Synchronize Now
tanzim
If your query is resolved then please click on “Accept as Solution”
Click on the LIKE on the bottom right if the post deserves credit

Address Book app disappeared; how can I reinstall it?

Out of the blue, my Address Book app disappeared. The icon in the Dock has a question mark on it, and the application itself is no longer in my Applications folder, or anywhere on the drive. Even stranger, it's not in any of my Time Machine backups, even though it was working and present until yesterday.
Mind you, I'm not talking about the data. it's that the app itself is gone. Interestingly, my email still seems to act as if the Address Book contact information is still present. But if I select an address in an email "from" field, for example, and say "Open in Address Book," nothing happens.
Now here's an even weirder part. I also have a recent backup of my Apple Mail and Address Book using Email Backup Pro. After seeing that the Address Book app seems to have also disappeared from my Time Machine backups, I opened Email backup Pro and did a restore of my Address Book. The program reported that the Address Book was successfully restored, but nothing changed -- the Address Book app was still nowhere to be found. I've done this twice.
I also have my Address Book data on my iPod Touch (thankfully). Synching does nothing -- nothing changes on the iPod or on the hard disk, in terms of Address Book.
I'm baffled. Although I'd like to know what caused this, my more immediate concern is to get a functioning Address Book installed again. I booted from the Snow Leopard disc, but could see no option to install just the Address Book.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks, John.

click here for instructions.

Lost all Address Book entries

All of a sudden I've lost all my Address Book entries. There's nothing there. I use iBackup onto .Mac, but for some reason I can't get it to restore. It keeps saying that backup fails.
Please help. Big problem.

You had no backup before upgrading to Snow Leopard, and you didn't make a backup of your Address Book?
Upgrading OS X is not something that would cause that data to disappear, so that would seem to suggest that something else is at work, such as human error. Regardless, if you're running 10.6.3 as your profile states, you should run Software Update and get 10.6.8, as it fixes a number of issues.
You can try to recover your Address Book contacts like this:
1. Quit Address Book if it's running.
2. Go to Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
3. Move the AddressBook.data file to your Desktop or to the Trash. Then, in that same folder, make a duplicate of the AddressBook.data.previous file and rename one copy simply to AddressBook.data and launch the Address Book application. If you're lucky, your data is there. If not, well that highlights the reason for making backups.

Multiplication of address book entries

I have 2611 address book entries. I have this pristine file backed up, so I can go back to it. However, every time i restore my address book, it balloons up to over 19,000 entries, and slows down the processor in the meantime. I thought it was being caused by Now Contact still being on my computer, so I uninstalled it, but it still happens. It's not a sync issue, I believe, because I have turned off syncing and it still happens. I've tried putting the original addressbook on (2611 entries) and replacing the MobileMe info with it, and it still balloons up, whether syncing is on or off. This is really crazy. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening, or how I might fix it? Thank you.

You can export your contacts to CSV (comma separated value) format and pull that into Numbers or Excel, then export it back. Use the first part of this program (it's a converter for GMail) to do the CSV step.
Matt

Address book entries disappear after MobileMe synchronization

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for