Address Book Images Folder = 3 gigs and 30,000 files

Can anyone tell me why Address Book's images folder (Library/Application Support/Address Book/Images) gets to take up 3 gigs of space and contain more than 30,000 files? I like to have photos for people and companies in my address book, but I can't imagine why an address book with 354 cards would have a supporting images folder that friggin huge. Is this just bad programming on Apple's part? Using Quicklook, I can see that there are several images that are duplicated with different file names. What actions generate these duplicates? Is there a way to clean up this folder without completely dumping the contents?

HI Paul,
There's no way that is right.
Your profile indicates you are running 10.4.8 but you posted in the 10.6 Snow Leopard forum? If you have updated to 10.6 please click My Settings on the right side of this page and update your profile. Thanks. (iMac G5... PowerPC)?
Unless you have copy/pasted information for Address Book and contact information from the internet or e-mail, that's the only way I can think that could happen.
I don't see why you can't delete those images if they aren't in use.
If you are running 10.4, try installing the 10.4.11 combo update.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx10411comboupdat eppc.html
As with any update, repair disk permissions.
Quit any open applications/programs. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac.
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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Address Book "images" folder is 64GB

Hi..
I am hoping someone can assist me. The "images" folder in "user\Application Support\Address Book\" is 64GB and contains over a million items. All items are photos with random names like "41464863-F2BB-4BF2-9494-8161D45F0312.jpeg". (Not all item have the jpeg suffix.
Looking through the console messages I have identified that the items are created when I sync
8/01/10 8:35:15 AM SyncServer[809] [110f20] |SyncManager|Warning| client com.apple.isyncDU.ipod.A270017485642 not added to plan because it isn't syncing any entities in the plan
8/01/10 8:35:35 AM AddressBookSync[823] AddressBookSync (client id: com.apple.AddressBook) error: Exception running AddressBookSync: Invalid parameter not satisfying 'uniqueId != nil'
8/01/10 8:35:35 AM com.apple.syncservices.SyncServer[809] 2010-01-08 08:35:35.303 AddressBookSync[823:903] AddressBookSync (client id: com.apple.AddressBook) error: Exception running AddressBookSync: Invalid parameter not satisfying 'uniqueId != nil'
If anyone can shed any light as to how I stop this issue it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Alex

The "random" names are UUIDs for the person they are attached to.
I'm not sure how to fix it, but I would consider [resetting sync services|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627].

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Is it possible to not use my address book image as the user account icon in MacOS X?

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I have created a smart folder that for some reson lock up my Address Book when ever I click on it (applicaton not responding and have to force quit). How can I delete the the smart folder in question. If I click on it the program immediately freezes.
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You might want to try:
Back up your address book (File -> Export)
exiting the Address Book
Going to your Library/Application Support/AddressBook directory (in Finder, Go -> Go to folder -> ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Moving the AddressBook-v22 to your desktop
Open the Metadata directory
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Send/receive hang on "Offline address book Connecting to Microsoft Exchange" and will never finish?

When I hit send/receive on a few clients the process will hang on "Offline address book Connecting to Microsoft Exchange" and will never finish? These same user can long on the OWA and send/receive just fine. The problem is that while it's hanging it can't go out and look for new email. Any thoughts?

I had similar problem.
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acidack, you are a lifesaver.
I looked at the other webconfig files in the internet directories and noticed they all had 'Authenticated Users' with read permissions while the OAB one did not. Adding this group with read permissions solved the problem; Outlook 2007
users are no longer frozen on the 'Offline address book connecting to Microsoft Exchange" message.
What caused this? I'm not sure. I was messing with the web settings trying to redirect people to OWA. Something I did must have caused this file to be re-created without the needed permissions.
Acidack and AndrewB, You are both live savers. After all these years, your solution to this problem is still spot on.

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Thank you for letting me know!
Going to give it a go. Had a back up of all my clients files stupidly not my software as I have the originals disks. Just realised that amongst the software is ibiz and have lost al my accounting and billing files for the last 7 years want to cry so losing my contacts now will really tip me over the edge!
Fingerscrossed this works!

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HT204150 I have a Mac 10.5.8 op system. My Contacts do not syn with I cloud. Trying to get my address book complete on both systems and now I have lots of duplicates on I cloud adress book. How do I efficiently merge the duplictes that are now on I clo

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To purchase it you will have to ring Apple at the number given at the bottom left of this page.
The requirements for Mountain Lion are listed here:
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
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i'm having this issue too. it's a bit more complex though i think so i'll give the details:
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How do i erase a corrupt contact list from iCloud,iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro and restore Address Book backup to all devices and cloud?

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I saved a corrected, most up to date version of my master Address Book Contacts as a back-up on my Mac Book Pro.
then in an effort to "simplify my life" i attempted to sync my I phone contacts - ( pre clean-up version) with my clean list on Mac Book Pro, New I pad and newly available icloud. DUH!! Using iTunes to do the sync caused the clean MacBOOK Pro list to be commingled with the dirty iphone contacts. amd now the whole mess is in the cloud.
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Help
Karen

I had exported an address book backup: abbu
so since i wrote, i have found my way into the cloud: selected all entries - deleted them all from the cloud.
This wiped out contacts on my iphone and i pad, and MBP, as well as on the cloud. I then imported the abbu back into my now empty address book.
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I created a new entry on my MBP and it is now on all devices and in cloud
I also created a new entry on my iPhone and it is now in the address book on my MBP.
I feel empowered!!
Have i missed anything??

ISync and Address Book images

I have two Macs, one at home and one at the office.
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How do I resolve this problem? Any suggestions?

Now it works! I didn't upgrade anything, but all is fine now.

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First off I want to thank you for sticking with me through this, it's nice to have somebody to shoot ideas around with, it made me think up ideas, what I'm trying to say is, by just writing this down in this thread I solved my own problem. Linc I already deleted almost all of the Login items previously, as I did have the same idea, that something in that spot was trying to connect to the desktop through the network, that didn't work, but for some people it could be a problem. When you first mentioned, "make sure that new windows don't open to a folder on the server.", that comment made me look around for any folders connected to the server, then in my last comment I mentioned the word "alias", turns out that was the problem. In my users folder on the Macbook Pro, I had 2 folders that were alias folders, one was the download folder and the other was the Movie folder, I made new folders and put copies of everything into the folders, then threw away the alias folders and renamed the two new folders I created with their original names, presto no more problem.
Must be getting old, cannot remember making any alias folders, but I probably did, probably had some great idea to save hard disk space on the Macbook Pro, only has 250 GB disk, the Mac Pro has over 8 Terebytes of space so I thought I'd use it probably, bad idea, sometimes I get too Geeky for my own good. Again, Thanks Linc for sticking with me on this.
There were interesting ideas on the internet, seems other people have run into similar problems, one suggestion was the terminal to check for any "open processes". link was here, if interested.... http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/25639/why-is-my-mac-constantly-trying-t o-connect-to-another-server
I'm going to mark your last comment as being helpful, as actually all of it was helpful in forcing me to find those pesky alias folders.

Address Book Images Folder = 3 gigs and 30,000 files

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