Address book is scrambling contact info

Address book on one of my 3 synched computers is changing info in contacts where it is randomly putting incorrect company info under the names, or a name on a company where that person doesn't work. So essentially I have new, duplicate cards with personal and company information scrambled. How did this mess happen?

The exact same thing is happening to me. I had to spend about an hour yesterday correcting the mess across 4 Macs - wasted time. It is really a shame that Apple has not been able to sort out something this basic.
I have read several posts in the past that the sync function is not stable - my experience of yesterday would support that view

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Address Book/Sync Destroying Contact Info

Address Book crashed on me yesterday and destroyed/deleted about 600 records (of ~650). It replaced the data file with something very old (more 2+ years old). It then synched with my Entourage data base deleting all the same contacts without warning. It then deleted them again on my .Mac account before I could stop the sync. I have started to rebuild the database and I notice that it is starting to delete info on some records. For example: I have 3 email addresses I use and I just noticed that it has deleted two of them after a sync.
What is going on and how do I stop it?!

The exact same thing is happening to me. I had to spend about an hour yesterday correcting the mess across 4 Macs - wasted time. It is really a shame that Apple has not been able to sort out something this basic.
I have read several posts in the past that the sync function is not stable - my experience of yesterday would support that view

Data in my iMac address book and iCloud contacts do not match.

The data in my iMac address book and iCloud contacts are different. How can I get my iCloud data to accruately reflect that of my iMac address book? It appears to be an initial synchronization issue. New entries synchronize fine. Appears that initial entries in my Address Book are not showing up in the iCloud Contacts list. Hense, My iPhone coantacts don't match those in my iMac.
Is there a way to clean out my iCloud contacts on reload/re-sychronize it with my iMac Address Book?

Nuts isn't it. This seems to have been an issue snce dAY 1. iT FROSTS ME THAT THERE IS NO SIMPLE QUICK WAY TO UPDATE OR CORRECT the data in both programs simultaneously.. Thats why i decided to just put everytning into the i cloud address brook, and let the one other sit and rot.
then i got smart and said, why don't I delete the outlookaddress book files. and save on confusion.
result - both addresses books and their contents became invisible to outlook.!!!!!! and I can find no way to correct this...to go back to the imperfect world that was.
I did get the outlook contact s back from an archive - but any thing from icloud has become inaccessible from outlook. (fortunately i can get the vcard infformation directly from icloud. but I can't access it from outlook mail.... means no replying, forwarding etc - and a time swallowing nuisance..
aNYONE WILLING TO DUMP SEWAGE ON MICROSOFT AND aPPLE... UNCOOPERATIVE TWITS. - boh should be smacked.

I am sending emails to a Smart Group created in my address book. The contact in my address book has multiple email addresses. Is there a way for the email to go to both addresses? (ex: work and home email address under one contact)

In my address book, I have contacts that have multiple email addresses. (ex: home and work) I have created a smart group off of the company name in the contact. When I send emails, I want it to go to both email address listed in the contact. Is there a way to make this happen? Or do I have to have a separate contact for each email address?

I will agree with you on this one. Version 31 and all the fixes so far are a mess. Since I have been here answering questions for a little more than a year now I have learned to wait to upgrade until all the dust settles. I see no end to the dust storm version 31 has caused. I am still on version 24.6 and plan on staying there for the duration. At least until the developers comes to their senses and put out a working product.

Address Book and Google Contacts...?

What's the story with syncing Address Book with Google Contacts?
I set it up once, but since then it has not been able to syncronise changes made to either AB or GC (nb. even after clicking the sync button).
Is there a trick to maintaining syncronisation???

Now I'm no longer using the address book application, so answering this question would be pointless.

Address Book - Create multiple contacts at one company?

I am using Address Book v 4.0.4 and I want to be able to create multiple contacts at one company without having to reenter the Company, Tel. and Address information each time.
Is there a way to duplicate an address, say the basic company address, to make the process of entering multiple people at one company any faster?
Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks, Michel
MBP Laptop & G5 Tower Mac OS X (10.4.9) Address Book v 4.0.4

I talked to Apple today and here is how you create multiple contacts at one address, company etc. without having to reenter everything.
1) In Address Book, highlight a contact in the name list
2) Go to the Edit Menu & COPY
3) Go back to the Edit Menu & PASTE
4) Make changes to the new 'duplicated' contact
Seems easy if you know how to do it.

How to force Address Book syncing Google contacts immediately?

Hi everyone,
Last time I configured the Address Book as syncing the contacts with my Google account, but there was nothing changed in the Address Book. A couple of days later when I run Address Book again, the contacts in my Google accont was already transferred into the application. I mean I don't know when the synchronization would happen and I don't know how to force it happen immediately.
I did some changes in my Google account and wish the modification being synced to the Mac asap. I'm desperate to see it happens since the modification was three days ago and the content in Address Book just won't change. I also delete all contacts in my Address Book and re-configure the synchronization but no luck either.
Wating for the answer. Thanks in advance.

I believe you can force the sync from isync. put an isync icon in the menu bar and when you want to sync AB choose "sync now" from the isync menu.

Sync Address Book with Google Contacts

Hi,
recently I am syncing the Mac Address Book and my iPhone with Google Contacts.
If I add a birthday to one of my contacts on my iPhone, the birthday also will be added on Google Contacts. If I sync my Mac Address Book with Google Contacts now, the birthday doesn't show up on my Mac Address Book.
So my birthday calendar in iCal always is empty...
Any solutions?
Regards and thanks,
Mike

Hi,
Google uses Google Sync to synchronize your contacts with your iOS and OS X. But this, from Jan 30, 2013, is only available to the paid versions of Google Apps (read more on http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2716936).
You can continue to sync on both iOS and OS X using the CardDAV protocol, which, IMHO, is even better.
Follow the instructions in this post: http://support.google.com/mail/answer/2753077?hl=en
Mountain Lion Contacts also supports CardDAV accounts. All you need to do is add the CardDAV account with your account credentials and it will synchronize again.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ramses

How to sync Address Book with google contacts (google apps)

Hi everybody
With Leopard and Snow Leopard I could sync my Address Book with Google Contacts (in google apps). Now with Lion I can't find a way to sync those contacts. I have an iCloud acount for my personal contacst but our company uses Google Apps for sharing the contacts, and I would like to know how can fix that.
Thank you!

Hi,
Google uses Google Sync to synchronize your contacts with your iOS and OS X. But this, from Jan 30, 2013, is only available to the paid versions of Google Apps (read more on http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2716936).
You can continue to sync on both iOS and OS X using the CardDAV protocol, which, IMHO, is even better.
Follow the instructions in this post: http://support.google.com/mail/answer/2753077?hl=en
Mountain Lion Contacts also supports CardDAV accounts. All you need to do is add the CardDAV account with your account credentials and it will synchronize again.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ramses

From old "Address Book" to new "Contacts" - lost my groups

I have old 2009 laptop (Snow Leopard) and just bought new 2015 13" macbook pro running Yosemite 10.10.2
I transferred my Address book over to Contacts but lost my groups.
Instead it is showing my Yahoo mail folders on the left hand column.
I use the groups a lot for work and really hope I don't have to recreate all of them.
Thanks!

My mistake - my groups are there! They transferred perfectly. Still getting used to my wonderful new machine. Sorry to bother you!

HT4489 how do you move your address book to icloud contacts?

how do you move your address book to icloud contacts?

In Address book on Mac - right click on the group you want to export.
Select Export Vcard
log in to iCloud and select contacts.
Select group you want to import them into
Bottom left click on the gearbox icon
Select import Vcard
Select same location you exported from the Mac
Mine populated in about a minute
Hope this helps.

I synced Address Book with Yahoo Contacts BUT....

My iPad Address Book and Yahoo Contacts are sorta synced, but how can I make my Apple Address Book look more like my Yahoo Contacts? Address Book displays the contacts by first names and there are LOTs of "no names" even though I deleted the duplicates in Yahoo.

If you have contacts in both and you have the iphone/itunes set to sync with your Yahoo Address book, then the two sets should be merged.

Synching Address Book with Google Contacts

I currently use Google Sync to keep Google Contacts and Google Calendar synched to my iPhone and it works perfectly. I want to also sync Google Contacts to my Apple Address book, and while I know where to configure this, I have a question before I turn it on.
In Address Book preferences if I check the box to sync Address Book with Google contacts is this going to wipe out my Google Contacts? Or will there be an opportunity to select which way I want the sync to occur? I want my Address Book to be the target in all cases and my Google Contacts to be the default master. I do not use Apple Mail, iCal, or Address Book on my Mac...I use Google Apps for everything, but I would like to keep my Mac Address Book as a carbon copy of my Google Contacts.
Thanks for any help before I start this sync.

I have had a similar problem. I can't find "contacts cleaner" in versiontracker. Is this an iphone app?

How can I access the address file with all contact info and print it?

i'd like to be able to print out address info, phone no.s, etc but not do that one contact at a time so I'm looking for a file that might have all the contact info available in one place that I can access.

Export your address book as a Comma Separated (csv) file and then open it in Excel. Then you can arrange the data any way you desire.
Open the Address Book window and from the menu bar select Tools-Export.

Address Book vs Now Contact

Trying to decide if it's worth paying for Now Up-to-Date and Contact, or just sticking with OS X iCal and Address Book.
Is there a good breakdown of the plusses and minusses?

Hi Roger,
While not addressing NOW in particular, THIS thread has some good input and info.
Good Luck,
John
G5Dual 2Ghz  23" ACD  iSight Mac OS X (10.4.8)  20" Intel iMac 

Address book is scrambling contact info

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