Address Book Oddities

Howdy,
I have the strangest thing going on with Address Book and I cannot figure out how to cure it.
Email addresses are appearing in it when I do searches (and all of my manually entered addresses have a name attached) that are not really in the Address Book itself.
For example, I'll search for "Frank," and my normal addresses will appear, but so will one or two entries that are just an email address. When I click on any of them, there's a weird spill-out of 5 or so totally unrelated email addresses. I deleted these entries ad nauseum with no luck. More seem to appear and I only find them when I do a random search. They do NOT appear with every search, but apparently only with searches that the junk entries have something in common with.
For example, I searched for "Joe," and no junk entries appeared. So I'm assuming that no junk entries have been created that have "joe" in the string.
I have a MacPro, MacBook Pro, and an iPhone syncing this data using Mobile Me over the air.
The MacPro and the iPhone are the most important to have the Address Book data right. They are both set to automatically sync. The MacBook Pro is used less and is set to manual syncing. I usually just overwrite that with the contents of Mobile Me and don't usually enter data there that needs to go to the other devices. The primary way 99% of Address Book data is entered is on the MacPro and then (hopefully!) pushed to other devices. Only on very rare occasions do I enter information on the iPhone and have it push to the computer.
Everything is totally up to date, and the MBP is now running Snow Leopard.
I cannot, for the life of me, isolate the cause here but I suspect it was the result of some command I sent to Address Book earlier in the year to remove duplicates or some such thing. What a waste THAT was! You can't even see the data that gets merged! Very UN-Apple-like.
Has anyone else seen this or have a great idea about cleaning everything out and starting from scratch?
The other issue I have with Address Book, and this is VERY scary, is that I swear the syncing process is erasing entries. I cannot isolate HOW it's happening, but I definitely added a phone number to a client's name, and a few days later only the email address was there. VERY disturbing.
I'm happy to provide more details if necessary, but I'm wondering if this is happening to others or someone has some solid experience with this.
Thank you for all who contribute their time here.
cheers,
Mick
Message was edited by: Mick Guinn

Hi Barney,
Thanks for taking time to have a look here. The weird thing is that I can't quite isolate where it's happening and have 3 devices + the Mobile Me Server involved. Do I wipe one of them, 3 of them, or all 4? You may be right about the SyncServices folder. It has one of the funniest Apple Tech docs I've ever seen. Says something like, "Like a swarm of angry bees, stay away from this folder at all costs." That killed me... LOL..
I just don't know where to begin with all of this and how to really know if I've solved it. And the lesser problem with the weird @ sign addresses, is also bizarre. I was sure someone had seen this before and think it's the result of some very flawed merge all duplicated cards. Why it never lets you see the actual data that's being merged is just bizarre.
Thank you for your ideas and I'm hoping that someone else with a similar issue as mine might see this.
cheers,
Mick

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I am designing an address book which opens a text file called AddressBook.txt which reads in the information in the following format:
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import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
* @created September 14, 2004
* This program uses a JFrame to manipulate data and form an
* address book. The user will be able to load data from a file,
* sort it by last name, print the address, phone number, and date
* of birth, print the names of people whos birthday are between 2
* dates, print the names of people between 2 last names, and/or
* print the names of different person types.
public class AddressBook extends JPanel implements ActionListener{
    JFrame frame;
    final int numButtons = 7;
    JRadioButton[] radioButtons = new JRadioButton[numButtons];
    JButton process = new JButton("Process Request");
    JLabel title;
    JTextArea output = new JTextArea(30,50);
    int MAX_ADDRESS_ENTRIES = 500;
    AddressBookEntry addressBookEntries[] =
        new AddressBookEntry[MAX_ADDRESS_ENTRIES];
    String FILE_NAME="AddressBook.txt";
    public AddressBook(JFrame frame){
        super(new BorderLayout());
        this.frame=frame;
        JPanel choicePanel = createSimpleDialogBox();
        choicePanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Choices" +
        " to choose from:"));
        title = new JLabel("<html><h2> Thank you for opening the " +
        "Address Book. " +
        "Please Press the \"Process Request\" " +
        "after making a choice.</h2></html>\n",JLabel.CENTER);
        title.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20));
        output.setEditable(false);
        add(title, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        add(choicePanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        add(output, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        final ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
        final String saveCommand = "Save";
        final String sortByLN = "Sort by Last Name";
        final String searchLNCommand = "Search By Last Name";
        final String printAPD = "Print address, phone number, and DOB";
        final String printNamesDOB = "Print names of people whose birthday" +
        " falls between 2 dates";
        final String printNamesLN = "Print names of people who fall" +
        " between 2 last names";
        final String printPType = "Print all family members, friends, or" +
        " business associates";
    private JPanel createSimpleDialogBox(){
        radioButtons[0] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Save the address file</html>");
        radioButtons[0].setActionCommand(saveCommand);
        radioButtons[1] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Sort the address file by last name</html>");
        radioButtons[1].setActionCommand(sortByLN);
        radioButtons[2] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Search the address file by last name</html>");
        radioButtons[2].setActionCommand(searchLNCommand);
        radioButtons[3] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print the address, phone number, and DOB of a specified" +
          " person</html>");
        radioButtons[3].setActionCommand(printAPD);
        radioButtons[4] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print the names of people whose birthday falls between" +
          " two dates</html>");
        radioButtons[4].setActionCommand(printNamesDOB);
        radioButtons[5] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print the names of people who fall between two" +
          " specified last names</html>");
        radioButtons[5].setActionCommand(printNamesLN);
        radioButtons[6] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print all family members, friends, <u>OR</u>" +
          " business associates</html>");
        radioButtons[6].setActionCommand(printPType);
        for (int i=0; i<numButtons; i++){
            group.add(radioButtons);
//set the first button (open file) to be selected
radioButtons[0].setSelected(true);
return createPane(radioButtons, process);
private JPanel createPane(JRadioButton[] radioButtons,
JButton showButton) {
int numChoices = radioButtons.length;
JPanel box = new JPanel();
box.setLayout(new BoxLayout(box, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
for (int i = 0; i < numChoices; i++) {
box.add(radioButtons[i]);
JPanel pane = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
pane.add(box, BorderLayout.NORTH);
pane.add(showButton, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
return pane;
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
String command = group.getSelection().getActionCommand();
//else if button pushed is save
if (command == saveCommand){
// save file
//else if button pushed is search by last name
else if (command == sortByLN){
// search by last name
//else if button pushed is sort by last name
else if (command == searchLNCommand){
// sort by last name
// print to screen
//else if button pushed is display address, ph#, dob
else if (command == printAPD){
// display "search by last name" dialog
// search last names
// if last name found
// print data
// else
// print error notification "person not found"
//else if button pushed is list names of people whose
//bday between 2 days
else if (command == printNamesDOB){
// ask for which dates
// search bday
// print to screen
//else if button pushed is print names of people between 2 last names
else if (command == printNamesDOB){
// ask for which two last names
// search last names
// if people found
// print to screen
//else
//print error notification "no one found"
//else if button pushed is print all family members, friends
//or business associates
else if (command == printPType){
//ask for what person type
//search person types
//if people found
//print to screen
//else print "no one found"
public void storeAddress(File addressFile){
     Scanner sc=null;
String lname,fname,street,city,state,zip,phone,persontype,bday;
try {
// Delimiters specifiy where to parse tokens in a scanner
sc = new Scanner(addressFile).useDelimiter("\\s*[\\p{,}*\\s+]\\s*");
catch (FileNotFoundException fnfe) {
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this,"Could not open the file");
System.exit(-1);
for(int i=0; i<MAX_ADDRESS_ENTRIES; i++){
     while (sc.hasNext()) {
lname=(sc.next());
     if (!lname.equals("")){
     addressBookEntries[i].setLName()=lname;
public class AddressBookEntry{
private extPerson address;
private String date;
private extPerson ExtPerson;
public class Person{
protected String lastName, firstName;
private String address;
private String city;
private String state;
private String zipcode;
private String homephone;
private String extPersonType;
private Date bday;
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-mm-DD");
public String toString() {
return lastName+" "+firstName;
public void setLName(String last) {
lastName=last;
public void setFName(String first){
firstName=first;
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
public String getFirstName() {
return lastName;
public Person() {
lastName="";
firstName="";
public Person(String first, String last){
setLName(last);
setFName(first);
//Set the address and return it
public void setAddress( String addr ){
address = addr;
public String getAddress(){
return address;
//set the city and return it
public void setCity( String town ){
city = town;
public String getCity(){
return city;
//set the state and return it
public void setState( String st )
state = st;
public String getState()
return state;
//Set the zip code and return it
public void setZipCode( String zip ){
zipcode = zip;
public String getZipCode(){
return zipcode;
//Set the home phone and return it
public void setHomePhone( String homeph ){
homephone = homeph;
public String getHomePhone(){
return homephone;
//Set the bday and return it
public Date getBday(){
return bday;
public void setBday(Date newBday) {
bday = newBday;
dateFormat.format(bday);
//Set the extPerson type and return it
public String getPType(){
return extPersonType;
public void setPBusiness(){
extPersonType = "Business Associate";
public void setPFamily(){
extPersonType = "Family Member";
public void setPFriend(){
extPersonType = "Friend";
public class extPerson extends Person{
//new clss People
public class People {
     int MAX_PEOPLE=500;
     BufferedReader bf;
public String toString() {
          StringBuffer sb=new StringBuffer();
          for (int i=0; i<nPeople; i++)
          sb=sb.append(group[i]+"\n");
          return sb.toString();
public void read(){
          String str;
          try {
          bf=new BufferedReader(new FileReader(new File(FILE_NAME)));
          str=bf.readLine();
          while (str!=null) {
          insert(str);
               str=bf.readLine();
     catch (IOException e) {
          // Will jump to here on an eof condition.
     try {
          bf.close();
     catch (IOException e) {}
     public void save() {
          try {
          PrintWriter pw=new PrintWriter(FILE_NAME);
          for (int i=0; i<nPeople; i++)
          pw.println(group[i]+",");
          pw.close();
     catch (FileNotFoundException fne) {
               System.out.println("Could not Save "+FILE_NAME);
public People() {
          group=new extPerson[MAX_PEOPLE];
          nPeople=0;
     public boolean insert(String data) {
          if (nPeople<MAX_PEOPLE) {
          //extPerson guy=new extPerson(data);
          //group[nPeople]=guy;
          nPeople++;
          return true;
     else {
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error in People" +
"::insert: Max size reached.");
     return false;
     public void clear() {
          // This loop frees up the memory used by each extPerson
          for (int i=0; i<nPeople; i++)
          group[i]=null;
          nPeople=0;
extPerson group[];
int nPeople;
* Create the GUI and show it. For thread safety,
* this method should be invoked from the
* event-dispatching thread.
public static void createAndShowGUI(){
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JDialog.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Address Book Program");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
Container c = frame.getContentPane();
c.add(new AddressBook(frame));
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
public static void main (String s[]){
//Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
//creating and showign this application's GUI
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGUI();

Ok, I have changed my code to reflect your suggested changes, but I'm still unsure how to use the findInLine you suggested.... This is all very new to me and I've been looking on the java website for suggestions, but I'm still stumped on how to pull this together. I'm unsure on how to set the lastname,firstname,etc. for retrieval...
Here's my code:
//ADDRESS BOOK
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
* @created September 14, 2004
* This program uses a JFrame to manipulate data and form an
* address book. The user will be able to load data from a file,
* sort it by last name, print the address, phone number, and date
* of birth, print the names of people whos birthday are between 2
* dates, print the names of people between 2 last names, and/or
* print the names of different person types.
public class AddressBook extends JPanel implements ActionListener{
    JFrame frame;
    final int numButtons = 7;
    JRadioButton[] radioButtons = new JRadioButton[numButtons];
    JButton process = new JButton("Process Request");
    JLabel title;
    JTextArea output = new JTextArea(30,50);
    int MAX_ADDRESS_ENTRIES = 500;
    AddressBookEntry addressBookEntries[] = new
    AddressBookEntry[MAX_ADDRESS_ENTRIES];
    public AddressBook(JFrame frame){
        super(new BorderLayout());
        this.frame=frame;
        JPanel choicePanel = createSimpleDialogBox();
        choicePanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Choices" +
        " to choose from:"));
        title = new JLabel("<html><h2> Thank you for opening the " +
        "Address Book. " +
        "Please Press the \"Process Request\" " +
        "after making a choice.</h2></html>\n",JLabel.CENTER);
        title.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20));
        output.setEditable(false);
        add(title, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        add(choicePanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        add(output, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        final ButtonGroup group = new ButtonGroup();
        final String saveCommand = "Save";
        final String sortByLN = "Sort by Last Name";
        final String searchLNCommand = "Search By Last Name";
        final String printAPD = "Print address, phone number, and DOB";
        final String printNamesDOB = "Print names of people whose birthday" +
        " falls between 2 dates";
        final String printNamesLN = "Print names of people who fall" +
        " between 2 last names";
        final String printPType = "Print all family members, friends, or" +
        " business associates";
    private JPanel createSimpleDialogBox(){
        radioButtons[0] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Save the address file</html>");
        radioButtons[0].setActionCommand(saveCommand);
        radioButtons[1] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Sort the address file by last name</html>");
        radioButtons[1].setActionCommand(sortByLN);
        radioButtons[2] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Search the address file by last name</html>");
        radioButtons[2].setActionCommand(searchLNCommand);
        radioButtons[3] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print the address, phone number, and DOB of a specified" +
          " person</html>");
        radioButtons[3].setActionCommand(printAPD);
        radioButtons[4] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print the names of people whose birthday falls between" +
          " two dates</html>");
        radioButtons[4].setActionCommand(printNamesDOB);
        radioButtons[5] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print the names of people who fall between two" +
          " specified last names</html>");
        radioButtons[5].setActionCommand(printNamesLN);
        radioButtons[6] = new JRadioButton(
          "<html>Print all family members, friends, <u>OR</u>" +
          " business associates</html>");
        radioButtons[6].setActionCommand(printPType);
        for (int i=0; i<numButtons; i++){
            group.add(radioButtons);
//set the first button (open file) to be selected
radioButtons[0].setSelected(true);
return createPane(radioButtons, process);
private JPanel createPane(JRadioButton[] radioButtons,
JButton showButton) {
int numChoices = radioButtons.length;
JPanel box = new JPanel();
box.setLayout(new BoxLayout(box, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
for (int i = 0; i < numChoices; i++) {
box.add(radioButtons[i]);
JPanel pane = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
pane.add(box, BorderLayout.NORTH);
pane.add(showButton, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
return pane;
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
String command = group.getSelection().getActionCommand();
//else if button pushed is save
if (command == saveCommand){
// save file
//else if button pushed is search by last name
else if (command == sortByLN){
// search by last name
//else if button pushed is sort by last name
else if (command == searchLNCommand){
// sort by last name
// print to screen
//else if button pushed is display address, ph#, dob
else if (command == printAPD){
// display "search by last name" dialog
// search last names
// if last name found
// print data
// else
// print error notification "person not found"
//else if button pushed is list names of people whose
//bday between 2 days
else if (command == printNamesDOB){
// ask for which dates
// search bday
// print to screen
//else if button pushed is print names of people between 2 last names
else if (command == printNamesDOB){
// ask for which two last names
// search last names
// if people found
// print to screen
//else
//print error notification "no one found"
//else if button pushed is print all family members, friends
//or business associates
else if (command == printPType){
//ask for what person type
//search person types
//if people found
//print to screen
//else print "no one found"
public class AddressBookEntry{
private extPerson address;
private String date;
private extPerson ExtPerson;
* Create the GUI and show it. For thread safety,
* this method should be invoked from the
* event-dispatching thread.
public static void createAndShowGUI(){
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JDialog.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Address Book Program");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
Container c = frame.getContentPane();
c.add(new AddressBook(frame));
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
public static void main (String s[]){
//Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
//creating and showign this application's GUI
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
createAndShowGUI();
//PERSON
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
public class Person{
protected String lastName, firstName;
private String address;
private String city;
private String state;
private String zipcode;
private String homephone;
private String extPersonType;
private String bday;
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-mm-DD");
public void parseString(String s) {
          try {
          lastName = s.substring(0,s.indexOf(","));
          firstName = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+1);
address = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+2);
city = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+3);
state = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+4);
zipcode = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+5);
homephone = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+6);
extPersonType = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+7);
bday = s.substring(s.indexOf(",")+8);
catch(StringIndexOutOfBoundsException sbe) {
          JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error " +
"in Person: Could not parse the line "+s);
public String toString() {
return lastName+","+firstName+","+address+","+city+","+
state+","+zipcode+","+homephone+","+bday+","+extPersonType;
public void setLName(String last) {
lastName=last;
public void setFName(String first){
firstName=first;
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
public String getFirstName() {
return lastName;
public Person() {
lastName="";
firstName="";
public Person(String first, String last){
setLName(last);
setFName(first);
//Set the address and return it
public void setAddress( String addr ){
address = addr;
public String getAddress(){
return address;
//set the city and return it
public void setCity( String town ){
city = town;
public String getCity(){
return city;
//set the state and return it
public void setState( String st )
state = st;
public String getState()
return state;
//Set the zip code and return it
public void setZipCode( String zip ){
zipcode = zip;
public String getZipCode(){
return zipcode;
//Set the home phone and return it
public void setHomePhone( String homeph ){
homephone = homeph;
public String getHomePhone(){
return homephone;
//Set the bday and return it
public String getBday(){
return bday;
public void setBday(String newBday) {
bday = newBday;
dateFormat.format(bday);
//Set the extPerson type and return it
public String getPType(){
return extPersonType;
public void setPBusiness(){
extPersonType = "Business Associate";
public void setPFamily(){
extPersonType = "Family Member";
public void setPFriend(){
extPersonType = "Friend";
public Person(String data) {
parseString(data);
//EXTPERSON
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.io.*;
import java.lang.*;
//new clss extPerson
public class extPerson extends Person {
     int MAX_PEOPLE=500;
     BufferedReader bf;
String lname,fname,street,city,state,zip,phone,persontype,bday;
String FILE_NAME="AddressBook.txt";
public String toString() {
          StringBuffer sb=new StringBuffer();
          for (int i=0; i<nPeople; i++)
          sb=sb.append(group1[i]+"\n");
          return sb.toString();
     public void save() {
          try {
          PrintWriter pw=new PrintWriter(FILE_NAME);
          for (int i=0; i<nPeople; i++)
          pw.println(group1[i]+",");
          pw.close();
     catch (FileNotFoundException fne) {
               System.out.println("Could not Save "+FILE_NAME);
public extPerson() {
          group1=new extPerson[MAX_PEOPLE];
          nPeople=0;
     public boolean insert(String data) {
          if (nPeople<MAX_PEOPLE) {
          Person guy = new Person(data);
          group1[nPeople]=guy;
          nPeople++;
          return true;
     else {
     JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Error in People" +
"::insert: Max size reached.");
     return false;
Person group1[];
int nPeople;

Can different family member accounts share an address book in iCloud?

we have a primary mobileme account which is now set up in icloud. we have a family pack with a secondary family member account set up for my wife's business email. This secondary account now also has its own icloud account that we set up. Works fine. The question is this - when my wife is logged in to her icloud secondary account and looking at her work-related emails, how can she access the addresses in the address book that is linked to the main icloud account? She is usually working from a PC so it's not a matter of just looking at the local copy of the address book. She needs to log out of the secondary icloud account, log in to the primary, look up the address, and then go back to the secondary account to send the email from her work email address. Too cumbersome. And icloud does not seem to like having two instances of icloud running at the same time on the same computer.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks -
Joel

You're welcome.
Happy Holidays to you and your family.
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How can I add an e-mail address to my address book from an e-mail?

Someone sends me an e-mail and I do not have their e-mail in my Thunderbird address book. Is there a way to enter their information into my address book without having to retype it all into my address book. In other e-mail programs that I have used, all I needed to do was click on the message and then click on a drop-down menu item that would simply copy all of the contact information into a new address book entry. Is it possible to do that in Thunderbird?

When viewing a message in a tab or the message pane there is a star to the right of the senders address. If the star is filled with color the address is already in one of your address books. If the star is not filled, click the star to add them. Click the star a second time to open the edit dialog box to add more details to the contact.
This is not the same star that is to the left of the message header when viewing the inbox.

Is there a way of persuading iCloud to sync the smart groups I have in address book on my Mac

I have a small number of smart groups in address book on my iMac. but these do not sync through iCloud to my Macbook or iPod touch. Everythin else syncs even ordinary groups, but not the smart groups. Is there a way of persuading iCloud to do it? I can fully sync my Macbook contacts by exporting an archive from the iMac and then comying and importing this to the Macbook. But this is old technology.

longfellow39 wrote:
.......Is there a way of persuading iCloud to do it? ........
Unfortunately not.

Some of the entries in my address book show birthdays one day/year earlier in Ical. I cannot change this except by putting in the birthdays a day/year earlier than they are. Why is this happening only for some entiries and not others?

Some of the birthdays I have entered in Address book appear in my Ical one day and one year earlier than the date I have given. Eg. I have entered a birthday in Address book as 23 March 2011 and it appears in Ical as being on 22 March 2010. Other names have no problems. There are only some that do not appear with the correct date and year. Why is this? Has anyone found how to correct this strange problem? I have Time Zones ticked.
Bronze2011

I'm having this exact same problem, but it's doing it with a bunch of birthdays. I also did 0001 when I didn't know the birth year, so I went back and did a more current year, but they still aren't showing up where they should be...or at all. It's completely bizarre.

List view in Address Book

I have recently upgraded to Snow Leopard, but notice in Address Book that prefixes(Mr, Mrs etc) do not appear in the list view, but do on the card. In Leopard the prefixes appear in both views. Is this just a fault in the program, or can it be rectified?

I'm going to bump this up - I, too have this problem/question. Any suggestions?

Numbers/Address Book and Google Maps

I would love to integrate my spreadsheet of addresses or my Address Book with Google Maps.
Is this possible? Somehow?
I take a lot of trips across the country and don't always know when I will be driving by my friends. But if I had a map I could glance at to see where they all are, I would know that I could schedule a lunch with a friend halfway or something like that.
I have heard about MapPoint, but don't know if there is anything like this that is free/affordable/non-MS.
Thanks!

Integrating in Numbers would not be automatic. You'd have to format links to assign to each address.
I've seen plug-ins to use Google maps with Address Book. Try a search on MacUpdate or VersionTracker for Address Book.
I think one of the features for Address Book in Leopard is integration with Google maps.

Synching iphone/contacts & macbook/address book no longer works

I've had an iphone 3G and macbook pro for about 2 years and until now they've synched just fine. Today I cleaned up my address book on the mac (eliminated some duplicates, added, renamed, and deleted groups, updated individuals' information) and then synched my iphone with my mac using itunes. (I don't have a mobileme account.)
A few of the changes I made to address book (e.g., new contacts) were updated in contacts on the iphone, but most were not. It didn't update changes to existing contacts and the groups were not changed. Updates to ical and safari bookmarks were synched just fine.
Here are the things I've tried without success:
1. In itunes info tab, under address book I selected "all contacts," deselected all other updates (ical, etc.) except address book, and then synched.
2. Same as above, PLUS in the advanced section, under "replace information on this phone" I selected contacts. then I synched.
3. Same as #1 above, except instead of "all contacts" I selected "selected groups" and checked all the groups listed, and then synched.
4. I rebooted the macbook and repeated the steps above.
5. I opened isync and selected "reset sync history." then I repeated steps 1 and 2 above.
I also tested making a change to a contact on the iphone to see if the change was made on the mac. It was not.
About 2 months ago I upgraded to snow leopard. It's possible this problem has been going on since then, and I just didn't notice until today when I made all the changes to address book.
I don't know what to try next. Please help.

status update -- I tried a lot of other things but finally solved the problem after I removed all the groups from mac address book. (thank-you to my son Ben)
FYI -- along the way I tried doing the reset sync history, which deleted all contacts from the iphone. I initially thought that was a good thing, until I discovered that nothing I tried after that would put the contacts back on the iphone. Next I restored factory settings on the iphone and set up as a new user, but that didn't work either. Or maybe it did; maybe deleting the groups wouldn't have solved the problem if I hadn't deleted all contacts and reset the iphone first.

My address book and iPhone pics have become low resolution. Is there a way I can prevent this from happening when I start out with a higher resolution picture?

I guess I squeezed my entire issue into the subject line. lol When I sync my iphone to my laptop I notice that all my address book pics and iphone pics have become lower resolution, even though I started out with the resolution that I really needed to produce decenty address book printouts. I doubt I can correct the losses of resolution that have occurred but can anyone help me figure out how to prevent future losses? Thank you!

Plugins usually are installed externally to Firefox. However, you can disable them in Firefox so that Firefox does not use them.
SearchReset is supposed to automate the task of resetting certain preferences, but you still can edit them manually if necessary.
'''''Address Bar Search'''''
(1) In a new tab, type or paste '''about:config''' in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the filter box, type or paste '''keyword''' and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Right-click '''keyword.URL''' and choose Reset. This should restore Google as the default for address bar search.
Does that work?
'''''Search Box'''''
Usually it works to choose your preferred search engine from the drop-down. To remove an unwanted search engine plugin, usually the Manage Search Engines... choice at the bottom of the drop-down takes care of it.
Do either of those work?
There might be another way to hijack that search box; I think some of the other frequent responders probably are more familiar with it than I am.

Address Book - multiple access

Hello
I run a small office network of 5 macs and a server all running OSX 10.4, and we really need to all access the same Address Book. So far the only way this seems possible is by syncing the address books between different users, which doesn't really work properly, or by running an LDAP directory on the server, which I have no idea how to set up.
This must be a very common problem for small offices who need to share contact information. I used to use a simple programme called QuickDex which everyone could access on the server, which has now been update for OSX, but would rather use Address Book as its easily accessed from Mail.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help much appreciated
Thanks
Buddy

Go to www.xcnetwork.com
you'll find a very userul service for sharing contacts or iCal events.
We are using it in our small office and it works great

Lack of Address Book Sync

I just got off the phone with Apple Care support. They said "the iPod has always been a one way street" and it only adds contacts from your computer to the iPod Touch not from the iPod Touch to the Address Book.
I was dumb founded by such a stupid statement. I mean I can enter a "calendar item" and it syncs with iCal why nit also address book?
Makes no sense to me at all. Has anyone been able to sync contacts from iPod Touch to Address Book?

Unfortunately you must have been talking to someone on day one at AppleCare. The +iPod touch+ certainly does sync two ways. In fact nowadays I only update contacts on my +iPod touch+ and sync them back to my Macs.
Have you actually tried a sync?
cheers
mrtotes

I upgraded to Snow Leopard, made a change to Address Book that I need to correct, tried to use Time Machine to find the prior version and it keeps pulling up the later ones info. How do I use Time Machine to restore Address Book from a few hours ago?

This morning, I upgraded to Snow Leopard from v10.5.8. Then, I exported 11 contacts from our old Now Contact database, intending to import that info into Address Book. It was an experiment, as we have 1199 contacts in 20+ categories and want to eventually get them into Bento from Address Book. The export automatically created a file called Export.vcf on the desktop, after I highlighted the 11 contacts. I tried to look at the info, but when clicked it opens Address Book, which then simply asked if I wanted to import the 11 contacts to it. I clicked yes. Then in checking Address Book 7, not 11 contacts appeared. I clicked on "All Contacts" and there were 1630. We only have 1199, so where did the extra 400+ come from? Since I had already clicked twice on the Address Book window, I couldn't undo the import. So I thought 'Ok, I'll trash Address Book and go to Time Machine, find Address Book, go to right after the upgrade to SL, hit Restore and bingo. Nope. I keep getting the post-import info, not pre. Con someone direct me to a solution? I want to get rid of the import contacts plus the extra 300 or so ( I already had a hundred or so in several categories)? Then, I need to figure out (1) why ALL the old records were exported from Now Contact, (2) where they were hiding in that .vcf file when Address Book recognized that I only wanted to export 11, (3) why Address Book showed only 7 imports in the "Last Import" group, but showed ALL my contacts in the "All Contact" group, even though they should nearly all have been safely untouched in the Now Contact DBase file. PS, I am not especially computer savvy. Thanks for any enlightenment.

Booting From Snow Leopard Installer Disc
1. Insert Snow Leopard Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Drive Preparation and Installation
1. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. After formatting is complete quit DU and return to the installer. Install Snow Leopard.

Address Book Oddities

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