Address Book repetitive crashes since last updates ?

Question

Hello,
I do apologize for the length of this post but I don't know how to shorten it without removing some details useful to understand the problem encountered.
My sister has got an intel iMac with Tiger 10.4.10 and since last updates (10.4.9 and/or 10.4.10) she cannot use AB more than some seconds. It crashes consistently everytime it is open, even if no other action is done. There are also problems with iChat, iCal, Safari and Mail (but less than with AB).
When I visited her recently, I had a look to the console (even though I'm far from being an expert myself but I tried to find a track before asking here).
I noticed that for both crashes (Safari and AB), there was this mention :
quote
+CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:+
+ /Users/nnnnn/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/MetaData/.info+
+ The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.+
+Error in createMutableDictionaryValue:1012 for property 'URLs' 'XML parser error:+
+ Unexpected character = at line 1+
+Old-style plist parser error:+
+ Unexpected character '0x3d' at line 1+
+Aug 23 19:03:07 Ordinateur-2-nnnnn crashdump[465]: Exited process crashed+
+Aug 23 19:03:07 Ordinateur-2-nnnnn crashdump[465]: crash report written to: /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Exited process.crash.log+
unquote
because of the "+not proper UTF8+" I tried to change it in AB preferences/vCard/encodage in "+proper UTF8+" and because of "+Old-style plist parser: error Unexpected character+" I tried to check and validate fonts of Fontbook. Unsuccessfully.
Back home, I searched on the web and read somewhere that there could be a problem with the "catalog" that could only be repaired by DiskUtility from the install disk. That was done today but the "*hard disk seems to be OK*" and AB crashed as usual when open.
there were two crash reports, one for AB and one for ABsync (? curious since she has no .mac account and does not sync her mobile phone).
The AB crashlog(1) finishes so :
quote
+Thread 3 Crashed:+
+0 <<00000000>> 0xffff0b54 __memcpy + 948 (cpu_capabilities.h:228)+
+1 ...apple.AddressBook.framework 0x9478a9f7 c4_Column::FetchBytes(long, int, c4_Bytes+
unquote
and the ABSync crashlog(2) :
quote
+Thread 0 Crashed:+
+0 <<00000000>> 0xffff0af6 __memcpy + 854 (cpu_capabilities.h:228)+
+1 ...apple.AddressBook.framework 0x9478a9f7 c4_Column::FetchBytes(long, int, c4_Bytes+
unquote
and finally when I asked her for a screenshot of her ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook, I was surprised (comparing with my folder) to find she has three ABPerson.skIndexInverted files (I have only one) the second file is ABPerson.skIndexInverted.218 and the third ABPerson.skIndexInverted.286.
I suppose two are toomuch but which ones have to be delete ...
Sorry for this (too) long post and hope the light will come from some reader better educated in hard and softwares than us.
(1) (2) I have a longer version of these crashlogs but this post is already very long and I'll post them only on request (if needed)!

Answer 1

Hello Josy.
After fixing the filesystem issues, which you say you’ve already done, try re-creating the Address Book files that may have become corrupt, one at a time, as follows — or restore them from a backup if you have one:
1. 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.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/. Make a backup copy of this folder, e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down. This is where all your contacts are stored.
3. Go to ~/Library/Preferences/. Move com.apple.AddressBook.plist and com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist (if it exists) out of there (e.g. to the Desktop). Check whether the problem is fixed.
4. If Address Book keeps crashing, go to ~/Library/Caches/ and move the Address Book and com.apple.AddressBook folders to the Trash (there is no need to empty the Trash yet). Check whether the problem is fixed.
5. If Address Book keeps crashing, go to ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ and trash any ABPerson.skIndex files you may see there. Check whether the problem is fixed.
6. If Address Book keeps crashing, try again trashing both AddressBook.data and any ABPerson.skIndex files that may have been re-created, then rename AddressBook.data.previous to AddressBook.data.
7. If Address Book keeps crashing, try moving the entire AddressBook folder out of ~/Library/Application Support/.
The above procedure may introduce synchronization issues if you use .Mac or iSync to synchronize your Address Book with other computers or devices, so be sure to back up your Address Book data now if the problem is fixed.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the folder path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the folder path there.