Address Book Restore

Hi,
I own a macbook and I wanted to restore a previous backup of my address book from Time Machine but when I try to do it (I go into Time Machine, select a previous backup, select Address Book from the applications and hit Restore) I get a message reading "Address Book cannot be modifed or deleted because it is needed by Mac OS X".
Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can restore a deleted contact to my address book?
THX
Ibro

Open Address Book, then from the Menu Bar, select "Enter Time Machine" and search for the missing contact

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Address book restore in Lion 10.7.2

For some reason iCloud just accidentally deleted all my address book items. I was then trying to restore them from a time machine backup. Before in Snow Leopard you were able to restore single addresses by opening time machine when the address book was running (in time machine right-clicking on a single address and then hitting restore). When I do that now in Lion the only two options I can see when I right click on a time machine address are "export vcard" and "spotlight: name" ... nothing that will really restore my addresses.
Has anyone any idea how to restore addresses from a time machine backup in Lion?

to b99
Let me apologize to you on giving some inaccurate information. I'm really suprised nobody came in to correct me on this. For some reason or other I was under the impression you could import contacts from the database file (AddressBook-v22.abcddb), but that's not correct.
In your Home Library, Application support folder, AddressBook folder:
For local contacts on the computer, the AddressBook-v22.abcddb file is the database file for your contacts. Contacts are stored in the Metadata folder.
If you are using iCloud, your info for contacts is stored in the Sources folder. There will be a file there that is used for iCloud. You will need to determine which is correct. The file name will change each time you sign in and out of iCloud. In that folder, you will find another AddressBook-v22.abcddb database file used by iCloud and another Metadata folder where the iCloud contacts are stored.
If you merge contacts and not storing any on the computer (On My Mac), the contacts will be deleted from the Metadata folder in the main AddressBook folder. They will only be under the iCloud folder in Sources.
To restore from TM, open AB and enter TM. Go back to the date you want to restore from, select all contacts to restore, and hit restore. It should Import the contacts to AB.

How on earth do I restore my old Address Book from Time Machine?

Problem: I really, really need to retrieve someone's number. I know it'll be in an old version of my Address Book. I can see when I open time Machine that my address book is backed up, but no matter the date I go to, it says the Address Book was last modified in 2012! I know for a fact I've updated (and backed up) the Address Book many times since then.
Whenever I try to restore the Address Book, I do Time Machine > Applications > Address Book > 'restore'. But whenever I do this, the mac refuses to open the restored Address Book because it's 'required by mac OS X'.
I don't understand.
Please, how on earth do I dredge my Address Book from the depths of Time Machine?
Please help!
M

Look at Q15 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
There are separate sections for iphoto and itunes.
It has to be so complicated because Apple made TM to do too much and be too many things to too many people.. a horse designed by a committee. It has become flakey in later editions.
If you still have the iMac you can move the files directly from the source.. you don't need to use TM backups at all.

Lost all contacts in Address Book. How can I restore them?

I have inadvertently deleted all my contacts from Address Book, as a result of trying to delete them all from MS Outlook. (I deleted them from Outlook and they all vanished from Address Book too)
I gather I can restore them using Time Machine, which I have set up on a Time Capsule, but I've never used it before.
What is it that I restore to get my contacts back into Address Book please? I have tried restoring Address Book itself, but that doesn't seem to restore my contacts.

restoring the address book, restores the application but not the files.
Launch Address Book application and while opened, Launch the Time machine by clicking on its icon on the dock. Go back in time, confirm if you see all your contacts. This is what you need to establish and KNOW first else forget Time machine since its not there.
If its there, select all your contacts command + A then hit restore
If its not there. It will be difficult bringing it back, il be honest. you can go for data recovery but that's 50-50

Can't restore address book from Desktop Software 6.0.0.43

To my regret, I had to do a security wipe in order to activate my Blackberry 8830 (World Edition) with my company's BES. (I had used BES in the past with a different company.)
Now, I'm trying to do a custom restore of address book contacts and memos from a backup file ("Blackberry 8830.ipd") using Desktop Software 6.0.0.42
I see that I have 269 address book entries and 2 memos in the restore window, so I assume that the backup file has not been corrupted.
When I click "Restore," I do not get any error messages, but no contacts appear in my Phone Book after I get the successful restore confirmation -- except for the generic Customer Care entry which I had retrieved from my Phone SIM card.
I am aware of Issue DT755153 from http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartphone_users/deliverables/18351/BlackBerry_Desktop_Software-Releas...
Could a permissions or synch setting on my company's BES be the cause of my address book restore problem? I'm not sure if understand the full implications of DT755153. I am afraid of doing a full restore because I don't want to mess with my BES activation.
Can I manually change/delete a setting in the Service Book that would allow me to complete my restore?
Other Notes:
1) I have checked my address book database size after each restore and it's still 1KB (that 1 record).
2) I have checked for other contacts on my phone SIM card.
3) I have not switched phones or devices.
4) I tried rebooting my phone by pulling out the battery (while it was still on), but still no luck.
I would appreciate any other suggestions. I really need access to my contacts from my backup file!!!
Cheers,
TK

Hey Lenfrancis,
Welcome to the BlackBerry Support Community Forums.
Do you have any other email accounts setup like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail? If you do, you might need to remove the *email address {SYNC}* service book prior to setting up the synchronization.
-ViciousFerret
Come follow your BlackBerry Technical Team on Twitter! @BlackBerryHelp
Be sure to click Like! for those who have helped you.
Click Accept as Solution for posts that have solved your issue(s)!

Help with restoring Address Book from Time Machine

Problem: I really, really need to retrieve someone's number. I know it'll be in an old version of my Address Book. I can see when I open time Machine that my address book is backed up, but no matter the date I go to, it says the Address Book was last modified in 2012! I know for a fact I've updated (and backed up) the Address Book many times since then.
Whenever I try to restore the Address Book, I do Time Machine > Applications > Address Book > 'restore'. But whenever I do this, the mac refuses to open the restored Address Book because it's 'required by mac OS X'.
I don't understand.
Please, how on earth do I dredge my Address Book from the depths of Time Machine?
Please help!
M

Hello mb9236,
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing with restoring a contact from Time Machine.
It sounds like you are trying to restore the Address Book application. The Address Book application is just the application and does not include the content in Address Book.
Instead, you will want to open Address Book and then launch Time Machine and restore your contacts from there. Use the steps below to restore your contacts form a previous date (in step one instead of opening Mail or Finder, be sure you have Address Book open and in focus):
If you use Time Machine to back up your computer, you can easily bring back one or more items you’ve lost, or recover older versions of files you’ve changed.
Open a window for the item you want to restore. For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. If you want to recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail.
If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock, or open the Time Machine menu in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine. If you back up to a Time Capsule or other network disk, a message briefly appears while Time Machine connects your computer to the backup disk.
Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through all the snapshots and backups Time Machine created. Gray tick marks on the timeline represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk.
If you need more information about an item, double-click to preview it. The windows in Time Machine behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, and then click Restore. You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk. The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder. Time Machine may ask if you want to re-create one or more folders in order to return a restored item to its original location.
If an item you restore has the same name as another item on your computer, you’re asked if you want to keep the current item, the restored item, or both.
You can use Time Machine from within many applications. For example, you can open Address Book and then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock to recover contacts you may have accidentally deleted, or open iPhoto and then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock to view past versions of your iPhoto albums.
OS X Lion: Restore items backed up with Time Machine
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH4256
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Address book keeps a name I delete

I keep deleting the name of the person in a company card, and every time address book restores it.
I don't want it, the person doesn't work there anymore, I need to delete it, I tried evrything, even deleting the card and making it new. Plus, I can't find the command "delete from previous recipients" in Mail and I believe that's why it keeps coming back. What can I do?
Thank you
Silvia

Plus, I can't find the command "delete from previous recipients" in Mail
Did you check Window > Previous Recipients in Mail to delete that address?
Mulder

All Address Book cards missing

Came in to work and started my Mac and went to send an email to a staff member and their email address didn't pop up after the first three letters?
Went to check Address Book and all cards are missing! I've been reading other posts and the difference for me was that I wasn't doing anything like transferring files or-the-like; very weird.
Only OS thing I did the day before was to set it to log out when in active for 70mins. Otherwise no change??
I did download Address Book restore files from my iDisk using BackUp and downloaded a file: AddressBook.data, but Address Book won't import or read this file so I can't restore my cards.
Please help, as you can appreciate loosing all contacts is very serious. With thanks. W

The information given in the thread *Manually transfer Address Book* should help sort this for you

Time Machine backup automatically deletes address book

I accidentally deleted all contacts in address book. When i attempt to restore the address book from time machine, the address book is restored then automatically deletes all contacts again.

In case it will help anyone else, this is the rather complicated procedure worked out with Apple Support to restore Address Book to an earlier state. Hopefully Apple will consider a switch of some sort to restart or re-initialize the contacts which would greatly simplify the procedure.
If using iCloud, uncheck Contacts box in System Preferences>iCloud
Quit Address Book
Restore Address Book folder in User/LIbrary/Application Support to previous version with Time Machine
Trash all Address Book preferences in User Library/Preferences
Log Out/In or Restart
Start Address Book and verify desired address book version is now available
If not using iCloud you are done, otherwise you need to create new Address Book Folder with current file dates that contains desired previous data
First Go to Web version of iCloud Contacts and erase all contacts
From Address Book Export vCard with All Contacts
Export vCard for each manually defined group
Quit Address Book
Trash Address Book folder in User/Library/Application Support
Trash all Address Book preferences in User Library/Preferences
Log Out/In or Restart
Start Address Book and Import vCard with All Contacts
Import vCard for each defined group one at a time and:
Check review duplicates and keep new
Select Last Import for each group and manually assign to Group Name
Re-Check Contacts box in System Preferences>iCloud
New address book should populate to iCloud and other devices

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.

How to restore mail and address book?

I recently had to reformat my hard drive and I had backed up my entire home directory. I would like to either restore everything in these two programs, or consolidate the data with that on another computer. Where do I find the files? I assumed it would be in Library somewhere, but I can't find them, what are they called, and how do I get the data back into the programs?

You will find the Mail data in /Home/Library/Mail/. Address Book and iCal data are in /Home/Library/Applications Support/. The preference files are in /Home/Library/Preferences/ and will begin with "com.apple.".
Copy the appropriate files and folders to their corresponding locations on your computer.

Backing Up And Restoring Address Book

To my dismay I have to completely reinstall my operating system, which happens to be OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4. I need to back-up my address book to my external hard drive and then put it back the way it was after the OS install. Can someone please walk me through the process? Keep in mind I need to retain my Groups. Thanks so much for any assistance.

Are you using Time Machine? If so, and you ensure you have an up-to-date backup, then you can just restore your home folder when Migration Assistant asks you, by using Time Machine. This is, by far, the best way to do this.
If you want to do it the hard way (and if you run into issues, maybe no support ) then back up your ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder, and restore it to your new install in the same location. The address book info is in there (named AddressBook-v22.abcddb likely), as well as some other folders that have things like image caches (what's displayed next to contacts in Mail).

How can I restore my Address Book from Time Machine, iCloud keeps overwriting

This was all done on my MacBook Pro, using Mavericks updated. With the Address Book, and iCloud.
Ok, this is really a mess. I have close to a 1,000 contacts in my address book. I'm not going to manually sort them. I have a bunch of groups in my address book. These groups are very important, and not something simple to sort out. I have already read this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18790074?searchText=How%20can%20I%20restor e%20my%20Address%20Book%20from%20Time%20Machine,%20iCloud%20keeps%20overwriting# 18790074
My situation is similar, and yet a little different.
I accidentally deleted a group in my address book. So, with my handy dandy Time Machine backup, I quickly went into Time Machine, and restored the group. However, I was connected to the internet, and iCloud promptly deleted the nicely restored group. So I went into Time Machine again, and restored the username/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder. Again, opened the Address Book, was content to see my group was intact and there. After about 20 seconds it disappeared before my very eyes. I was now starting to get frustrated. iCloud had again erased my ‘restored’ group.
          I promptly disconnected from the internet, restored my address book, and exported a copy in abbu format. I then reconnected to the internet, and as I expected, iCloud once again deleted my ‘restored group’. I then imported my abbu ‘backup’ file, and everything was once again intact… for about 20 seconds before iCloud again deleted my group.
          Ignorantly, I deleted everything in my address book (while connected to the internet). I then allowed iCloud to update everything. After it seemed like it was done (it doesn’t tell you what is going on). I went ahead and imported my abbu file. This again resulted in nothing in my address book. I again disconnected from the internet, and imported the abbu file. I then exported all my contacts and each group in the vcf format. I started importing each group into iCloud.com online, and everything was working smoothly. Then, it started getting errors, and not importing all the contacts.
          OBVIOUSLY there is a bug, or problem, or something wrong here. iCloud is being extremely stubborn, and extremely un-friendly to it’s user. I’m kind of at my wits end with this. If anyone has any ideas, I really could use some help I think that iCloud could use some help too. Perhaps some lessons in politeness. Perhaps a lesson in ‘restoration.’ Perhaps a compatibility with Apples own Time Machine??? Please any help would greatly be appreciated!
Shane

I don't know why you moved the app. Move the application back into your "Applications" folder which is where it belongs and should always stay. Then drag the app down to your Dock, if the Dock icon is not there already.
Now, open AddressBook. The click on the TM icon on your Dock. Now do you see the TM screen with AB open? Good. Use the TM time arrow back button until AB appears the way it used to be. Then click restore.
-mj
[email protected]

TS1717 was updating my phone and now is frozen with the iTunes and an emblem of a usb cable wants me to restore my phone. last time i hit restore it cleared my phone to original settings and lost my address book.

I updated my Iphone 4 today and it gave me a message that an error occurred downloading itunes and that i need to restore my phone to use itunes. now my phone is froze with an emblem of iTunes and a USB end with an arrow showing. can turn the phone off and on and emblem comes back. last time i restored my phone it erased my address book. rather not do that. any suggestions? i may be running low on storage space?

Place the device in DFU mode (google it) and restore.

How do I restore a lost address book from time machine

a address book that I have name is gone how do I restore it

See How do I restore my entire system?

Address Book Restore

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