Address Book vs. Backup?

I recently upgraded my hard drive. Before swapping the drives out in my MacBook Pro, I did a backup of my Home Folder so that all my documents and settings would be saved.
After installing MacOS onto the new drive, I then Restored the backup. Everything looked fine. All of my files were there (iPhoto, Documents, etc.) with one notable exception... My Address Book is completely empty.
When I look in the AddressBook folder in Library, I see a file there called AddressBook.data.beforesave that is 4.8MB in size. I assume that file has all of my old addresses in it. Is there some way to import that data back into my Address Book?
Thanks for any help you can provide...

Never mind... further research yielded the answer. I deleted the file that ended in .data. I then renamed the file that ended in .beforesave so that it ended with .data. This restored my address book. Woohoo!!!!

Similar Messages

Address Book no longer syncs with google contacts

After my switch to Lion, I'm noticing that my address book no longer syncs with my google contacts??
After I update my contacts in address book, it doesn't show up on google contacts and vice versa.
Is anyone else exprienceing this?

¡¡¡Ok, Something worked for me!!!
I have my address book empty, and then this is what I did:
1- Copy Address book app to downloads (or other folder) just to back it up
2- Install AppCleaner
3- Drag and Drop address book ap into app cleaner, make sure that it references to several files (all .plist files etc.) If there are no external references then try to drag and drop your backup, do it until you see the rest of references (uncheck address book widget)
4- After press clean in AppCleaner, it will delete everything.
5- Put back your address book app backup into your applications folder
6- Open it and if your are lucky you will see all the contacts again, they were like hidden....
Then I deleted all the contacts again and set up google account in preferences again, after that it syncs fine!!!
Good Luck!

Why doesn't my address book sync with my phone?

Hi everybody,
I have used isync with my Nokia 6230 ever since I got my first Macbook Pro (had loads of trouble with the first one, and finally support changed it for me: LONG STORY). Today, I was syncing my phone as I normally do and I noticed that nothing happened. To my surprise, I looked at the phone only to find duplicate (sometimes triplicate) entries of every single contact. I erased all duplicate entries (real hard work..) and tried syncing it again. What happened was that the whole address book in my mac got erased. After that I tried to sync it again and again, but the contacts simply did not leave my cell phone and enter the computer's address book. They still don't and I'm pretty annoyed :-S!
I tried all the back up routine but nothing worked... I guess all the sync tries ended up ruining the address book's backup system. Since I did not make a backup of my address, I'm pretty stuck. Fortunately everything is in my cell phone but, as I said, I can't put it back in the address book for an unknown reason.
Any thoughts on what I should do?
Thank you very much in advance
João

Thank you Julian, I think your idea might end up in a solution.
Even though my phone (Nokia 6230) doesn't have the "Send all contacts" option, I tried to send an individual vCard for testing purposes: the address book accepted it with arms wide open (like that silly Creed song). Because I'm stubborn, I tried to sync my phone with my one-contact address book and ended up with two different people on my phone with exactly the same name and number (along with everybody else fortunately...).
I'm guessing if I do this for the WHOLE cell phone contact list, I'll have an address book on my mac by Christmas eve . I'll mark this question as answered when I'm done doing this and follow the rest of your advice.
This raises two important questions:
- What happened in the first place?
- Is Apple going to develop a more complete syncing software where weird things such as these do not happen?
Any thoughts on these issues? It really annoys me when I don't understand what's wrong with the equipment I use...
Thank you for your time and patience.
João

Couldn't Open the Address Book Database - Database is Corrupted

I get this error message anytime I attempt to modify a record in the address book. I also get this error when attempting to create a new group. I've attempted to restore the Address Book from backups via Time Machine as far 6 months ago.
I also did some poking around on the web and found an article advising to delete .plist files associated with the Address Book from my user > Library > Preferences Directory.
I did this but it continues to give this error.
I really need to update the Address Book or even export what I have and start fresh from reimporting my contacts. I don't know how to do this.
Any help is much appreciated.

I followed the advice of Golden Shoes and everything appeared to work. I found out that I had spoken too soon. The next time I opened the Address Book none of the contacts were there. So, I've been doing an import when I need contact information. I import the vcard of all of the contacts I had exported. But, if I click on the File menu to Save them the Save option is greyed out and not available.
I thought that I might need a reinstall and my intention on getting Snow Leopard meant that I would wait until I upgraded to perform that install.
I just upgraded to Snow Leopard and the same problem exists but now it seems to have spread.
Now, if I take the empty address book and add a contact then save the Address Book (The save option is now availalbe). Then close the Address Book, Quite the Address Book and then launch it again, the contact record I added is not there.
Any help that can be provided would be much appreciated. I really want to use the Address Book to manage my contacts.
Thanks in Advance

Lost all data in address book

I turned on my computer and address data is missing. I'm trying to restore it up from my IPAQ (program used The Missing Sync) but can't figure out how.
The address list is also on my IPOD.
How do I get the data from one of these devices back into my Address Book? How did the addresses just disappear? All help appreciated!! I'm stymied.
LTJ
g4 powerbook Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Apparently Address Book 3.1 and Mail 1.3 have bugs in them. I've been having problems with Mail for years. It all by itself redoes the "columns" and "sort by" (View menu), without fail, every month. It has also had a "drafts" folder disappear. Thank goodness I have learned to ALWAYS back up, frequently and keep one set off site.
In terms of Address Book, I daily make address book contact backups (very easy in Address Book from the menu--File--back up data base then choose where) because I KNOW from years of experience it will do the disappearing whenever I do a search (window), change preferences or change from seeing group, name, card to just card. I have a folder on my DT called "In Progress". In it I keep 3 days of Address Book Backups then delete the old ones using Secure Delete. I count on bugs (but am sometimes surprised) and invent workarounds when possible.

Address book - mobile sync mishap

I was experimenting with the Address book sync with my Nokia 6822 and managed to sync successfully my contacts from the phone to the computer. Then I deleted all the contacts that had been recently synced, so I could do it again in a way that would allow me to create different smart folders.
I then tried to sync again and only then I realized I was erasing my entire contact list on my mobile as well. I managed to interrupt the sync and lost only a couple of contacts, but now I'm afraid to try and sync it again and lose them all, which will most likely happen.
What should I do? Delete the device and add it again? Reset my sync history? Give up and feel happy I only lost 2 contacts?

What I want is to be able to re-sync the contacts from my phone to the computer.
There isn't really an option to do this - especially not an easy, guaranteed way of doing it.
Does your phone have a built-in backup contacts function? If so, use that just in case anything happens.
You have 2 options:
1) Send the existing Contacts from the phone as vCards via Bluetooth, then import these into Address Book. Backup Address Book, then reset the device and sync again.
2) Click "Reset sync history" in iSync preferences, then hopefully you should get the option to "Merge" or "Overwrite" the phone on first sync. Choose the Merge option and hopefully Contacts in both the Mac and Phone will be merged together. This option isn't always successful though, so backup first if you can.
Once you have all your Contacts in Address Book as you want them, back them up, then Reset the Device and allow iSync to sync everything back to the phone.

IPhone synching appears to delete almost all entries in Address Book

When I left the house yesterday, Address Book on my MBP had 2,187 contacts in it. When I looked at it this AM, Address Book had 4 entries. My iPhone and another computer, both of which are synched against this computer using dot-mac and iTunes, respectively, seemed unchanged. I didn't launch Address Book on the offending computer during this time.
My first thought was to restore using dot-mac. I went to another computer which syncs against my .mac membership, and I overwrote .mac with local. I then overwrote Address Book on my MBP with dot-mac. Everything seems to have been restored. (I keep regular backups of Address Book because of the large number of sync errors I experience, so I can revert to a backup also).
I then thought to look in my log file, which, I think, pins iTunes synching as the culprit. Here is relevant material from my log file:
6/27/08 4:17:24 PM AddressBookManager[687] Records in database: 2210
6/27/08 4:17:24 PM AddressBookManager[687] Records in metadata: 3469
6/28/08 6:43:14 AM com.apple.launchd[74] ([0x0-0x85085].com.apple.AddressBook.abd[801]) Check-in of Mach service failed. PID 801 is not privileged: com.apple.AddressBook.abd
6/28/08 6:43:16 AM AddressBookManager[801] Records in database: 2210
6/28/08 6:43:16 AM AddressBookManager[801] Records in metadata: 3469
6/28/08 6:44:30 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.apple.iTunes[206] InvalidResponse
6/28/08 6:44:30 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.apple.iTunes[206] Could not disable SIGPIPE on socket
<Above line repeated 187 more times>
6/28/08 6:44:45 AM MDCrashReportTool[821] Successfully submitted the log at /Users/alan/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/Alan's iPhone/mediaserverd-2008-06-27-183310.plist
6/28/08 6:44:45 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.apple.iTunes[206] 2008-06-28 06:44:45.926 MDCrashReportTool[821:10b] Successfully submitted the log at /Users/alan/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/Alan's iPhone/mediaserverd-2008-06-27-183310.plist
6/28/08 6:45:29 AM com.apple.launchd[74] (com.apple.AddressBook.abd[827]) Exited with exit code: 1
6/28/08 6:46:46 AM AddressBookSync[842] There's already an instance of AddressBookSync running.
6/28/08 6:46:46 AM com.apple.launchd[74] ([0x0-0x95095].com.apple.AddressBook.sync[842]) Exited with exit code: 1
6/28/08 6:48:06 AM AddressBookSync[851] There's already an instance of AddressBookSync running.
6/28/08 6:48:06 AM com.apple.launchd[74] ([0x0-0x9b09b].com.apple.AddressBook.sync[851]) Exited with exit code: 1
6/28/08 6:49:17 AM AddressBookManager[863] Records in database: 2210
6/28/08 6:49:17 AM AddressBookManager[863] Records in metadata: 3469
6/28/08 6:50:18 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.apple.iTunes[206] Sending final status from child helper tool back to parent...
6/28/08 6:58:40 AM AddressBookManager[879] Records in database: 24
6/28/08 6:58:40 AM AddressBookManager[879] Records in metadata: 3338
Any thoughts as to why this happened, or what I can do to avoid it in the future?
Alan

Alright, ten minutes later, it's all back and good again.
Doesn't make sense, and I do not know which if any of these steps did it, but here's what I did, in order that I did them:
1. Deleted the file 'com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist,' quit Address Book.
2. In iTunes' iPhone "Info" tab, clicked off all syncing except "Sync Address Book Contacts" and I clicked "Selected Groups" instead of "All Contacts." Then I selected the smallest group I have, just three contacts, so that if they got deleted from the iPhone I wouldn't have to die.
3. Clicked "Apply" Or "Sync" or whichever the button was. It started syncing. I didn't see the SyncAlert window that I expected to see.
4. Sync finished. I opened Address Book and voila, everything was as it should be including the new contact I made this morning on my iPhone before seeing that all this happened on my Mac.
And now step 5. In Address Book, File>Backup Address Book to my documents and my external backup drive and my dot Mac, and realize that syncing isn't doing that for me. Add this file to my regular weekly backups.
Hope this helps.

Address Book and iCal Server backups

I'm working to implement a company-wide Address Book, iCal, and iChat server via Lion Server where I work, and I've gotten most of the setup figured out (I think), and am approaching the point where I can roll it out to a few users for further testing. However, before I'm allowed to move forward any further w/ it I have to have two means of backing up in place and ready to be rolled out at the same time as the server—so I'm planning on using Time Machine as one so it does the entirety of the server and its data/settings, but they also want me to do one of the Address Book Server and iCal Server databases individually, like back up the folder the data is, so we can, if ever necessary, import the backup databases to another computer, so we at least have the content, if not the full server functionality. And, for obvious reasons, it can't be backed up locally.
So I'm looking for a means of doing this and would love any input anyone has. Ease of use/setup is pretty important as this is my first time setting Server up and I've no programming knowledge. I'm fairly sure I'll be able to find (or write my own, though that's unlikely) or modify and AppleScript that simply copies/duplicates a Finder item, and I know I can have iCal automatically run a script (so I'd just have it run every night at midnight or something), but I have yet to figure out how to get the script to copy the folder to a specified location on a different server (or, for that matter, if it's even possible, though I'm sure it is...right?). But that's not what I'm trying to ask here...though I certainly wouldn't mind if someone had thoughts on it and wanted to share them ! I just really would like to know which folders to back up, since it's not simply making an archive of the local Address Book.app database.
And, since I'm already here writing a post, I'll ask one other question that's been nagging at me: in Server Admin.app, with the server (not the services) selected in the sidebar on the left, the Access pane selected in the primary Server Admin window, and Services selected, and trying to dictate which users/groups can access which services, the user can click the "+" in the lower-left corner of the window where added users would appear, and another window pops up next to the Server Admin window that shows a list of the users (and groups if you click the appropriate button). My question is, why does it show me _krb_anonymous, _krb_changepw, and a total of 81 other items? I understand more or less what they are (in a very general sense), but why are they shown as users? More importantly, do they have to be listed there? Technically I'm probably the only one that's going to be the administrator, and I'll know not to add them or modify them, but I don't want anything related to those items appearing in a directory search in Address Book when I get it set up (as they are showing up now; for instance, one user I created is Sandy, and I have it set to include directory contacts in searches, so on a client machine that is correctly communicating w/ the server (add a user, it appears in a minute on another client machine, and vice versa) if I go to search for that name as soon as I type "s" Sandy, the actual user shows up, but so do five or six other things, all of which are items from the aforementioned list in Server Admin (pretty much anything that has an "s" in it, which of course makes sense)—and that's what I don't want, I don't want the users to search for someone, see something like _krb_anonymous pop up, then think something is screwed up and call me and demand I come fix their computer!).
Any thoughts, suggestions, and such are more than welcome and much appreciated!
Thank you to all...

See the following:
Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
For FireFox:
/Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
/Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
Credit goes Macjack for this information.

Old computer I had is OSX Snow Leopard with Entourage. New one is OSX Mavericks. Using Mail where are my addresses and old address book. Transferred old computer backup by Time Machine and other things work? Can't see a symbol for address book.

Old computer I had is OSX Snow Leopard with Entourage. New one is OSX Mavericks. Using Mail where are my addresses and old address book. Transferred old computer backup by Time Machine and other things work? Can;t see a symbol for address book.

Where are addresses kept on MAIL? I don;t like the new format at all. Frances
Begin forwarded message:
From: Frances Topping <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: - Old computer I had is OSX Snow Leopard with Entourage. New one is OSX Mavericks. Using Mail where are my addresses and old address book. Transferred old computer backup by Time Machine and other things work? Can't see a symbol for address book.
Date: August 25, 2014 at 9:46:01 AM EDT
To: discussions-replies <[email protected]>
Old Entourage is POP and new Mavericks MAIL is IMAP I believe. I don;t know how to export in the forms you mention. Frances

How do I import address book from time machine backup

My address book was populated on an imac running Lion and I used time machine to back up to an external hard drive.
The imac crashed and I've purchased another one running Mavericks.
How do I import the contents of my address book from the backup on the external drive to the address book on the new imac?
Whenever I try to select or open an earlier version of the address book in the backup applications folder on the external drive, I get a message saying that I can't open the file because it is a time machine backup.
There is also a diagonal line going through the address book thumbnail icon and various other applications in the backup applications folder and I get the same error message informing that these apps are time machine backups.
If you have a solution please be as clear and precise as possible with instructions as I am not a computer boffin.

Here's the situation:
I have a G4 with Tiger OS that has 2 years of saved emails and Address Book entries. I just got a G5, installed brand new drives, and did a fresh install of Leopard. I did not use Migration Assistant during the install, because I have no router.
Then I connected the 2 'puters with firewire, and started the G4 in Target Mode, and attempted to Import my old mail and Address Book. I diddled around and was able to import my old mailboxes. I did just realize, though, that only about half the emails were imported; there's a huge gap of nearly a year up until I stopped using the G4.
Also, when I go to the Address Book and try to import my old one, it shows up not as a solid icon that I can select, but a ghostly icon, for lack of a better word, and it will not let me select it.
I really thought this should be easier and less painful. I'm open to suggestions, including whether I should try to use the Leopard install DVD to try the Migration Assistant with a Firewire connection or an ethernet cable.
Thanks.

My time machine backup of address book and iphoto etc wont open

So I'm about to do a bunch of stuff on my computer and want to make sure that my time machine backups are going to be able to be restored and that I can unpartition my bootcamp drive safely. I will be downloading SnowLeopard, Parrallels, and some other software. I really want to make sure that certain apps, such as address book, iphoto, and itunes have been backed up correctly and that they will be able to be restored. When I opened my time machine backup folder and clicked on those three apps, it gave me an error code. I don't want to start doing all of the things listed above without being confident that I will be able to recover any stuff that may get lost. How do I accomplish this?
Also, how do I unpartition my drive to get rid of Bootcamp?
Thanks

So I'm about to do a bunch of stuff on my computer and want to make sure that my time machine backups are going to be able to be restored and that I can unpartition my bootcamp drive safely. I will be downloading SnowLeopard, Parrallels, and some other software. I really want to make sure that certain apps, such as address book, iphoto, and itunes have been backed up correctly and that they will be able to be restored. When I opened my time machine backup folder and clicked on those three apps, it gave me an error code. I don't want to start doing all of the things listed above without being confident that I will be able to recover any stuff that may get lost. How do I accomplish this?
Also, how do I unpartition my drive to get rid of Bootcamp?
Thanks

How-to retrieve the address book of a Leopard CCC backup?

Hi,
I have installed SnowLeopard and before doing so, I did a CarbonCopyCloner backup of Leopard. I forgot to export my address book of Leopard and now I want all my contacts back in the SnowLeopard address book. How can I do? What are the files I have to copy from my CCC backup to my new install to make them appear?
Thank you.

My issue is that I did not want all the garbages that I had before in my account.
So, I just kept thefew interesting stuff, and that is it. Then I worked a little bit, and now that I want my contacts back, I cannot use this migration assistant anymore since it does not allow you to do a precise selection of what you want to import.
I have tested to copy all the adressbook dire tory as suggested, but it does not work.
Any other ideas ? or do you know how I can import all my Gmail contacts into this address book ?
Thank you

How can i backup Address Book & iCal using TM?

How can i backup Address Book & iCal using TM?

just back up your whole computer and those things will be backed up along with everything else. Time Machine is not well suited for cherrypicking just a few things to back up and it's a bad idea anyway. if you insist on backing up just those two things back up homedirectory/library/application support/address book and homdirectory/library/calendars.

Where is the home/application/address book in Lion. Can't find it to move in a backup of my address book.

Where is the home/application support/address book folder in Lion? Can't find it to put in a backup.
I made a mistake. I want to find the home/library/application support/address book - not the application itself. The whole library is not there - is it a hidden file? And if so how do I get it to show?
Bette
Message was edited by: lopezbette

Kappy wrote:
All applications are in the /Applications/ folder, not the /Home/Applications/ folder. In fact the latter should not even exist unless you specifically created it.
Kappy, I was going to start a Thread about the Application Folder so I'm glad you brought it up and you said that it should not even exist. I've had an Applications Folder within my Home Folder thru multiple OS. I'm even tempted to say since OS 9, but I'm not sure about that. There has never been anything in that folder and I don't remember ever creating it. Infact, The folder to me looks like a folder that would be installed as part of the OS.

Problems with Reverting to an Address Book Backup

I keep my address book updated on my iMac at home that is running OS v10.6 Snow Leopard. At work, I am now using a G5 that is running OS v10.4 Tiger. I have created a +Backup of my Address Book+ at home and brought the .abbu file with me to work so that I could +Revert to an Address Book Backup+ on my G5.
I've done it twice already and I'm still missing vCards (mostly recently added). Also, some of the other vCards have old information. Is there something I'm not doing right? If the solution is to highlight all vCards and +Export vCard...+ then what is the point of +Back up Address Book...+

Dear Pat,
Thank you. I have received the exact same reply from Amreso.
I thank you both for your replies. If the problem occurs again, I shall follow your advice.
I just need to pluck up the courage. I get so nervous with the computer when it plays up.
Regards
Anthony
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:11:29 -0700
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Problems with reverting to an earlier version
    Re: Problems with reverting to an earlier version
    created by Pat Willener in Installing Flash Player - View the full discussion
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Address Book vs. Backup?

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