Back-up address book to CD

want to back up my addresses in my address book to a CD

In Address Book, select an address book, then Tools/Export and name the LDIF file.
If your address books have mailing lists, photos and other details, it's better to back up the .mab files in the profile: Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Show Folder and copy the .mab files to CD.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_address_books_between_profiles

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Methods for Backing Up Address Book

I'm researching two methods of backing up my Address Book information.
1.) Choosing "Back up Address Book" from the File menu in the Address Book application. This creates a .abbu file with the date attached for you to save in any location you specify.
2.) Copying the entire "Address Book" folder from ~Library/Application Support/. This will include the files: (ABPerson.skIndex, ABPerson.skIndexInverted, AddressBook.data, AddressBook.data.beforesave, AddressBook.data.previous, Images)
My question: Is there a difference in these two methods? If I restore from method #1 will my results be different then restoring from method #2.
Why I'm asking: I'm using Retrospect to back up all my data to an external drive periodically. By using Retrospect, I'd have to use method #2 since it's an automated task.
Thanks in Advance,
Al
PS> I have the same question in regards to the iCal database.
PowerMac G4 (Digital Audio) / PowerBook G4 15 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I figured it out

How to sync iPhone contacts back to Address Book.

I came across this problem and found a work-around on the forums, but some guys there–including myself–felt that iTunes should sync our contacts bi-directionally from iPhone to Address Book on our Macs, and vice versa.
As it turns out, that's really the default behavior in iTunes when syncing between iPhone/Address Book on the Mac. However, if you've been using iCloud to sync everything lateley, this will not be the default behavior, because your iTunes won't sync anything back to your Address Book on the Mac unless you completly disconnect from iCloud services.
So..... if you want to sync your contacts from your iPhone back to your Address Book on your Mac, I'm providing this simple, yet tedious, solution:
Step 1: Open Address Book on your Mac, select all of your contacts, and press delete. You'll be asked if you really want to delete the contacts. Hit ok and continue.
Step 2: Navigate to: Macintosh HD/Users/(YourUserName)/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
Note* On OS X Lion, your Library folder will not be shown. You'll have to navigate there a different way. The way I did it was:
Click the "Go" option up in the Finder menu bar.
Toward the bottom of the pull-down menu, click on the "Go to Folder..." option.
Type "~(YourUserName)/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
Once there, I searched through all the folders included and deleted anything that ended in ".plist" or ".log". This way, Address Book is completely reset when next open it.
Step 3: Open Address Book, add at least one contact if none are automatically created for you, and make sure iCloud is Disabled (if an account is there) in your Address Book Preferences pane, which you find by clicking "Address Book" in the top menu bar. Then, quit Address Book.
Step 4: On your iPhone, open your Settings app, go to the iCloud option, and turn all services off. After turning each one off, it will ask you if you want to keep the data on you phone. Always select "Yes", otherwise you may lose your data.
Step 5: Connect your iPhone to your computer, open iTunes, select your iPhone in the left column, select the "Info" tab, and check the box to "Sync Contacts"–further down on the page, in the Advanced section, make sure the Contacts checkbox is unchecked. If it's checked when you sync, iTunes will overwrite the contacts on your phone with the contacts from Address Book on your Mac.
Step 6: Sync your iPhone–This will sync the contacts from your phone to the Address Book app on your Mac.
Step 7: Open up Address Book, and add an iCloud account, or re-enable the one you disabled in step 3–This will sync all of those contacts to your iCloud account again. Then, you can also go back to the iCloud settings on your phone and turn all the services back on.
After all this, you should have been able to first sync your contacts from you iPhone back to your Address Book app on your Mac, then have them both synced up through iCloud with the same contacts being pushed everywhere.
Hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for all this, unfortunately it's still not helping me. Last week I turned on iCloud for contacts and not only did the iCloud sync fail, but now with iCloud off I haven't been able to sync iphone-to-mac thru iTunes.
I've checked that iCloud contact sync'ing is off, on both my Mac and iPhone. I've even turned off all other iCloud services on both devices. I followed your instructions precisely and even deleted more than you suggested from the App Support | Address Book folder. Step 6 just doesn't work. iTunes whips thru the Address Book sync progress when it should pause a bit to do the transfer—my Address Book archive is 44 Mb.
I have no desire to waste more time with iCloud, just want it to work the old fashioned way. I'd gladly do a clean system re-install but not sure even that would do it…hard to tell where the problem lies.
Appreciate any light you could shed!

Can't import backed up address book after hard drive crash

I had a hard drive crash that sent my G5 into the shop. In the mean time I used my laptop and added info to address book, then transferred that info onto the new hard drive on the G5 when I got it back from the shop. So now I have a current address book and an older backed up copy on another drive. If I try to import the backed up info in address book, it tells me it will overwrite the current version. I want to keep the addresses that I added while my Mac was in the shop and ADD (not overwrite) the addresses from the backed-up copy. How can I do this? Thanks so much!
Dan

Opening a backup will always overwrite the existing data. I'll try to explain my solution better:
You have your Address Book data and your backup. You want to combine them, but Address Book can only use one or the other. Combining them implies that you'll use an export-and-reimport sequence.
To export your existing data, select the All group. Go to the names column and select them all with the Cmd-A shortcut. Drag that column to the desktop to make a vCard that contains all of your contacts.
Now the copy of your current address data is on your desktop, so the copy in the Address Book application can be overwritten. Read in the backup to bring the backup contacts into Address Book. The other collection of your contacts is the vCard on your desktop, so drag that in and it will be imported without overwriting the existing data (but it will be merged in if there are duplicate cards).

Help Get back old Address Book

I recently had some type of virus sending out a link from my contact book through Yahoo!, but only while my computer was physically turned off. I read online other people having this problem deleted their address book to get rid of it. I did that assuming I could delete it, then sync from my Mac Address Book.
Except it went the other way, now both are empty. I really want my address book on my Mac back as it linked BDays to Calendar and had photos of everyone.
Can someone tell me how to do this? I tried going into Time Machine to before I deleted, but it did not work. I assume restoring the Address Book only restores the software not the data it held. Can I restore the data that was in the Address Book at a given point?
I appreciate any help.

On your first point I agree, I could have avoided this by simply backing up my Address book data - takes a few seconds and it was silly not to.
On your second...It could very well be a coincidence that the email went out while the computer was turned off. It is a fact that an email went out (twice - 6 weeks apart) from my account to my entire Yahoo! contact list containing only a link to something malicious that luckily only one person clicked on and required their computer to be wiped. I promise you it does in fact exist. It was very much in my sent box and most friends replied immediately to let me know it happened.
I am sure you see the idiocy in your comment that if it hasn't happened to you, or anyone you know - it doesn't exist.
Anyway - it worked perfectly, I do appreciate your time. By chance do you know if there is some literature or a site that explains how the Sync works. What I mean is, for example, my wife and I both sync our calendar and contact lists through Mobile Me. If we both make changes between syncs, does it make both match the one that made the most recent change, or can you set up some type of master? I don't mind looking for the answer myself, but if you know a starting point I'd appreciate it.
Thanks again.

Doesn't iPhone transfer any changes made to contacts back into Address Book

I was under the impression that I could make changes to my contacts on my iPhone and then when I sync'd, those changes would be applied to my Address Book on my computer.
Example - I sync'd all of my contacts from my computer onto my iPhone. Today one of my coworkers gave me her cell phone number. I added this right into my phone, thinking that when I sync'd tonight, that number would be put into Address Book. It did not happen. The number did not go into Address Book, and her original contact info (with no cell phone number) was transferred back onto the iPhone. What would cause this, I can't find any settings that I have wrong.....

David -
iPhone does indeed transfer any calendar event or address book addition that you added to your iPhone back to your computer. It works seemlessly on mine. When I add something to my iPhone for example and it starts to sync, when it sees a change a message box pops up on my Macbook and asks me if I want certain changes to take place (it will give you the number of items that are either being added straight out or simply modified).
I'm not sure if you are working on a Mac or PC, but my guess is you should be seeing this box and having the option to add or modify. If you are not than that probably is the problem.
Try holding down the sleep button on the iPhone for a few seconds until you see the APPLE logo. This will reset the phone. It could be a glitch between your phone an dthe system. If that doesn't work try hard resetting then adding all your info in. Also in iTunes there is an option tab for Calendar and Address Book. While I'm not sure this would work, you can give it a shot - try unchecking which ever one (or both) you are finding won't sync, then syncing iPhone, then re-chceking them, and syncing again.
I guess try everything you can yourself before calling Apple tech.
Hope any of these help!
J

Time Capsule will not back up address book

Fior some reason Time Capsule will not back up my address book. When I delete an address and start up Time Machine, it will show my address book screen. However all my "older" address book screens in time machine are blank. I have searched various forums but have not been able to find other topics on this issue. Is here anybody who has a clue (the address book is not exempted for back up)?

I just checked to see if TM was backing up my address book, and at first I saw the same thing you're describing, but after a minute or so, old backups appeared. Have you waited a minute to see what happens?

My thunderbird e-mail acct was deleted in a recovery! can i get my info back? address book, calender etc? lost login info! sorry

i did a full recovery on my computer back to factory settings and lost my thunderbird along with all the addresses calenders etc. Can i download the program again and try and remember my login info and will all my info still be there? thanks

Your profile(s) should still be at %appdata%\Roaming\Thunderbird\profiles
the first one is a map named something.default
If it was overwritten at restore then its most likely gone. Otherwise if you install Tbird it should find all data there. (just in case, make a backup)

How to back up Address book in Mavericks

Can anyone guide me to the filing location of my Contacts List

Hi...
In Contacts / File
select Export / Contacts Archive
It will save your contacts as a single file.
Export as PDF in the same menu, for something you can read...
Regards
Dennis

Problems syncing from contacts to address book

I have an iMac which now runs OSX 10.6.8 and an iPhone 3GS that runs the latest iOS 5.
Long story short, I downgraded from OSX Lion back to OSX 10.6.8 a few months ago. Got quite a few problems doing so... ended up creating a brand new user and transferring music, videos and photos manually. Then, the iOS 5 got out and I upgraded my phone right away. I couldn't figure out icloud at first but understood yesterday that it works only with Lion. I thought I'd keep it on my phone if I ever want to install Lion again.
I also realised that I never transfered back in my iMac all my iCal events and Contacts.
So yesterday, I tryied to sync my Contacts, iCal and Notes from my iPhone to my iMac. In the iTune info tab, under each section, there was a message mentioning that since I use iCloud, I don't need to sync my info through iTune and doing so would possibly create duplicates. I try to sync them anyway since I only had to in Address Book. I got the message to merge or replace. I selected merge (yes I had at least one contact in Address Book). Nothing happened... iCal didn't merge anything and neither Address Book. I tried to create new events in my phone and iMac and these were syncing but not the original ones. Also added a contact in Address Book and it got sync with my phone. I didn't try creating one on the phone to sync it through but assumed that it was working.
After going through a few discussion threads, I decided to delete the iCloud account on my phone since I didn't need it and try re-syncing. The iCloud message in the iTune's info tab was gone so I thought everything would be good and I could select merge my contact again without any problem. I was wrong... I lost all my contacts... I freeeeeeeeaked out !! Thank God I didn't unplug the phone and restored it right away to get everything back.
I tried it again this afternoon but only tried to sync iCal. I didn't get to choose between merge and replace and the same thing happened again... lost everything... iCal but also Contacts which I find strange because I didn't check the Contact option in iTune.... I got everything restored back even thought it's always scary to try things like this.... So for now on, I don't delete my iCloud info on my Phone and do not sync any other info. I'm actually scared to plug it in and always double check that my contacts are all there before unplugging.
So here I am... don't really know what to do... I read stuff about removing apple.isync files or something... or other options but they never quite answer my problem...
There is still the option to type all my contacts back in Address Book.. I don't have that many... but it's a pain...
Sorry about the long message here
Thanks for your help and for your time.
Ben

Clearly iSync has got confused about what new data it needs to pull from the phone. Usually resetting the sync history solves this, but as it hasn't for you... try this:
I would suggest sending all the contacts from the phone to the Mac manually via Bluetooth: *Contacts > Options > More > Advanced > Send all Contacts > Via Bluetooth* (or similar, depending on the exact phone model)
This will send vCard(s) which can be imported into the Mac Address Book simply by double-clicking the file that arrives on your Mac.
Merge or remove any duplicates as they are imported. You can also use the *Card > Look for Duplicates* command in Address Book.
Once all your Contacts are exactly as you want them in Address Book do a full backup of them:
*File > Export > Address Book archive...*
Finally, load iSync, click your phones icon and choose *Reset Device...* from the Devices menu.
This will force iSync to remove all the existing contacts from the phone and completely replace them with all the new nicely sorted out ones from the Mac Address Book.
From this point on, iSync should keep track of what needs updating on each subsequent sync.

Database Manager for Address Book

Help me! I seem to need to reconstruct my Address Book every time I change my PDA. the card formats are never quite the same....
To date, I have been exporting to text files, cleaning the text tile with MS Word, opening the text file in Excel - doing my clean up and reorganization in Excel - saving as a text file, then importing the text file back into Address Book.
Eh - and every time I do this, SOMEthing get screwed up. This time, I lost all the fax numbers!
Question: Is there a database manager that will open the AddressBook.Data file in native format, allow me to make global changes or individual edits and resave the native format - without needing to do all of the exporting and importing and data corruption?
Thanks for any feedback or comment!
iMacG5 & PB 12"G4 & PB 15" Ti (G4) Mac OS X (10.4.5) Extreme Basestation & Belkin Enet Switch

look at <http://homepage.mac.com/sroy/addressbookimporter>
maybe this solves your problem.
What PDA are you using?

Exporting Address Book to .csv file

I am trying to export my contacts from Address Book to a ".csv" file. The only export options I am seeing are "Export vCard file..." and "Back-up Address Book". I find it very hard to believe that there isn't a way for me to extract my contacts and view them in a spreadsheet format. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Hi aritschfox, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Might give this a try...
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/addressbooktocsvexporte r.html

Address Book importing Mac to Mac

I need some help with moving (really just copying) my address book from one mac to another. I don't know where to start...but, I think moving a .plist file would do it, but I have no idea where to find that file.
Also, a bit off topic in this forum, but how do I do the same with Safari bookmarks?
Thanks.

At the Address Book menu bar on the Mac to be transferred from, go to File and select Back up Address Book.
The default name for the backup file is Address Book - (and the date).
On the Mac to be transferred to, at the Address Book menu bar go to File and select Revert to Address Book Backup selecting the Address Book backup file created on the other Mac.
Regarding Safari Bookmarks, using the Finder go to Home > Library > Safari > Bookmarks.plist.
Copy this file and with Safari quit on the Mac to be transferred to, place the Bookmarks.plist copy in the same location.
If you want to transfer all Safari data, copy the entire Safari folder at Home > Library > Safari and with Safari quit on the Mac to be transferred to, place the copy at Home > Library.

Is it possible to keep Contact List and Address Book seperate on iPhone?

I just made the switch today- big time – from Motorola to iPhone, and from PC to iMac, plus a Macbook Air as well for travel. Thanks to iphone and Mac forums I have been able to resolve most newbie issues and have exported my data, files and contacts without problem.
However there is one issue I have not been able to resolve or clarify:
- My old phone contact list has now been transferred my new iPhone, consisting of about 100 phone numbers which I use regularly.
- Address Book in my new iMac contains about 800 contacts including phone numbers, clients, etc, as well as personal bank account numbers, and other confidential data in the “Notes” field, which I need to refer to only occasionally.
But I understand that if I sync my iPhone with my Mac, it will merge my Address Book contacts on Mac, with the phone contacts on my iPhone Contact list, into one list. Is this true? Is it not possible to maintain 2 separate Apps on my iPhone, i.e
1. The iPhone Contact list for frequently used telephone contacts, and
2. The Mac Address Book with more detailed notes and account numbers, which I only need to refer to occasionally?
3. If this is possible, can I configure it so that a password is required each time the Address Book on iPhone is accessed? (I realise I can configure the iphone to require a pin when turned on), but I would like a password to access the Address App because of the confidential data. Previously I had all this data contained on a Palm Zire 72 handheld and its PC Desktop counterpart, where a password was required to access.
From what I’ve read on the forums, it will be very cumbersome to have a phone contact list with 1000 names on it, so I want to keep phone contacts simple with phone numbers only. (I realise I can set up Group folders in Address Book, but this is not what I need). I'm also concerned about having confidential information on my iPhone which can be accessed without a password for that particular application. I intend to get MobileMe but that also does not address the issue of keeping Telephone Contacts seperate from Address Book on iPhone.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Speculating:
if, as already suggested, you use the Groups function to sync only the 100 contact list numbers, then how to get the expanded Address Book?
I've not used it myself, but Bento might be worth looking into--Bento on the Mac pulls your Address Book data (I'm pretty sure) and syncs to Bento iPhone.
I don't recall hearing about any alternate phone books, but since pretty much any program on the Mac can hook into the Address Book, you might look at the more powerful note organizers to see if any of them pull that data?
You might have a problem getting notes added on the phone back into Address Book on the Mac, though.
I actually right now keep my main address book in MS Entourage (similar to Outlook), and only use the Mac Address Book to sync to the iPhone. I could sync Entourage to Address Book, but I don't--haven't sorted out the data yet, and I don't really need all the same numbers in both places.
If that sounds possible, you might look at Mark/Space and Missing Sync for iPhone---something like keeping all 800 contacts in Entourage, and syncing them all, but moving the confidential portion of each contact into Entourage Notes and syncing those via Missing Sync, perhaps might work. (I think you can link a contact to a note in Entourage)
An interesting problem. You might also send feedback to Apple:
http://apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
as this is really not a usage scenario they've planned for. They probably don't care, though--doesn't seem all that common.

Address book- Local contacts not in iCloud

I have an iMac, iPhone and iPad.
The IOS device are set to sync contacts only with iCloud.
Here's my issue; Address book on my iMac has 407 contacts, but there's only 221 on iCloud, and the IOS devices. Address Book has 2 accounts - iCloud, and Local, so it appears that there are some local contacts that aren't being synced.
I can't see any settings that would allow (force) all contacts to sync, it looks like it should just happen that way, so any assistance would be appreciated.
Cheers
Bill

Go to users and groups and choose only your On My Mac Contacts to display.
Ensure that nothing is typed in the search field.
Click to select the first contact and shift-click the last to select them all.
Drag the list of contacts to your desktop.
Delete the contacts from Address Book (using your delete key).
Make sure your iCloud account is your default account (preferences > general).
Select All iCloud contacts from users and groups.
Drag the file you previously dragged to your desktop back onto Address Book.
You might want to back up all your contacts before you begin.
Select All contacts in users and groups
Click to select the first contact and shift-click the last to select them all.
Drag the list of contacts to your desktop.

Back-up address book to CD

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