Combining OS X address books

My wife and I are interested in combining our OS X address books. I'm wondering whether there's a quick way to do that (aside from entering addresses by hand). For example, do you export information from one address book and import it into the other address book? Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks.
Chris

Select all contacts in one, export vCards, copy to the other machine, import.
AK

Similar Messages

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).

How to Merge 2 Address Books

Hi folks. Just wanted to know if anybody knew how to merge 2 address books. I don't mean two identical or similar contacts. Whole address books.
A duplicated, put into B machine. They both took on separate lives.
This is what I am thinking:
- A backed up.
- B exported.
- B imported into A, conflicts resolved (that could take some time, if it's manual, as my book has 1600 cards)
- A (which is new), exported, put back into B.
Any ideas?
Cheers

Well, unfortunately, Address Book doesn't have a function to compare then only merge identical cards. Its four import options are Keep Old, Keep New, Keep Both, and Update. The Update option is closest to what you want, but it will assume that contacts with similar fields (like the John Q Public example I gave earlier) are the same person and will combine them into one (I found this out the hard way).
Your best bet I think would be to export All Contacts for each Address Book as a single vcard (this is the only format that Address Book natively exports), open in a spreadsheet/database program that can compare and merge identical fields, and do the combine there. Address Book can import .csv files, so something like Excel or Araxis Merge (➚) might be able to do it (I don't know if Excel's Merge Workbooks function is applicable in this case).
Perhaps other people have suggestions on how to only combine identical cards. I don't know programming, so AppleScript and Terminal puts me out of my depth. For what you want to do, Address Book's import/export functions are insufficient by themselves.

Sync Address Book with iPhone

It does not work. Everything else works fine. I tried all combinations for sync address book from MacBook Pro to iPhone and I can not do it....
I also so a cople of postings... asking if it works both ways... someone responded; Yes it works from iPhone to Mac & from Mac to iPhone...
Anyone else having this problem? It should be a breeeeezzzzeeee, but I am not be ing successful... HELP

Hello,
One more thing to try:
Reset your sync history.
Go into Applications and launch iSync. Click the iSync menu and click Preferences. The Reset Sync History button is towards the bottom, underneath Advanced.
After this, verify your settings are still set correctly, and sync again.
-CG

Imessage does not combine the telephone number to one username in address book

Hi guys,
last week I received an Imessage from a unknown number, I replied "who are you?" and he replied "it's me.. name and surname". I have this person in my address book but I continue to receive imessages (with the tel number) and imessages cannot combine his tel number to his name, if we imessage using email address than I can see his name and surname.
If I send a message to him with this procedure: address book, open his contact, press the button send message, choose the tel number, press send, then I see in imessage message list that I have sent a message to his number, not to his name and surname.
I do not use the Apple Address Book but the google address book. Every other user is working fine. From Viber and whatsapp i can send messages to the same user without this problem.
I have also tried to delete and recreate his contact many times, both from gmal web page and from the Iphone itself but then Imessage is not able to "link" his tel number to his name and surname.
Imessage recognize his number as Imessage user so it send imessages and not sms, but in the imessage messages list I can only see his telephone number and not his name and surname.
I cannot find a solution, attached a picture taken from my phone, I choose "andrea ...surname" from the address book, sent the imessage, immediately IOS changed "andrea ..surname" to +393402433...
Thanks for suggestion, ciao.

This problem was solved after upgrading to IOS 6.

How to combine FaceBook & Address Book ID

When iPhoto wants to to know the name of an unknown face, it sometimes gives me a choice between a person's Facebook contact and my Address Book.app contact. How can I combine both their Facebook and Address Book so it's the same person?

Yes, I would also like to come up with a solution. Basically I want to merge the two contacts.

How can I merge or combine two email address lists in my address book?

When I transferred my address book from one computer to a second computer which already had an address book, the address lists did not combine so I now have duplicate lists. I would like to combine all these list into one list. How can I do this?

Paste is not mentioned once in the instructions. You select all and then click and drag them to the new book folder and drop them there.

Can I merge my iPhone address book with my iMac address book? I do not want to replace one for the other, just combine.

Can I merge my iPhone address book with my iMac address book? I do not want to replace one for the other, just combine them.
It seems that you have to choose one or the other, keep iMAcc addresses or iPhone.

Indeed you can merge the address book using iCloud. You can find the info here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3998. I am not sure if you can de-duplicate though.
If that doesn't work or you want more out of your address book, you can always try connex.io (I work for the company). It's a service that automatically syncs, deduplicates, cleans and updates your address book across many different devices and services. If you want to try it out, you can get a free trail version at www.connex.io.
Good luck!
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.
<Edited by Host>

MERGE or COMBINE my numbers in Address Book?

How do I merge or combine my numbers in the Address Book with the numbers on my phone? My iBook is connected to my cell phone and the sync process is hapening....but I can only get the numbers from my phone onto the computer. What I want to do is send all the info. from the iBook to the phone and combine the two lists?

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Launch iSync, open the Preferences… dialog and choose the option to Reset Sync History. You will be given the choice to Replace the data on or Merge to the dat with your mobile handset when you next synchronize: you should choose replace.

Can I combine e-mail page and address book?

I'm sure I will eventually be convinced that Mac is easier to use than a PC. With my PC my e-mail was Microsoft Outlook. My address book was listed on the lefthand column of the page along with "inbox', "sent" etc. All I had to do was click on it to bring it up and then click on the appropriate address which was automatically filled in on my outgoing e-mail page. Now, I have to open 'mail' and also 'address book' separately. Then nothing happens when I click on an address so I have to start typing it in and only then will it automatically finish filling in. Is there an easier way on Mac or is there a way I can get Outlook as my mail account on my iMac. I know most of you are young and were born holding a computer in your lap but I came to them later in life and, although very knowledgeable about many things, computers are way down on the list so I am very grateful for your help and patience with a grandmother.

As long as you have the contact's email address in your address book, all you have to do is start typing the person's name in the "to" box, and it will finish it for you. If you have more than one person named "Steve" for example, if you start typing the name, and you know you have more than one person of the same name, wait a second or two, and a box will open with all of the people of that same name, You can then scroll down using the arrow key and select the person you want.
Or if you know the first couple of letters of that person's address, you can type those in, and the person's email address will finish. That's a little bit easier if you have multiple names.
Hope this helps...

Address Book combines cards that should be kept separate

A few weeks ago I encountered a problem with Address Book where "Look for Duplicates" was merging non-duplicate entries. The affected entries are all cards with no name, only an e-mail address. What would happen is that every time "Look for Duplicates" was run, any card that had only e-mail and no name would be merged with another card that had only e-mail and no name, with no discernible pattern.
I assumed that this was because Address Book was matching by name, and saw the e-mail only cards as duplicates, even though they were in fact distinct cards. However, I started with a fresh Address Book database as a test, and populated it with several cards that had only e-mail addresses and no names, and was unable to get it to behave this way. I have been unable to duplicate the problem with any file other than the one that is already affected.
Unfortunately, restoring the Address Book file from a backup is not an option because earlier versions of the Address Book file going back for several months are already affected. Apparently it started happening in the Fall and went unnoticed for quite some time. The most recent backup that does not have unwanted merging is far too old to be of any use, because of all of the additions that have been made to the file since.
Has anybody else seen anything similar happen, or does anybody know what might be the cause. I should add that the contacts sync over .Mac with another computer, though I tried my test with a fresh address book and .Mac syncing, and was unable to duplicate it.

I too am experiencing frustrating difficulties with Apple Address Book.
I am trying to merge my Gmail contacts with my Address Book contacts (and then with an export via Yahoo Address Book of my Facebook contacts).
The problem is that in Gmail I keep everyone's old email addresses on their contact card to make it easier to find old emails from the same person... you know when someone has moved from job to job.
I name these in Gmail as "Old" and often there are up to 5-6 emails.. some "Home", some "Work" and some my custom "Old".
When I import the Apple VCF export from Gmail into Apple Address Book it tells me there are duplicates. I click on review duplicates. A whole lot of information is not being preserved when the two cards are being "merged".... it just deletes stuff randomly :X
Any assistance as to how to get around this would be appreciated!
Cheers.

Combining two address books

1. I had two Macs, now I have one. How can I import my wife's address book into my address book without losing my contacts, and without creating another user account. I have her Mac cloned on a firewire drive.
2. I imported her entire Mail library, but none of the saved messages were in their folders. They are in the right place in the library on HD, but they are not in the mailboxes. Is there a way to get them recognized by Mail without opening each one and clicking "Move To" in the menu. There are several hundred saved emails.
Help with *either one* of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

I would imagine that a cloned disk of an Intel is not going to boot on a G5 since one's executable files in there aren't going to be cross-architecture compatible with the other, and I doubt that the installer DVD put both sets of executables on your drive. Try the procedure using your MBP.
If that doesn't work (don't know why it wouldn't), try this:
1. Temporarily move your home folder's ~/Library/Address Book folder to your desktop.
2. Ctrl-click on it and make an archive (.zip) of it for safety.
3. Copy her Address Book folder from the firewire drive into your home folder's Library folder.
4. Quit Address Book, or at least logout and log back in, or maybe just outright reboot.
5. Do what I said to do before to create the "Arnold Adam's and 101 others.vcf" card.
6. Move your Address Book folder on your Desktop back into your Library folder to overwrite your wife's version that is in there now.
7. Once again, maybe reboot, or whatever.
8. Double-click on the "Arnold Adam's and 101 others.vcf" file on your Desktop to import them into your Address Book as I described in my earlier post.

When using Mail and selecting the recipient, Address Book no longer shows Groups. I am forced to select from my entire alphabetized contact list. What's going on?

Has the Address Book software changed? Or has Mail changed? For purposes of email, Address Book no longer allows me to find an addressee or several addressees who are members of one of my Groups (or Smart Groups). What happens is this: I open Mail, initiate a new email, put the cursor in the To: box and click the 'Show addresses' icon in the New Message box. The Addresses list shows up in a separate window with an alphabetized listing of all my contacts. It used to allow me to select a Group, but Groups are no longer listed. I have no choice but to select an address (or addresses) from the entire list. Needless to say, this is intolerable.
Ultimately, I have two questions:
What has changed and can I fix it so it works as it used to?
If I can't fix it, what other email/address book software combination works simply and cleanly so I don't have to live with this frustration.

This add-on may help:
https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html
I've had this add-on for so long that I can't remember what it does and does not provide.
If you select a List in your Address Book, so that its contents display at the right, does "Export" not write just the Lists's member Contacts out to the csv file?
It does here, but this may be thanks to the above-mentioned add-on.

Can I have two address books on one computer

Hi,
I have my standard address book I use and love. I am an artist and forever having to make slide labels. I have used many programs and databases to do this task. To my surprise address book would accomplish this amazing well. I just don't want to combine my art label information with my address stuff? So can I have two address files on one mac?
cc

CC,
you can add a new user account on your Mac (open system preferences / accounts) and start fresh there with an empty AddressBook.
If you want to fill this with a part of your original AB, select those and export as vCards. Drop this export file in your shared folder so you can access that from the new user account. Open AB ther and import the vCards

I don't get it: Address Book's low quality, UI mess, and bugs stand out...

... especially compared to all other great Leopard apps.
Hi Folks. I'm a switcher from Windows XP, and generally I've been very impressed with 10.5.2, and happy with my decision (Macbook Pro 2GB, 2.2GHz). However, one of the most incredibly painful experiences I've had is using the Address Book application.
Please forgive my sounding negative, but compared to the other apps on OS X, it is really, really crappy. This is after having imported and edited around 1,000 contacts. The ultimate deal-breaker here is trust: I put many hours into this thing, to find it's extremely easy to lose entries/data. The undo, UI mess, and save problems combine to make me nervous as **** every time I edit. Hit escape? Where'd that phone number go? Hit undo? You might have undone something three edits ago!
I don't want to be unfair to Apple - OS X is really good, and I recommend it. But this one program just is not ready for prime time... Three things:
First, can anyone give some background on this program? Not to be rude here, it just feels like something that was thrown together without much thought, was a very low priority, or was a summer assignment to an intern as a "learn the API" demo, but who didn't have the experience to put together a solid, functional program.
Second, can anyone recommend a usable replacement that works well? I have Office 2008, with Entourage, but I frankly don't trust MS apps to work well either, or to play nice with others (e.g., Spotlight).
Finally, below are a few observations after using the program for a week - not complete bug reports (sorry, I'm too busy to debug for you, Apple) but just a few examples of the pain the program's caused me. Am I alone in this?
matt
o #1 problem: It's lost my trust - the ultimate sin of a program. If I
hadn't created a backup, more than once I would have been extremely
screwed. Cards someone disappearing, field edits lost, etc.
o Edit/view modes: Bad. Apple: go read your own UI guidelines on this.
o What's up with Save? It seems to be automatic (saves when I exit),
but also has a command. Sadly, there is a bug in which Save disabled
when in View (not Edit) mode, >> even if changes have been made <<
(e.g., in the notes field, which can be edited in non-Edit
mode. Another example: add a smart group, try to save - gets a beep.
o Selection in Notes field: I can not figure out the selection
logic. Clicking on it selects all, but seems crazy inconsistent, e.g.,
it re-selects all when trying to make an edit. Want to really see
problems? Try shift-clicking!
o Undo is horribly unpredictable - It should simply undo the last
edit, whether it was typing in a field, merging cards, deleting a
card, etc. Unfortunately, it's not consistent. For example: delete a
card, edit a few others, then undo - undoes the delete, not the
edits. Many other problems with undo...
o Escape key: I can't figure this out: Does it undo, clear, or abort
editing? It's a mess.
o Printing formats: I can't say enough how terribly limited this
is. For example, it doesn't support classic planner sizes, and the
compact format is ungodly.
o Non-mouse navigation and editing is extremely frustrating, and 100%
keyboard operation seems impossible. For example, you can't select
field pop-ups (work, mobile, etc) or check the "Company" checkbox.
o CSV import just plain broken - unusable. I read practically every
post here on the topic, and it's terrible. I was able to work-around
the bug by using vCard instead, which does work. Had to convert from
CSV to vCard using an external program (Gmail). Ugh.
o BUG: Creating a new note puts an extra space character in the field.
o No support for encrypted information in Notes field. Isn't this
built in to OS X?
o I'd really like to be able to copy an address in one card, and
paste it into a new contact with fields preserved.
o BUG: Can't print multiple smart groups: Shift-select two ore more
smart groups, type command-P, it de-selects!
o Bug: Editing fields sometimes allows selection of the field name
itself, e.g., you can select the "Note:" tag on left.
o Q: Any way to filter items that are printed by whether a field is
empty or not? I have some without phone numbers, and I don't want to
print them...
EOF

Are you using the access control list on the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS)? If so, turn it off.
Open the Network preference pane. Drag AirPort to the top of the list. Better yet, disable Ethernet. Can it connect?
If that isn't it... the list of possibilities is short. The IP address starting with 169 indicates that it is not properly connecting with the DHCP server on the AEBS. Apparently, reading through your text, you have successfully established the wireless connection with the AEBS it is the communication with the DHCP server that is failing.
Have you been able to try the MacBook on other wireless networks?
Did you accidently configure this AEBS to use WDS? If so there is an option that prevents wireless clients from joining.
If you do have WDS enabled, you should disable it since you aren't wirelessly connecting any other base stations.

Combining OS X address books

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