How to import address book from older Mac?

My G5 died recently, i'm now very happy with my new iMac. Before the G5 died, I backed up my entire user folder, expecting to have everything I needed. I can't figure out how to get my address book and older email into my new Address Book and Mail applications. I see the "addressbook.data" file inside the old Library, but no luck opening or importing that.

I would archive the old mails to a local file in .mbox then just use that to import the mailbox to the new iMac.
For the Address book, I am not sure there is a way to archive contacts, but I may think about a little work around e.g. via backing up contacts on iPhone, sync the old address book to the iPhone, then use the iPhone to sync to the new iMac. Finally, restore the original data on the iPhone from the backup.
--Regards,

Similar Messages

Need to import address book from other Mac

Hi guys,
I'm retiring my old powerbook and I need to export the addressbook onto my new Imac. Not so simple, it seems. The error message is always that the data is not stored in the right format (LDIF, Vcards, etc). Surely this should be simple?

Have you tried selecting the "All" group in Address Book, and then under File in the menu bar, select Export Group VCard?
Or have you tried going under File in the menu bar and selecting Backup Address Book?
Or in Finder, going to your home folder's Library folder's Application Support folder and selecting the Address Book folder, control-clicking it and choosing "Create Archive of Address Book"?
Then copy those folders over to your new computer and doubleclick on them (and in the case of the last option, moving the resulting Address Book folder into the new home folder's Library folder's Application Support folder)?

How to import address book from Microsofot Outlook 2003 to Entourage?

Hi there,
After a lot of internal battles, I've switched to Mac from Windows. I am a new converted. I have been resolving a lot of "compatibility issues" by myself, but a couple of things are still in the arcanes:
1) I have a CSV file with all my addresses but I can not convert into a Mac file. What do I need to do? Could someone please explain step by step the process?
2) May I use my Mac Pro as a server also? Or, do you think I need to buy a "real server"?
Thanks
Rodo

Question #1 No personal experience with this software, but other users seemed to have found it to do the trick:
http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/11918
Edit: (Sorry, I did not read your question completely, not sure if this software helps with Entourage)

Transfer address book from other mac ?

How do I transfer my address book from older mac to new macbook pro?

I assume you means the contacts. The Address Book includes an export feature, which may be slightly different for an earlier version. At the menu bar, go to File > Export. If there is an Address Book Archive selection, use that.
Transfer the exported archive to your new Mac. Use the import option with the Address Book on your new Mac to import the archive.

I am having trouble trying to get my address book from my mac (just downloaded Lion for this purpose) to my 3G ipad. Set up an icloud account but still confused! Please help !

I updated my mac with os x Lion so that I could accomplish moving my address book from the mac to my new IPad 3G. I also set up an icloud account for this purpose, but I *still* cannot figure out how to move my address book from one computer to the other. When I'm on my mac and try to use bluetooth to export the address book, I'm able to find my ipad but I soon get a message that it does not support the necessary services. I have no idea what's going on and would appreciate any advice. tks in advance, Sarah

blacksheepfibers wrote:
I updated my mac with os x Lion so that I could accomplish moving my address book from the mac to my new IPad 3G. I also set up an icloud account for this purpose, but I *still* cannot figure out how to move my address book from one computer to the other. When I'm on my mac and try to use bluetooth to export the address book, I'm able to find my ipad but I soon get a message that it does not support the necessary services. I have no idea what's going on and would appreciate any advice. tks in advance, Sarah
The address book syncs via iCloud, not Bluetooth or iTunes.
You upgraded to Lion so you could use iCoud.
On the computer. go to Apple menu > System prefs > iCloud.
Sign into your iCloud account.
Tick everything.
This enalbes the se items syncing to iCloud.
On the iPad, Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Create a new iCloud account.
Sign in with the same AppleID as your computer.
Settings > iCloud and turn everything on.
BAM!
That is all you need to do.
Your contacts (and all other checked items checked) will sync between computer and iPad.
No need to use iTunes

HT1351 My fifth generation nano will no longer sync my address book from my Mac. It gives me an error message that "You have no contacts" and asks me if I want to create some. My address book is full of contacts. Sync works for everything else.

My 5th generation nano will no longer Sync my address book from my Mac. It gives me a message that I have no "Contacts", and asks if I want to create some. My address book is full of contacts, but for some reason it thinks it is empty. All the other sync operations work fine including iCal. My Mac is running OS X 10.7.4.

It sounds like all of your contacts on your Mac running Lion are actually stored up in iCloud.
Several users running Mac OS X Lion and now ML (and iCloud) have no longer been able to "sync" contacts over to their older iPods models.
A work around is to export all of your contacts out of Address Book as vCards and them copy these vCards into your iPod's Contacts folder. You'll need to have the Enable Disk Use option ticked from under the iPod's Summary tab in order to browse out to the iPod's Contacts folder via the Finder.
Using your iPod as a storage drive
That's the only "solution" I have been able to use to get contacts to sync/appear on my 5G iPod Video.
B-rock

Ipad 4 sync address book from mini mac snow lepoard. ?

1) I am unable to sync my address book from mini mac snow lepoard to my ipad 4.
2) How do i turn of the icloud......
3) How do I add more mailboxes to my email to file emails..???
All assistance geatly appreciated...ty

No you can sync them over a local network or USB cable, you just can't do so by iCloud.
The other option would be to sync your mobile devices with iCloud and use the contacts feature at iCloud.com rather than the Address Book when using the computer.

HT1296 I have the original iPhone and I can't sync the address book from my Mac to the iPhone. What should be the problem and can I sync?

I have the original iPhone and I can't sync the address book from my Mac to the iPhone. What should be the problem and can I sync?

Thanks a lot for the answer. I'm so upset, have no even one contact on my phone. I has to do with the moving to iCloud from MobileMe.
I did exactly what you wrote, and when trying to click the vcf file on the iPhone the screen freezing, and then after few long seconds it goes alon to home.
So I tried less contacts in a Vcard, and i'm dividing my address book, doing little by little and it work.
Thank you so much.
I still dont get why the sync with my computer address book is not working.
And why when I moved to icloud all the photos I had next to the contacts are disappered.
I had my iPad, which it still, I did not move from MobileMe to iCloud and all the photos are there!
Anything I can do to use the iCloud on the iPad as well and update the iCloud with the photos?

HT1267 I have been unable to sync my address book on my IPHONE, trying to sync the changes, I erased address book from my phone. I seem unable to re-establish the address book from my Mac on my phone! Please help!! thanks

I have been unable to sync my address book on my IPHONE, trying to sync the changes, I erased address book from my phone. I seem unable to re-establish the address book from my Mac on my phone! Please help!! thanks

Try the .Mac Sync forum - its probably more appropriate to your issue.
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=957

Importing Address Book From An Older Version To Leopard

I'm trying to import my address book from my old, G3 iMac running 10.1.5 to my new machine. All my address cards show the .vcf file extension, yet I can't import them. I get an error message that says, "No importable cards found". I tried switching from .vcf version 3.0 to 2.1 with no luck. I tried importing them as a text file, still doesn't work.
Any ideas on how I can import my addresses?

I was able to solve my problem with the help of a friend.
I found the Old Address Book database file under OS 10.1.5:
Users->myusername->Library->Addresses->Address Book.addressbook
I pasted Address Book.addressbook to the new Address Book running under OS 10.5 in:
Users->myusername->Application Support->AddressBook
The computer did a little conversion dance and everything appeared just fine.
Hope this helps others.

How do i add my address book from my mac to my iPhone4

i have my address book on my mac book and have connected and synced my new iphone4 but im not sure how to add something from my computer to my phone. . . . please HELP!

The iPad contact app and the computer's contact app are not the same. You can't create groups on the iPad. You can view the groups created on the computer when synced with iCloud. Not sure if synced with iTunes, but the iPad app won't change.
If you synced the iPad with iTunes before, then it should still show up as a device in iTunes. If you are using the new iTunes, the devices don't appear in the sidebar anymore. At the upper right hand side if the iTunes window, younshould see a box to show devices. Click on that.

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.

How to sync address book from mac to iPad

Hello, I bought my husband an iPad and cannot figure out how to copy our address book from Apple mail on our MAC to his iPad. Need help! Thank you.

Method 1:
Connect the iPad to the Mac.
Open iTunes (and wait until the Backup is finished).
Select the iPad in the left Sidebar (switch it on with alt-command-S).
Switch to the second Tab at the top named "info".
Check the Button Contacs.
Click "synchonize" down right.
After the Sync is done, the Adresses are on the iPad.
Method 2:
Activate the iCloud-Account in Macs System Prefs or in Address Book directly.
Activate the iCloud-Accouunt on the iPad and switch the Addresses-Slider to on.
After Some Minutes, the Adresses are copyed via the Cloud to Your iPad.

How to get address book from Mac desktop to a MacBook Pro

I recently bought a MacBook Pro 13" with Lion. I have a IMac desktop and want to put my address book from it to the MacBook Pro and don't know how to do it. Can someone help me with this? I also need to move my word documents. I have Microsoft Word for Mac 2004, Version 11.6.3 on the desktop. Is it possible to move over also?

Office 2004 wont work on Lion 10.7. You should upgrade. From your iMac:
User/Library/Application Support. Copy the AddressBook folder to the desktop of your new MBP. On the MBP:
From the Finder. Hold down the option key and click on Go from the menu and select Library. That'll open the User/Library folder. Open the Application Support folder and put your AddressBook folder there. Moving documents: Connect the two with firewire cables. The iMac should be shut down. Boot the iMac while holding down the 't' key. That'll boot it into target disk mode and you should see the iMac's hard drive on the MBP's desktop. Copy the files over.

Importing Address Book from XP

I cannot figure this out, and it is really frustraing. I am a new convert from XP to MAC. The problem is my address book in MS Outlook 2000 will not import into my MAC address book, why not? I save as a CSV file when exporting in Outlook, but MAC does not recognize the file for some reason. The weird thing is, that I can export from my Gmail address book into the MAC using the same procedure, but it does not imput all the information such as home address, fax, mobile phone etc. What is going on here? I know I am new to MACs, but I cannot understand what I have overlooked, if anything at all. I am now using my address book as an Excel file on my desktop, and that is not good enough.
If anyone can show some mercy and help out the newbies, that would be great.
Thanks in advance,
M&C
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

This will not be helpful reply, unfortunately--just an example of a similar problem. I was unable to import addresses from a CSV text file. I could open the file and edit in in MS Word and Excel, and Address Book could see and read the file--I used the 'import' function of Address Book and rearranged some of the field mapping, and could click through all the various cards. But, when I clicked the 'Okay' button in the corner of the import window, nothing happened except that the button turned color, from blue to white. No information was imported, no indication appeared that the computer was working on importing anything. Following advice from this forum, I downloaded the address book importer, and that worked fine. But Apple's own import function seems to have a big problem. I just upgraded to a PowerBook G4 after my old Lombard finally conked out. Very exciting to have a beautiful new machine, but man, little problems like the one w/ Address Book make me miss my old computer.

How to import address book from older Mac?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for