How to restore my address book from Time Machine?

First I know there are other threads with this (Properly) but non of them seemed to be specifically what i needed!
So by accident I deleted all my address contacts on my mac by accedeint. (I was trying to stop my Mac user account picture from changing all the time). I knew I had deleted them but didnt think anything of it. I came to text someone today and half my contacts have gone from my iPhone and my iPad . But i dont know how to get them back on to my address book via time machine.
I have tried the simple going back to where the last backup was and hiting restore, but nothing happens. I can i get them off iCloud if timemachine wont work? or have i truly lost them?

Open Address Book and then go to File > Import and select the most recent Address Book backup from your Time Machine Backup > Users > Your Name > Documents and import that should work.
Pete

Similar Messages

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]

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.

Restoring my address book from Time machine

Hello. I am not very technical. I backed up my old computer files on a Time Machine back up and can access my old documents but not my former address book contacts. My old computer has been wiped by my daughter who has set it up with a new account and cannot recover anything of mine.
The Address book appears in the applications folder of the TimeMachine back up in the applications folder - but has a locked symbol and error message 'You can’t open the application “Address Book” because it is in a Time Machine backup"
I am worried I have lost 20 years worth of contacts!

Ok, due to the changes in Mail the old address book is not able to be used in the new OS.
If your daughter wiped your Mac and changed the OS you won't be able to restore it either.
The trick is to restore the entire backup to a different location. Get a USB and plug it into your computer.
Then do a full restore of the old OS to the hard disk.
See the instructions in pondini to manage this. Same reference as above the Q14-17 covers restore. Restore the entire backup to the USB drive.
From there your new version of the software can hopefully translate the addressbook into readable form.
If that doesn't work on your computer, then it should work on your old one. Do a simple disk clone using a software like CCC or superduper so you can wipe the computer.. and do the full restore, assuming the trick of using the USB doesn't work. Once you have a full restore of the OS, including your address book with mail, you should
A. Be able to make a clone of disk.. NOT TM BACKUP.. from the Clone you have real files as they exist in a working OS.. not a TM backup where files do not work until restored.
B. Export the data from the address book.
Export and email it to yourself.
http://email.about.com/od/macosxmailtips/qt/How-To-Export-Your-Mac-Os-X-Mail-Add ress-Book-Contacts-To-A-Csv-File.htm
I always export mail contacts to a database or spread sheet before doing major computer changes or upgrades.. it keeps these kind of problems at bay.
If the problem is simply you cannot open the old contacts in the new version of mail, copy the address book to a stick and use it on another computer running the correct version of mail.
If it is just permissions issue then fix permissions.
After a restore permissions can be very messed up. See.
http://pondini.org/TM/E10.html

Restore entire Address Book from Time Machine?

Mac Mid 2011, OSX Lion 10.7.5, Time Machine
After enabling iCloud my address book got "replaced" with an outdated version. Time machine allows me to update individual records but I want to
replace the entire Address Book. Can this be done and if so then how? Thank you.
Dan from New York

I SOLVED this problem:
1. Selected ALL entries from my current (outdated) address book, then deleted them.
2. Selected ALL entries from a good version in Time Machine, then restored.
3. Address book updated.
Piece of cake..I made this issue more complicated than it needed to be...all is well.

How to restore new mac book from time machine

i curentley have a mac book and am planing on upgrading to a pro but i have to sell this one first. can i restore my new mac pro using the time machine backup from this mac book or is there another way i have to do this being as i wont have both laptops at the same time??
thanks for any help..

If you can recover the old machine (may not be worth the cost), then you could deactivate directly. A lot depends on what crashed, the HD, mother board, or other. On a PC, the hard drive can sometimes be recovered with SpinRite as long as the crash was not fatal. There are other tricks too, but all of them depend on the crash conditions and what the problem is. If the hard drive is actually good, maybe you could just put it in another machine and run the deactivation. Of course, not everyone has a bunch of machines on hand to play with. For PCs, I often head to the department surplus pile and see if I can find something to work with (not my stock). If I find a working machine there, then I just swap it out. Of course, that is for work machines. For a home machine, I might do it for testing or repair and then put things back after the repair.

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.

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.

Restored address book from Time machine no images on contacts

hello all
had an issues with my address book
unfortunately i deleted my contacts from adress book fom my macbook and lost al my contacts even from iphone (so propably deleted the icloud contacts)
now thank god i found a way to restore them from Tiem Machine
everythin is good and have al contacts back
BUT
not contact images
is thetre any way to get them back?
thank you!

This worked for me:
From Time Machine, restore a good backup of the entire "/Users/james/Library/Application Support/Address Book" folder to a different location, like to a folder on your desktop.
(note: the Library folder typically won't show up in Finder. To make it visible, in Terminal, issue this command:
        defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
        then restart Finder: killall Finder )
Go offline. Do whatever you need to do to get completely disconnected from the internet (turn off Wireless, unplug the ethernet cable, etc.). Otherwise, iCloud will immediately overwrite your restore.
Delete the real folder: /Users/james/Library/Application Support/Address Book
Copy your restore (at the different location), to the real location ( /Users/james/Library/Application Support/Address Book )
Restart Contacts. Your restored data you want should be there. Before going online again, Export all these contacts (File - Export - etc...)
Go online again. iCloud will wipe out your Address Book with what's on iCloud. Re-import contacts as needed from your Export.

Restore Address Book from Time Machine

if i lost all my address book data, is there a way to restore it from a date in time machine that has my data?
shouldnt there be a simple way in addres book to select a time machine backup?

To restore address book data from Time Machine, launch the Address Book application, then click on the Time Machine icon in the dock. Within the Time Machine user interface, you'll be looking at an Address Book window that displays the data it had at the time of the Time Machine backup. You can go back in time to find a particular contact to restore, or you can choose the Restore All option.

How to restore an Iphoto library from Time Machine

I backed up last sunday onto time machine -all went well. Due to sillyness lost my Iphoto library from my 13 inch afterwards;I was trying to transfer my data to another mac (my 15 inch that had a new hard drive )using migration assistant . no Iphoto libray in either but I assume it is in Time machine( sudays one)
How easy and how does one restore from Time Machine something like the Iphoto Library ? this is my only record of 3211 photos so dont want to stuff it up ??!!
thanks to anyone ,as my wife will kill me if I get it wrong??!!
Amr

If you are using iPhoto 7, just launch iPhoto and then enter Time Machine. You can browse back through Time Machine with iPhoto's own interface.
This doesn't work in iPhoto 5. With iPhoto 5, you have to use a Finder window in Time Machine to navigate back to your iPhoto Library folder (in homefolder -> Pictures by default) and restore it.
I'm not sure which way it works in iPhoto 6.

How to restore Emails to Mail from Time Machine?

Does anyone know how I restore my Mail contents?
I have restored my User to a Mac mini from Time Machine.
But my Mail contents were not restored.
I have not been able to find any intructions to restore my Mail contents.

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.
Triple-click the text on the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.
A Finder window will open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have names that begin with "Envelope Index". Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is corrupt and that Mail has to quit. Click OK.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the file you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

How to restore all aperture photos from Time Machine

My 2 main Aperture libraries are all messed up (cannot get photos back into their correct projects, some thumbnails are empty, etc. etc. I think it's time to just restore all the photos from TimeMachine/External hardrive back into one NEW single Aperture library. How do I do this?

I think it's time to just restore all the photos from TimeMachine/External hardrive back into one NEW single Aperture library. How do I do this?
That are two tasks that you want to do in one - restoring from Time Machine and creating a new, merged Aperture library. Ths cannot be done in one go.
You can use Time Machine to restore your two libraries from the backup. But since Time Machine does not do archival backups of photo libraries, you can only restore the last backup TM made. Depending on when you last ran TM, this may very well be the current versions of your Aperture libraries.
To restore a library from Time Machine:
Connect the backup drive.
In the Finder navigate to the folder with your Aperture Libraries (for example "Pictures") and open this folder as the front-most Finder Window.
With this window selected, go to the TM icon in the Finder's menu bar and "Enter Time Machine".
In the TM Time Line at the right of the TM Time Tunnel select the current backup and select the Aperture library in the Finder window. Select to "Restore to" this library to a different folder, so that you do not overwrite your current library.
Once you have restored both libraries, check, if the projects that you are concerned about are now separated again and are showing all thumbnails.
To help you to create a new, combined library from the restored library, we will need to know more. There are several options, e.g.:
Merging the two libraries by importing one into the other.
Exporting all your originals, project by project, and reimporting them.
What is your Aperture 3 version number? Do you have the latest version 3.4.5 or an earlier version?
How to proceed will depend on what you could recover from Time Machine.
Regards
Léonie

How to restore a lost picture from time machine

Can I restore a photo that i have misfiled from time machine?

Select Help Center from the Finder's Help menu. Search for "restore" which should find several articles on how to use TM to restore individual items from a backup.
Also,
A whole lot about Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.

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?

How to restore my address book from Time Machine?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for