Importing Address Book contacts after a reinstall

I have had to do an 'archive & reinstall' of my OS and can't seem to find my previous contacts in Address Book. I track my former documents by going through 'Finder' to 'Previous Systems', but cannot find .vcf files anywhere. Any ideas?

there is folder in your home directory with the full path /users/user/library/application support/address book. The full path of your home directory is /users/user and you can get to it by clicking on the house icon in the sidebar. then you can go to Library/application support/address book. there is a similar folder in the previous systems folder that actually contains all your contacts. take that folder and copy it over the one in your home directory.

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Import address book contact list into ichat

I am going to make a new aim screen name, and i was wondering if i do, will i be able to import my address book contacts back into ichat for the new account?

The AOL Service Assistant works fine for transfering the AOL contacts to the Apple Address Book. However, I was unable to get the AOL favorites to tansfer to Safari. It keeps hanging up with the rotating basketball. Any further suggestions?
466 MHz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) No DVD

Lost my Address Book contacts after a security update?

I am using OS X 10.4.7 and did a security update last night. Now I also have a Nokia E61 and since this morning I have lost all my contact in my address book on the Mac ( a powerbook). Since I didn't play around with the mac nor the nokia I am thinking that it all got lost in the security update.
I checked my iSync logs and there it indicates that it deleted all contact from my phone right after I did the restart for the update...
Can anybody help me get my contacts back?
I do backups but since just got back from my vacation I didn't have the time yet ..
Many thanks,
Rolf

To answer my own qq,
Well I found some of my important contacts in the trash . They were under a folder named "Recovered files". There where a few named that way so you had "Recovered files #1", "Recovered files #2", till #6. In one of them I found my contacts again, well atleas the ones that I added over the hollidays .
Hope this helps someone else aswell

How can I import address book contacts from 10.2 to 10.6?

I have an uncle who recently had a computer with 10.2 that crashed. I recovered all his files. His new computer is now at 10.5 or 6, and will not import old contacts from 10.2. Anyone know how I can import them?

Exporting vCards from Address Book partially preserves group information - it puts it in the notes field as Categories, which is not very useful. I suggest you export one group at a time. I don't think you can import directly into a group, so create a group, import the cards for that group, then select all the cards in the "Last Import" pseudo-group and drag them to the appropriate group.
If some of your contacts are in multiple groups the duplicates will be spotted on import. Unless you have hundreds of groups it should not be to much of a pain. Otherwise look at Gwenhiver.net - Applications - Address Book Exporter - it may preserve groups on re-import (but I don't know).
AK

IPhone unable to sync my address book contact after restore

my phone. I do not have the backup of the phone. Any solutions for it? I think thats probably Mac OS X Lion problems.
Tried force quit, restore, close all the multitasking apps. But still doesn't work. Can anyone help out for this? :/
Thanks

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

Why have my Address Book contacts disappeared after uploading to iCloud?

I am using my MacBook Pro w/OSX Lion.
After having many, many problems with contacts, calendars and bookmarks in MobileMe, migrating to iCloud, encountering a huge mess of duplicates and even completely missing contacts I decided to start over. So I disabled the iCloud account on all Macs and IOS devices. I then ensured all contacts, calendars and bookmarks were deleted from the MacBook Pro. I then used the Address Book export I'd made just prior to the migration from Mobile Me to iCloud and imported this onto my MacBook Pro. I've completely gone though the Address Book and removed or merged duplicates and cleaned up all contacts with detail. I backed up my Address Book again at this point. I then logged into iCloud.com using my original Apple User ID (NOT the MobileMe/me.com account which I'm going to vacate) and ensured that there were no contacts in the cloud and I deselected the default calendars here as well. My intention was/is to begin by starting small and deal only with the MacBook Pro Address Book and iCloud Contacts. So after I confirmed there is no data in the cloud I go into the MacBook Pro System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details ensuring I was signed out of the me.com user and entered my original Apple ID I've had since I started using iTunes many years back. I quit the browser and the Address Book and verified the non me.com user was saved under the System Preferences. I then selected Contacts under these iCloud System Preferences and I was asked If I wanted to merge my contacts with those in the cloud. Because there were no contacts in the cloud I selected yes. The spinning indicator indicated that the upload was occurring. Now, there are no contacts in the cloud and the Address Book contacts are missing. Thinking that my doing the Address Book backup may have removed all the data from the Address Book, I deselected Contacts in the iCloud System Preferences, reimported the backup into Address Book that I'd just done, confirmed the contacts I just imported appear in Address Book and I reselect Contacts in the iCloud System Preferences and again I get the spinning indicator. Again, there are no Contacts in the cloud and the contacts are missing from Address Book.
What the heck am I doing wrong? I've simplified my original attempt with iCloud by concentrating my efforts to just contacts AND I'm only using the MacBook and the iCloud cloud and I've still got problems. I thought this approach would narrow down where the issue lies and allow me to monitor the process more easily but I seem to be worse off than before I'd tried to resolve the initial migration problems because now I have no contacts.
I'm new to Macs so if you have a solution, please help and please give specifics because I'm still learning the structure and don't understand a lot of the acronyms and jargon.
Thanx

If you have a back up file, I'd try turning off iCloud contact syncing on all macs from system preferences > iCloud –
DONE
as well as any secondary accounts from system preferences > mail, contacts and calendars –
DONE (this was confusing but I figured out that you meant System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars which is what you said in lowercase. For some reason without the capital letters I didn't clue in that Mail, Contacts and Calendars was an icon option under the System preferences and so I overlooked it multiple times. I see your use of "secondary account" which I note used also as a term in the User Tip link you referred me to view. Although, I still don't understand what this 'secondary' account is, I'm not interested in any secondary accounts because I've got my hands full with just iCloud for now. I did delete all accounts under the Mail, Contacts & Calendars).
If you have any iOS devices I'd do the same on those as well. –
DONE (not even introducing other Macs or IOS devices to the equation until I get the iCloud and MacBook syncing contacts correctly)
I'd log into iCloud.com and check my Address Book was empty and empty it if necessary –
DONE (it was empty already)
and then delete all contacts from every Address Book on every device
         DONE
Then I'd turn Address Book syncing back on –
DONE (This assuming that by ‘turn back on’ you mean System Preferences > iCloud and check marking the box next to Contacts)
and import my contacts from the backup file –
DONE (This assuming that by ‘import my contacts’ you mean importing the previously exported Address Book back up file back into the Address Book. I see contacts listed in the Address Book when I did this.)
No syncing seems to happen at this point?
you might also take a look at this User Tip, to ensure you understand the differences between the different accounts in Address Book before adding the contacts back.
         I did read this but understand is probably not an accurate term for my interpretation of what I read. I get that On My Mac will not sync with what is in the cloud and iCloud will sync with the cloud. In Address Book under the single head red ribbon I see neither account heading that is mentioned. I also was not asked at the time of import to select which ‘account’ I’d like the contacts setup under.
A) If there is no indication as to what Address Book account the contacts fall under, how does on find this out?
User Tips states
Your Address Book when synced with iCloud will have more than one account.
     My assumption is that I'm not synced with iCloud if I don't see either account option listed. I also would think that if I'm not synced and thus don't have more than one account then perhaps the All Contacts default to an On My Mac account but don't reflect an account heading of 'On My Mac’ as seen on the screen shot of the User Tips example.
Furthermore, User Tips also states
Default Account
Your 'default'account is set in address book preferences > general (the option is only displayed if you have more than one account).
         It would seem relevant to list which account your defaulted to even if you do not have more than one account because elsewise how are you supposed to know which account it is setup under?
B) How do you change which ‘account’ your contacts are setup under if they are under the wrong account?
         Assuming again that my contacts are ‘On My Mac’, then how do I move them to the ‘iCloud’ account of which is not listed?
C) Will any of this be affected by groups?
The five listings under All Contacts are groups that I set up as a sort of invitation list (so Christmas cards is one I’d probably setup this time of year). Although this question is secondary I would like to confirm that my interpretation of groups is accurate. I understand groups to be a sort of tagging of selected contacts from All Contacts but that the contacts in these groups are not duplicates to those in All Contacts. Is this correct? I ask because the User Tips states
To quickly duplicate a contact, drag it to your desktop, navigate to 'Groups', select the account you wish to duplicate to, double click the contact on your desktop.
            When reading this tip, I interpret that dragging and dropping contacts from All Contacts into a group would be similar to what is suggested in this tip which would indeed ‘duplicate’ the contact. I did drag and drop when I setup my groups so I’m concerned I duplicated the contacts in Address Book. I do not see two copies of the same contact under All Contacts though.
By the way, don't take it personally –
I don't, I have reading difficulties galore and am happy to accommodate if I can. I hope this is better. Helping you helps me if you're not struggling to read when thinking about the solution.
Thanx

Importing AOL Address Book/Contact List into Apple Mail Program

This is probably an old and already answered queation, but it has just come up for me. Does anyone know how to export the AOL Address Book/Contact List so it can be imported into the Apple Mail Program? I would like not to have to reinter all the address when I drop AOL.
@ GHz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.4) No DVD

The AOL Service Assistant works fine for transfering the AOL contacts to the Apple Address Book. However, I was unable to get the AOL favorites to tansfer to Safari. It keeps hanging up with the rotating basketball. Any further suggestions?
466 MHz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) No DVD

Why does Lion KEEP reversing changes you make in address book and other applications without your consent and without wanting it to??? Plus address book will NOT import old address book contacts from Snow Lepoard 10.6 and keep them. This Lion OXS 7 is ..

Why does Lion KEEP reversing changes you make in address book and other applications without your consent and without wanting it to??? Plus address book will NOT import old address book contacts from Snow Lepoard 10.6 and keep them. This Lion OXS 7 is .. becoming very frustrating ... it will NOT keep changes made in the Address Book and it has destroyed my contacts which I only have electronically since 10.4 in my address book. I am NOT happy with this OS7 it has a lot of issues and faults. How can one stop automatic reversing of data when inputting???
Please help!
Wished I NEVER upgraded to this Lion!!!
Carmelo

Relax. Your address book database is corrupted.
If you are syncing your Contacts with MobileMe or something else, disable it for now.
Backup your address book by going to File>Export>Address Book Archive.
Quit Address Book.
Open your Library by holding down the Option (alt) key while selecting the Go menu in Finder. Select Library. Navigate into your Application Support/AddressBook folder and delete the addressbook-v22.abcddb file.
Open Address Book. It will recreate the database from the raw data.
See how that works. If it is ok, then reenable syncing and see how that works.

Trying to link Address Book Contacts with Outlook 2011 - iSync??

Hi There,
Would be grateful for some assistance.
I've got all my contacts and other things in iCloud - wonderful!
I've managed to get all my contacts from iCloud to show up in Address book.
I want to sync my address book contacts in Outlook 2011 - after three days of trying I'm still stuck.
I've checked the Syncing set up in Outlook, that appears to be correct.
I've checked addressbook, and other than having two folders one entitles iCloud (which has everything I need in it) and one entitled On my Mac, which has a couple of testers in it but nothing else, everything else seems fine.
I've checked that iCloud is synching into the iCloud folder in Address Book by putting some stuff on my iPhone and seeing it got pushed from the iCloud to my MacBook - all working fine there.
I have read lots of forum posts and keep seeing references to iSync, and how its on all Mac's but then I see people saying that its not on with Lion - I'm running Lion, and I can't find iSync...so this would seem to be true.
Can anyone tell me how I might achieve this sync process - I would much rather be using an integrated programme like Outlook...any thoughts

Enthusiast: I just got back from the Apple Store. This is the solution they suggested and seems to work. We got rid of iCloud contacts. We just set up Yahoo account in the "mail, contacts, calendars" of the iPhone. Under the "contacts" section we have the "default Account" set to Yahoo. When any additions/delete/mods happen then it is updated on Yahoo.
On the MacBook we deleted the "on My Computer" and deleted "iCloud" and then added the Yahoo account for synching. This is basically used as a secondary backup for the yahoo contact and used if using the computer. It is not necessary to use the computer for any of this.
I've been having lots of problems with Yahoo contacts. I had previously pulled in facebook contacts. This was NOT a good idea. I cleaned up my contacts, exported them out to CSV. Scrubbed some more. Imported them to a new yahoo account. Then deleted all contacts from my main Yahoo, permanently deleting them. Then imported my contacts. I did lose all my "lists" settings. That was a small price to pay.
Now iPhone, iPad and MacBook address book and Yahoo are all in sync.
I was shown at the store is to refresh the Yahoo webpage (CTRL R) and then refresh the contacts on the iPhone. There is a slight delay in update. iCloud is faster at it. But its best to avoid iCloud if you are using Yahoo contacts. Also avoid Facebook contacts. If you really want to use the Facebook feature, I would do it on a different account and then bring in the contacts that you want through an import.
I was having problems with Yahoo contacts and it might be that it was being flaky or they were experiencing problems ... because all of a sudden it started working again. I've seen similar problems with Yahoo Calendar.

How Do I Make Import Address Book Archive Work Properly?

I have several address books archived. I have one for Christmas cards, I have another for my neighborhood watch program and others that I use at various times. Some of the archives were made using Tiger and some I have created in Leopard. When I Export an Address Book Archive it does so without a problem. When I Import one of my Address Book Archives, to replace whatever address book is currently located in Address Book, the import does not work. Once I try to import, I must quit Address Book then reopen it and I still have the Address Book resident that I was trying to replace. The only way I have found to replace the resident address book is to first archive the current book for the sake of having it backed up, then delete all the names in the book by selecting all then deleting by hitting the delete key or by selecting Delete Cards using the Menu. After the names are deleted, then Importing an archive works fine.
Is anyone else having this problem or possibly have a solution to making Address Book work properly without having to delete all the current names before Importing an archive?
Information: I have deleted the Address Book Folder located within the Home/Library/Application Support folders and rebuilt it under Leopard OS and then pasted the names that were resident before deleting the folders. So far, I still cannot get the Import Address Book Archive function to work properly. Thanks in advance for any helpful information or hints.

Ok! Hmm... I indeed have tried to import an archive, did get the message, replaced all and had it working fine for me so it should for you I would think.
Have you tried to log in your computer as a different user, launch AB and try to toggle back and forth between archives to see if you experience the same issue? If not, then it is a user specific issue, if yes, then it may be more a case of app/system issue.
If you are able to overwrite in AB under a different user, then I would suggest you log in back to your main user and repair permissions (applications/utilities/disk utility repair permissions.
As for your use of AB and different archives, I am sure no one is bothered by that. We are all users here trying to learn and/or help others. I would only point out that if you cannot find a solution to your problem, you may want to consider working with AB in a different manner than you have in the past and by your description of usage groups and smart groups will more than handle your contacts while avoiding mixing apples and doughnuts - but I am sure you have thought of that already !!
hope this helps

How can I import address books from Thunderbird to Mail?

I had to use Thunderbird for all my Mail, because I cannot import about 10 different e-mail address lists with a total of about 300
addresses (contacts) into the Mail application nor into the Contacts Application. Every other e-mail application, and every server
supports imports like this.
Apple appears to have no solution either. On Apple Support site for Mail and Contacts, it says "Support temporarily not available"
and said so for weeks. I tried to import into Contacts, using Thunderbird address book files converted to ..Idif format and Contacts
imported them import without any fuzz. The folders appeared in Contacts as sub-folder the same name I had in the export files.
After the import I quit both Mail and Contacts and restarted my MacbookAir, it runs on OS 10.8.5., Mail is version 6.6.
I opened up Mail and the new sub-folders were listed in its Address Book window, However when I clicked ao any of them, they
would not open. I opened the Contacts application, and the folders were still there but when I tried to open the they were empty.
Is there a way to import those addresses, so they will show up?

Thanks for trying to help but .mbox is used for mailboxes, not address lists (Contacts).
I understand that Apple Mail and Contacts use .csv files for their lists, and I was able to
import my first Contact List using that type of File, but then was only table to get the name
the content of one List imported.
Last thing I tried, I used my Webmail Server which can import all address books (Contacts) and
export them across all sorts of different e-mail applications (they list about 10 different types)
and yes, the only missing is Apple Mail.
Looks like I am stuck with having to use Thunderbird, because I Mail will not import my
Contacts.

"Sync Address Book Contacts" option missing all groups

I had a problem with multiple copies of contacts on my iPhone so I deselected the "Sync Address Book Contacts" box in iTunes before synching. The popup said that all contacts would be removed from the iPhone, and I clicked to proceed. When the sync was complete, I verified that all contacts had been removed from my iPhone (they were).
Then I reselected the "Sync Address Book Contacts" but noticed that all 15 of the groups from my MacBook that normally appear in the box with the All Contacts/Selected Groups button were missing. I opened Address Book and they were all there.
I did a backup of Address Book and then deleted all of my contacts on my MacBook. I quit and restarted my MacBook and then imported my Address Book backup before connecting my iPhone and trying to sync the contacts again, but again, none of the groups appeared in the window and after proceeding with the sync anyway, not a single contact went to the iPhone. I've tried it by both selecting and deselecting the Contacts box under the "Replace information on this iPhone".
- I connected an iPod touch that didn't have any contact info to the MacBook and, as before, the groups from my address book did not show up and after synching, none of the contacts were installed on the iPod Touch, leaving me to believe that it is something iTunes related except that all of my calendars and music etc. sync without a problem.
- I've got the latest iTunes (10.1) and Snow Leopard s/w updates.
Any ideas?

Exported addresses from Address Book to desktop and then deleted all addresses from Address Book.
Deleted file AddressBook-v22.ab** from Library>Application Support>AddressBook.
Exited Address Book and iTunes, restarted Address Book and imported addresses from desktop.
Restarted iTunes and all of the groups were visible in the "Synch Address Book Contacts" window.

POP3 Mail & Address Book contacts have gone!

I recently did some housekeeping on my Mum's iBook G4 (OSX 10.4.10), part of which was purchasing and installing SpamSieve into Mail. This all went fine. Today she said all the mail in her POP3 inbox had gone, she couldn't send/receive and all her address book contacts had gone (Except hers and Apples).
I've got the iBook now and have noticed that her account type in Mail has somehow changed to a .Mac account (did I somehow do this, or did she???). This is obviously the root of the problem as the
email address now has '@mac.com' appended to the end and the incoming mail server is now 'mail.mac.com' and the outgoing is 'smtp.mac.com:heremailaddress' which is all wrong. I'm unable to change the account type back to POP or the incoming mail server from 'mail.mac.com' (it's greyed out) back to what it was.
I have now created a second account with the correct POP settings and have received in all unread email, but the read email messages have gone. I am unable to send as the new correct pop account is only offered the incorrect outgoing server ('smtp.mac.com:heremailaddress').
Having read several post on this forum, I feel the Mail/Address Book issues are connected and that maybe the application(s) database(s) have been corrupted. I've tried the Address Book remedy at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5248351&#5248351 but this does nothing. The 'user'>Library>Mail folder shows the two accounts as two separate folders. The recently recreated account folder has the new unread messages in the 'INBOX.mbox folder, but the older account folder (which now has 'MAC-' added to the front of its name) only has 'info.plist' in a 'INBOX.imapmbox' folder!
I don't believe any back-ups are available. Can anyone help me restore her old unread mail, and possibly her address book contacts?
I've also just noticed that SpamSieve does not launch as it should when I launch Mail, even though It was purchased and the scripts installed correctly.

Didn’t you make a backup prior to the housekeeping?
I don’t know why would Spotlight find contacts that are gone from Address Book (if that’s what you mean), but as far as Mail goes, under some circumstances (e.g. lack of available disk space, filesystem corruption, repeated crashes), Mail may discard the current ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist preferences file and create a new one. This file is where all the account settings are stored. As a result, all the non-.Mac account settings (but not the messages themselves) are lost. If you had a .Mac account, its settings would appear to have been preserved because Mail would set up that account automatically using the System Preferences > .Mac settings.
What’s the capacity and space available on the startup disk? Take a look at the comments about disk space in the following article, in case they apply to you:
Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what’s it all about?
After having fixed all the filesystem issues, if any, and ensuring that there’s enough space available on the startup disk (a few GB, plus the space needed to make a backup copy of the Mail folder), quit Mail if it’s running, and make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down, just in case something else goes wrong while trying to solve the problem. This is where all your mail is stored.
You have three options now:
(1) Restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist from a backup if you have one. Mail shouldn’t be running while you do this.
(2) Set up your mail accounts again (you may want to quit Mail and trash the new com.apple.mail.plist first to start over). If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don’t. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in ~/Library/Mail/ when done. You’ll also have to re-configure most of your settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it’s enabled.
(3) Mail may have renamed the old preferences file to com.apple.mail.plist.saved. If that’s the case, you may try trashing the new com.apple.mail.plist and renaming the old com.apple.mail.plist.saved back to com.apple.mail.plist. Again, be sure Mail isn’t running while doing this. Given the circumstances, there exists the possibility that com.apple.mail.plist.saved became corrupt, but that often is not the case and the settings can usually be restored by just renaming the file back to com.apple.mail.plist.
As a side effect of re-creating com.apple.mail.plist, Mail might rename Outbox (which is where messages waiting to be sent are stored) to Delivered. The name of that mailbox is actually a misnomer, as it would contain messages (if any) that couldn’t be delivered for some reason. You can delete that mailbox if you wish.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. That is, ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder, i.e. /Users/username/Library.

Add Address book contacts aim to ichat?

Hello,
Is there a way where I can import my address book contacts that have screen name for aim account to ichat?

Hi,
For the points
Exchange Address ?
Are you using Entourage or are you connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server ?
that has screen name to the on my Mac categories.
I think there is a word (or two) missing here and I did not quite follow.
Just Curious on the above.
I am glad the info was good enough to Help.
9:06 PM Monday; February 8, 2010
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

Cannot select 'Selected groups' to sync address book contacts to ipad

Hi,
After i upgraded to iOS5, I cannot select 'selected groups' to sync address books to ipad. I am syncing via icloud, but there is no option so sync selected groups contacts, nor via itunes for manual sync.
Can anyone help, please.

Exported addresses from Address Book to desktop and then deleted all addresses from Address Book.
Deleted file AddressBook-v22.ab** from Library>Application Support>AddressBook.
Exited Address Book and iTunes, restarted Address Book and imported addresses from desktop.
Restarted iTunes and all of the groups were visible in the "Synch Address Book Contacts" window.

Importing Address Book contacts after a reinstall

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