Lost Address Book Data

My address book file disappeared. I had been making entries in address book. The cursor color wheel started spinning and I could not continue working in address book. I waited but the cursor color wheel would not stop spinning. When I tried to quit address book from the address book logo on the dock the pop up menu said force quit not quit. So I did a force quit and restarted my computer but my address book file with all of my addresses was not there. The address book had only two entries. I looked for my old file in My Library folder - Application Support – AddressBook but it was not there. The file with the two enties was there. AddressBook.data.previous was the same as AddressBook.data.
How can I retrieve my old address book file?

I have used Data Rescue with Mixed results. It can take a long time. I had 50 Gigs and took 48 hours
to recover some of my Mail files, iTunes, Photos,. I have not found it effective for the Address Book files. But I am still looking.
Backing up is the only way to go. However, you need at least 2 different disks to Back Up too, as I was Backing Up when the 2 year old Hard Drive in my 2 year old PowerBook decided to scatter information all over the place. This has been a major problem, as before I send the Book in to Apple Care I have to rescue all the data and this is time consuming and expensive, or very, very, expensive. It has eaten days and night of my time, for weeks.
Geoff
Now my 13 year old LaCie 1 Gig and my 4 GiG IBM still run perfectly in my PM 6100. Those were huge drives in their day. Back ups in those, a piece of cake. Drop and drag. I had backups all over the place. The complaint I have on OS X, why should data that is so vital be scattered to a lot of shareware, which each person and reasonably so says this is good . Yes we have now come to Time Machine and it will have some growing pains, but I hope this is the last of worrying about my data, the loss of data, wasted time looking for it. I guess when you spend $3500.00 2 years ago, you have some confidence, yes it's just a machine and can break, but some confidence is expected I guess.
Hope you found your Address Book, I am now searching for mine in 55 Gigs of restored data that is a bit spread around.

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Once on iCloud how do you recover lost address book data?

After moving to iCloud my wife suddenely lost all her contact info earlier today. When opening Address Book on her iMac & iPad all contact info was gone. We signed on to iCloud.com and it was gone there too. For some reason it was still on her iPhone. I tried to force a merge from her phone by shutting off iCloud Contacts; selecting to keep data on the device; then turned it back on hoping to get the 'merge data' option. I didn't get that message and sure enough in a few seconds the address book on her phone went empty.
So, this raised the question about where do I recover the data from? I looked in finder on her iMac under user/Library/Addplication Support/Address Book - there were some files and directories there, but nothing that looked like it was loaded with contact info. I'm assumming once she moved to iCloud the detail is no longer stored locally in OS X?
I went into System Prefs and shut off iCloud Contacts on the iMac, opened Time Machine, went back a week ago (prior to iCloud) and found contact info in the user/Library/Addplication Support/Address Book directory and restored the entire directory. Opened Address Book and it was populated with data. turned on iCloud Contacts and selected the 'Merge' data option which then populated her other devices.
So, the question is - what if it had been longer than a week - where is this data (and probably calendar data too!) being backed up and where (and how) would you restore it from if it did suddenly turn up missing?

RickTexas wrote:
So this gets back to my original question... not sure if bgbrobru is running Time Machine backups, but even if he is, I don't think the Address Book data is recoverable (unless you go back to a pre-iCloud backup) because it is no longer stored locally.
If I understand correctly the only thing we can do going forward is to run a periodic 'manual' export of iCal and Address Book data to insure we have a backup? In the event I do something stupid and mistakingly delete something or - like what happened to my wife today - the entire address book (or calendar entries) just disapear, we are screwed? I guess this would also apply to email stored in folders on iCloud?
Seems there should be some way to capture the iCloud data in a Time Machine (or some other mechanism) backup?
Sorry Rick but that's incorrect,
Here's a shot of the folder it lives in and the path to it, Time Machine backs it up.

Address Book Spinning Beach Ball of Death Crashes -- Lost Address Book Data

Over the past three weeks Address Book has suffered spinning beach ball crashes three times. Each time resulting in total loss of the data in the address book.
I can understand that from time to time an application might crash, but there is NO excuse for the crash to result in the TOTAL loss of data associated with the application.
And having to revert to manually stored backup archives is NOT acceptable.
Is there a way to restore the Address Book database to what it was IMMEDIATElY before the crash?
I notice that there are unix executable files with data in them in the address book subfolder in the address book folder in the Applications Support Folder.
Can they be used to restore the database?
If so, what is the method and why is it not more clearly documented?
If not, why not?
Why isn't one able to set the application to automatically make backups every so many minutes?
What are the primary factors that cause Address Book to Crash?
Is there a file size limit to Address Book?
Is there a need for a minimum amount of RAM?
Why hasn't the dev team fixed these bugs?

This same thing happened to me. Did you ever figure out what to do?

HT2486 Address book data loss / iMac 10.5.8 / despite backing up on a NAS all data lost, including in the backup. How can I retrieve it? Thanks

Help! All my address book data disappeared from one day to the next. I entered my NAS back-up but all the address books going back in time are empty.
Then I got clever and thought I would sync my contacts from my iPhone 4 to my iMac. Brilliant idea - now all my iPhone contacts are gone as well except for 14 address that must have been input after my last sync with iTunes.
Can anyone help my find my lost data?
Thanks
Paul
P.S. all help appreciated, especially in simple English as I am not a techi!

Paul, get one of these...
Find Any File...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30079/find-any-file
I'd get EasyFind...
http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/
Search your whole drive for...
AddressBook.data
Do we find a bigger one?

Lost address book, found file named AddressBook.data.previous

My address book is gone. I found AddressBook.data.previous in Application Support under my account, but I can't open it and can't drag it to the Application. Any help? Is this my missing data?
Best to all.

With the Address Book application quit and using the Finder go to Home > Library > Application Support > AddressBook > AddressBook.data.previous.
If there is an Address Book.data file, move this to the Desktop. Change the name of AddressBook.data.previoius to AddressBook.data
Say a quick prayer of cross your fingers and launch Address Book.
If your contacts are not available, now is the time to start maintaining a backup or if you do, start including Address Book data with your backup which is quite easy.
As the menu bar, go to File and select Back Up Address Book. The default name for the backup file is Address Book - (and the date). A very easy process.
If you need to recover all contacts from this backup, at the menu bar go to File and select Revert to Address Book Backup selecting the backup file.
Before making a large number changes/edits, deletions or additions to existing data, update your backup file immediately beforehand.

I have lost Address book app how do I recover it please. Thank you.

I have lost Address book app how do I recover it please. Thank you.

No kids or pets --- just me!I don't think there is too much mystery about the deletion of Address Book on my laptop. I was trying to get it up-to-date from my desktop computer and as that is Lion and the laptop is sitll Leopard (all these ***** cats!) I must have trashed the laptop Address Book, then tried to install the one from Lion but, of course it couldn't be installed - wrong system! By then I had lost Address Book!! Horrors! I then lifted it from my husband's computer (Panther or something!) et voila! But I had expected to have all HIS names and address in Address Book when I opened it but -- not so, his were not there and mine were! Don't ask!!
Thanks again and regards, Lecia

3.1.3 update deleted 50% Address Book data

After the latest update deleted half of my Address Book, I made the stupid mistake of syncing to get them back. Unfortunately, I did a two-way sync which permanently deleted the data in my Address Book. I have thousands of contacts and don't even know where to begin replacing the data. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a chance the data is still embedded somewhere? I have not been able to see Address Book data in Time Machine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Had the same problem and I've posted my own topic.
I find it very disturbing that you can lose all your contacts, and I hope you had a back up. I was lucky because a backup was made three days earlier so I only lost three days of new addresses (not much).
Hope you find your contacts
Rob Buck

Restoring address book data and mail

I wonder if anyone can help. I lost the hard drive of my iMac PowerPC G5 to a crash, from which no recovery was possible. Fortunately I had backed up all my data to a LaCie external hard drive. I have had the iMac hard drive replaced, and in the process the OS was upgraded from Tiger to Leopard.
I am now trying to restore data from the external drive to the iMac and am finding it challenging. I have found the address book data file but the icon is like a blank sheet of paper i.e. a file in an unsupported format. I have tried dragging and dropping into address book, but to no avail. I would also like to find my Safari bookmarks as well but worry that I will have exactly the same problems.
Alternatively should I just be dragging the whole library (myusername/library) into library on the new hard drive?
Any thoughts on this plus general tips on how to restore data much appreciated.

I have just followed your instructions for restoring Mail and Address Book files after I did an Erase and Istall. I didn't do a restore from my back up but reinstalled all the software from discs and am carefully bringing files back into my clean laptop bit by bit.
I got my address book files back but I don't have all the Mail files back....just my Inbox and Smart Mailboxes. I don't have the emails I put into all the files in my side bar....they are still empty.
Also, I could not find: /Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/ on my back up.
Thank you
Macbook Pro. 10.6.8.

How can I access Address Book data from an older version of the application to transfer it to a newer version of Mac OS running on a second hard drive on the same MDD G4?

I installed a hard drive from one PowerPC Dual 1.25 GHz MDD into another one with an older version of the OS X. all my Address Book data are on the older hard drive, from which I now boot the computer. When I launch Address Book as an app on the hard drive with the newer version of the OS, I get an error message that says I cannot run the version of Address Book from the older hard drive on the newer OS. How can I access the data on the older hard drive version of the Address Book app so that I can transfer it to the newer version of the app on the boot drive? The "Import" functionality will not work. I will be grateful for any help I can get. I would also like to uninstall the older version of OS X from the older hard drive.

Boot from the older version of OSX, then in AB use the File>Export>Export vCard after selecting all in AB.
Then boot from the new OSx & use the new AB to import that VCF file.

How can I delete my address book data

Running Lion. I've read in several post that the data file is in home folder/library/application support/AddressBook.
To test this I set up a temporary user account, added a few contacts to the address book, quit the application, deleted the entire AddressBook folder and contents in home folder/library/application support/AddressBook, re-launched Address Book and the new contacts I just created are still there.
I quit address book, deleted this same folder and contents again, this time also deleted all address book preference files in library/preferences, re-launched address book and the new contacts are still there.
Anyone know where the data file is really kept? In a brand new user account there aren't many files in home folder/library so it shouldn't be too hard to find but I sure can't seem to.
Any help would be appreciated.
PS. For those who want to know "why". I believe my daughter's Mac has a corrupt address book data file so I want to start over "fresh" but can't seem to locate where the true data file is.
Thanks,

"Perhaps for recovery or sync, don't know"
This was just a possible but the sync part of it really isn't possible in this case. In setting up a new temporary account on my Mac it would be an account without an iCloud or MobilMe account so there would be no syncing involved.
Address Book data for each user's account will be stored only within that users account. The fake contacts I've created in the temporary user account certainly don't show up in any other account.
Your behaviour "if I delete the files mentioned, there is absolutely nothing left." is exactly what I would expect. Just can't figure out (yet) what's going on, on my Mac because this expected behaviour is not happening.

Access Address Book data from terminal

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if there is a way to access Address Book data from the terminal. For instance, I would
need a command that would output an address of a given person.
Thanks in advance for your input

this script could be used in Terminal (save the code below as
"getaddress" and mark it as executable):
case $# in
2) firstname=$1; lastname=$2;;
*) echo 'Usage: getaddress <firstname> <lastname>' 1>&2; exit 1 ;;
esac
count=`osascript -e "tell application \"Address Book\" to count (people whose first name is \"${firstname}\" and last name is \"${lastname}\")"`
case $count in
0) echo "$firstname $lastname is not in Address Book." 1>&2; exit 1;;
1) ;;
*) echo "There are multiple entries for $firstname $lastname in Address Book (unhandled error)." 1>&2; exit 1;;
esac
osascript -e "tell application \"Address Book\" to get formatted address of address of first person whose first name is \"${firstname}\" and last name is \"${lastname}\""
Message was edited by: jazzy79

E51 address book data access via Bluetooth to Garm...

I have a new E51 but cannot access address book data via Bluetooth from a Garmin Sat Nav (model 310). Worked perfectly with old Nokia 6310, but returns a 'no can do' message when using the E51. Lack of this feature is a big problem - surely Bluetooth communication is supposed to work to a common standard. This is not good. Does anyone have a solution or know of a patch to cure this? Thanks.

All metioned problems are Samsung's fault. Blame them.
I've been assuming it was a Samsung problem, and have posted help requests in cell phone forums that Samsung engineers and/or support allegedly reads. I was hoping there might be some way to automate a workaround from the computer end...
Now, if Address Book had an option to define the fields that are to be exported or perhaps automatically sub Company Names for last names the problem would be solved when exporting for cell phones. I can't belive no one has ever encountered this before -- it has been a problem with every cell phone I have ever owned.

How can I get my address book data back?

After upgrading to OS6, my address book has gone from almost a thousand entries to being totally empty.
This is a *very* big deal for me bc I have no address book application on my PC.
I had always assumed that if iTunes were backing up my iPod, that I would be able to restore from those backups, but now I cannot figure out how to tell iTunes to restore from a backup. I've got a backup... just cannot restore from it.
There's got to be a way.... and I'm probably looking right at it and not seeing it.

It has been a very long time since I used 10.1.5 but Address Book data is not stored in a .plist file.
The Address Book data should be located in an Addresses folder at Home > Library > Addresses.
Locate this folder and with the Address Book application quit, move it back to the proper location.

Mail and address book data file location

Does anyone know where mail and address book saves its data?
My old mac died but I was able to remove the hard drive and mount it in a external firewire case. The drive mounts and appears in good shape. I tried using the migration utility to transfer my data into my new iMac. While a lot of data and applications did make the move, my mail files and folders did not show up on my new iMac. I'm hoping I can transfer the mail files manually. The problem is I can't find where they are located on my old computer. I was using Max os 10.4.11 on my old computer.
The same problem with my address book data. It did not transfer over with migration app. and I can't locate this data either.

The majority of Mail is in...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
AB...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

How do I Export Address Book data?

Is there anyway to insert Address Book data into other (non-Apple) applications, e.g. Word?
I want to send out some letters and I would like each letter to have the recipiants address at the top of the letter. Even if I could export the data to Excel first would be OK but I only seem to be able to export vCards from Address Book and Excel (nor Word) can read them?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,

Yink,
you can use some third-party applications to export Address Book data as plain text files (e.g., csv) which you should then be able to import without any problems in Excel and the like.
Some options are:
• Export Addresses from Mail Scripts
http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/
• Address Book Exporter
http://www.gwenhiver.net/address-book-exporter.html
• Export Address Book
http://software.dibomedia.de/ExportAddressBook
Andreas

Lost Address Book Data

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