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.

Similar Messages

How to get back the data from 'AddressBook.data.previous' ?

Hi! First of all: After using iSync all my address book data were duplicated, and I deleted all duplicated data manually. Then, I resetted the iSync data under 'Advanced' in '.Mac Sync Preferences'. Unfortunately, iSync deleted all my AddressBook data. I found a file named 'AddressBook.data.previous' and another file named 'AddressBook.data.beforesave' in my 'home folder/Library/Application Support/AddressBook'. Looking carefully into that file, I saw all the data I lost before in it! - Thus, how can I restore that data back into my AddressBook now? Does anyone knows some help for me? Thank you for answering! - Greetings, Gisela

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
You only have a very limited opportunity to recover your data this way. You should make sure that the Address Book application is not running, then drag the AddressBook.data file to your desktop or to the trash. Duplicate the AddressBook.data .previous file, and rename it AddressBook.data by removing the trailing <.previous> string. Then, launch the Address Book.
The application will read the contents of this renamed file, and display your contact records. You should regularly back up your contact records using the built-in Back up Address Book… option under its File menu. A similar option is available in iCal.

Lost Address Book -- can I download from ipod?

I lost the entire contents of my Address Book, but have all the contacts on my ipod. Can I download the contacts from my ipod and import them back into my address book? One thing -- I currently have my computer set to automatically update my ipod, so I'm afraid as soon as I plug it in it will "update" my ipod with zero contacts. If I switch my ipod to disk use manually and then plug it in to my macbook, will that prevent this from happening? I checked the Library folder and there isn't even an Address Book folder in there at all. Help me!

I am not sure what you were doing when your AB data was lost. But you can check in Library/Application Support/AddressBook if there is a file called AddressBook.data.previous and if it is dated before you lost the data.
Then in the Address Book Application under the File menu there is a choice to Revert To Address Book Back Up. Might be worth a shot.
Good luck!

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.

Importing Address Book Backup file [.abbu]

Hi
I just wondered if anyone has ever imported from a .abbu file successfully?
I have an iMac and an old Powerbook, and have to update the contacts in Address Book on my Powerbook when I go on a trip. So I make Backup files from Address Book on my iMac just before I go away. I also export as VCards which gives me 'vCards.vcf', and finally I simply choose Select All and drag all the contacts over to the folder i'm backing up into – which gives me 'Joe Bloggs and 801 others.vcf'
The reason I use these 3 methods is because I found that when using my Powerbook, whenever I import the .abbu file I end up with a very very old version of my data – even though I only backed up the day before. I have just tried once again, and having had 802 contacts on my iMac, when I import the .abbu file I end up with 700.
So I'm having to load in a batch VCF file, which is a solution of sorts but doesn't include my Groups of course. It is concerning that these Address Book Backup files don't seem to be complete back ups at all.
Is anyone else aware of this?

however, if it was an OS difference issue, why would it only import some of the contacts?
That, I'm not sure of; possibly because there was no change in 102 of them, so it may have ignored those. It's also possible the backup was somehow corrupted in those particular records. So many possibilities, so little time to test them all.
But the .abbu contains a lot more than just your contacts; it's a really a package, just like any application, so you can open it and see what else is in there, too. I've restored from both before and I've never had a problem, but I use the Export to vCard format most often, just to be sure I don't run into problem with changes in later or previous versions of Address Book.

Address Book backup file seems to be corrupted

I have a backup Address Book file on and external hard drive that seems to be corrupted. I am getting messages like this when I restore from backup:
2008-09-26 06:47:11.655 Address Book[296] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/Address Book.app/Contents/Resources/Aqua2RemovePressed.tif
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
Error in createMutableDictionaryValue:1012 for property 'Email' 'XML parser error:
Unexpected character 9 at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected ';' or '=' after key at line 1
I've restored and trash the file twice and the message doesn't point to the same tiff file. I think it has to do with the xml metadata format. I don't know much about metadata repairs or even much about the protocol for it.
Any ideas on how to repair my backup file? (I have over 2,000) contacts and retyping them all would be rather time consuming)

I'm not convinced there's anything wrong with the backup file, since the error message points to a tiff file, and a different one each time you trash it or restore it. But if the file is just an AddressBook.data file, you should be able to copy it from the hard drive to Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (after you rename the one that's already there to AddressBook.bak, and after you quit Address Book). Then restart AddressBook and see if that restores your contacts.
Mulder

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

"create or select an existing address book contact to represent your data"

After upgrading the firmware on my Storm, everything seems to be back to the "stupidphone" state, like it just came out of the box.
I had no idea that would happen; no warning, etc. Trying to send a Blackberry Messenger text to a contact, I now discover I have to scroll through a bunch of EULAs ... probably for every little thing on the phone, from the looks of it.
I'm trying to get back the Blackberry Messenger contacts I had.
I have no screen name anymore ... reset that ... OK [grumble grumble].
No Blackberry contacts. The backup in Blackberry Desktop Manger adds ... nothing.
So, obviously, the Desktop software is useless, as I did back up everything before I did the update.
There is some babbling on the screen about some other undefined backup option. When I try to enable that, it says:
"create or select an existing address book contact to represent your data."
"Represent"? What in the world do you mean by "represent"?
And what kind of contact should I be selecting? Some random fool? Myself? Can't Blackberry figure out I want this backed up to something I control?
Please explain EXACTLY what this "dance around the concept" babbling means. I propose we try the English language.
Also, how do I get my Blackberry Messenger contacts back?

1. You only have to accept the EULA once.
Gordguide wrote:
No Blackberry contacts. The backup in Blackberry Desktop Manger adds ... nothing.
2. That's of no help to anyone who might want to assist you. "Nothing" is correct.
What does happen? You go to Backup/Restore > Advanced... and what? You do nothing?
Try over the left hand pane > File > Open > Select your most recent BlackBerry Messenger contact database and restoring it.
Did you ever backup your BBM contacts OTA or to your Media Card?
Gordguide wrote:
[grumble grumble].
x2
1. If any post helps you please click the below the post(s) that helped you.
2. Please resolve your thread by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!
3. Install free BlackBerry Protect today for backups of contacts and data.
4. Guide to Unlocking your BlackBerry & Unlock Codes
Join our BBM Channels (Beta)
BlackBerry Support Forums Channel
PIN: C0001B7B4 Display/Scan Bar Code
Knowledge Base Updates
PIN: C0005A9AA Display/Scan Bar Code

Lost Address Book and Mail info after system sofware reinstall

Help! I had to reload the system software after a major crash to open up the Machine. Now the Mail and Address Book info has disappeared. The "Previous System" folders are there but I've no idea where to find the files.

Thanks
I found files. My previous account was called pop3blahblahblah, after the reinstall the new folder is a new name. Do I delete all the files in the new mail folder and replace with all the old ones?

Does Address book has a Last Modified Date field?

Hi
Please can you let me know if Address book has a Last Modified Date field? I'd like to know what date I have last modified my address book records. I checked Preferences but not able to find it there.
Thank you.

Sorry, but there is no such field in Address Book. If you select an individual entry in Address Book, you will see to the lower-right an "Updated" field with the date that entry was last updated. This is not true for all entries, but nearly all. There seems to be a point after which you've entered text in the Note field that the "Updated" field will no longer appear when you select an entry, but it's not documented.

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?

Lost address book for iPod Touch. How can I get back data or app or both?

I forget what is was called but the built-in Contacts/Address Book app jumped off my 2nd generation (bought 31 Dec 2009) iPod Touch one day.
I connected to iTunes hoping to get it back with all my data from the back-up, but because iTunes was set to automatic sync it synced when I connected and over-rode the last back-up with a new one, so without any contact app or data.
When I investigated back-up on iTunes I was only offered the back-up which had just been made, ie no contact app or data.
Is there any way that I can reload at least the empty app without doing a re-set?
I don't want to do a re-set because although I will get back the empty app I will lose all my 20+ other 3rd party apps and all the data that some of them contain,
As well as that - since I cannot update the OS - the version of each that I can run (for OS 4) will almost certainly have vanished from iTunes because most apps have been developed now for OS 5 and finding the old version in iTunes is very cumbersome. As far as I can see I have to browse them all in the date order they were released, with no search facility.
I have to have an address book. I have been unable to find a 3rd party one that will run under OS 4, so it looks as if I will have to use NoteMaster, with contacts in A/Z order by surname, with one or more lines for each depending on whether I have phone number, mobile number, email address, postal address etc. It's possible, but a poor substitute for a proper address book.
I would be very grateful for any help with this, and hope that the Apple address book app or a 3rd party address book app for 4.2.1 is available.
Alan

Try resetting your home screen layout, go to your setting>general>reset home screen layout.

Iphone 3g sync and lost address book, notes and all data

Have an iPhone 3G and synced with itunes yesterday and installed all updates. After the process wqas completed, my phone rebooted and I lost all my address book contents, all notes, and my calendar was wiped clean. Can I get some help in having these items restored?

This is the Mac OS X Technologies > iSync forum. You appear to be a Windows user - also, even on a Mac, iSync is not used for syncing the iPhone.
I'd suggest asking in the iPhone forums:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=201

Restore lost Address Book contacts

I lost all Address Book Contacts the first time I tried to sync my iPad2 with my iMac. I have recent Time Machine backups, so I restored this file:
username/Library/AddressBook/AddressBook.data
from a backup, making sure that Address Book was not running during the restore. I quit and restarted the iMac, but Address Book still shows 0 cards.
Any ideas on what I did wrong, or what I can do to get my contacts back?

urlgurl wrote:
username/Library/AddressBook/AddressBook.data
Try username/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb

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

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