.Mac Address Book/Contacts Design

Perhaps I am just not finding what I am looking for a would be happy if some one might clarify my frustration with Apple's design of the .Mac contacts features for the Address Book. As a writer/journalist, I am a person with a fairly sizable Address Book and use it while I travel on my Powerbook and even on computers in coffee shops and desktop computers in places I visit. Thus, I have contacts with email, phone, web site and NOTES. The notes I keep about my contacts are vital. When did I last speak to them, what is their latest project or endeavour, who are the spouse and children, driving instructions on how to get to where I am going to meet them. Even appointment times. Why can't Apple seem to integrate these functions with iCal and even Google maps or Mapquest to make is .Mac contract fully functional?
And where are my NOTES in .Mac? It is weird because when I am syncing (another function Apple has not implemented well and has changed the place for and it has totally hosed the sync with my Motorola cell phone as well as my wives) the NOTES appear during the review when merging data BUT I can't view my notes in any location on the .Mac?
The notes also fail to find their way to the iPod. Additionally, I have photos of many of the people in my contacts, I see the holders for them in the iPod contacts, on the .Mac but they don't get updated and transferred and on a number of occassions when I sync, they get whiped out on the host computer. The loss of data is a big issue with the syncing and one that Apple seriously needs to solve.
Why doesn't Apple make exporting the content of the Address Book with note to a tab delimited file easier? Why doesn't Apple give us the ability to use contact information in Pages or other Apple applications for mail merge or letters, into a database, or Excel spreadsheet? A persone ends up inveesting a lot of time and effort into Address Book because it is connected to mail and then you get your data stuck and Apple gives few effective ways out. Is it possible these things can be fixed?

Anyone?

Similar Messages

How do I export my Mac address book contacts from OS 10.10 to Excel

How do I export my Mac address book contacts to an excel spreadsheet?

Sorry, forgot to test it when I had 10.6 available.
I don't know that they're interchangeable, but it seems the relevant files & folders are...
For Address Book, quit AB...
Files...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist
Folders...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/
So back those up if you try replacing them, and of course Permissions may or may not need adjusting on the swap.

Mac address book contacts won't push to new iPhone 4s

I've a new iPhone. My contacts from my old phone snyc'd, via Verizon's app, into the iPhone. In fact those very contacts (from my old flip phone) were pushed to my address book on our iMac (via an iTunes sync). But any contacts we have on our iMac's address book will not sync or get pushed to the phone. It works for my husbands phone (we share iTunes/computer accounts). AND, I just now created a new contact on the iMac, tried sync again, and the new contact did not make its way to my iPhone. Is there a setting somewhere, phone (or iMac), that is preventing this? Help!

I'm not sure this will work on the original iPhone but you can try this:
Open Address Book on your mac, click on any single contact to select it, go to Edit>Select All (Command-A) to select all contacts
Got to File>Export>Export vCard, save this file on your desktop
Send an email to yourself with this file attached
Open the email on your iPhone and tap the attachment to import the contacts
(This will work with newer iPhones; not sure if it will work with the 1st generation iPhone but worth a try.)

Why won't iphone sync mac address book contacts?

I've got an IP4 and a MAC G5 both with most recent software updates. At around the turn of 2012 I started "losing" new contacts from my phone, It transpired that the phone and computer were conflicting some how and contacts were not being updated or synced. When I tried to manually input these new details to Address I am told that the Database could not be opened as it is corrupted.
How do I resolve this?
Evmarnel
9 April 2012

Okay, if Entourage is syncing to iCal fine, then the problem is not with Entourage, but with the iPhone. (How sync works--Entourage sends it to a central location, and the iPhone and iCal pick it up from there. So you know E'rage is getting it to the central location fine, but for some reason the iPhone is not picking it up).
In which case things like reset/restore the iPhone might help (read the iPhone manual on troubleshooting and on syncing, and backup the iPhone, and export iCal and E'rage data to an archive before futzing around too much). Reset/Restore are different from a one-way sync that overwrites data, which you might try first---I think you can tell it just overwrite a certain type of data--the settings are down at the very bottom of the Info panel in iTunes 8.
However, since E'rage should be irrelevant to the problem, you should also search/ask re general syncing problems with the iPhone.
iPhone manual:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphoneuserguide.pdf
also bookmarked in Mobile Safari.

Syncing Mac Address Book with iCloud

Hello, I am trying to sync my Mac Address Book with iCloud. All contacts that are created under iCloud on Mac Addess Book are immediately synced. But if I create a contact on the Mac book exclusively, that contact will not get synced with iCloud.
Does it mean that if we want to sync Mac address book contacts with iCloud, they should always be created under the iCloud category on the Mac? Can someone help me with this. I have checked all sync options are switched "on" and sync is working fine across all other apps.
Thanks,
Farhan

I believe the duplicate address books stems from the move from MobileMe to iCloud.
In system preferences I found an iCloud icon and also a MobileMe icon. I was logged in under both.
1) In the Address Book preferences I selected iCloud and unchecked Enable this account.
2) In the Address Book I selected iCloud and clicked on the minus “-” to remove that account – leaving only the local Mac address book.
3) I went into system preferences and logged out of MobileMe
4) In system preferences I opened iCloud and the “Contacts” was not selected (from above) and I selected it.
I got a dialog box asking if I wanted to merge the iCloud contact with the local contacts – clicked YES.
… spinning wheel for a minute … voila – only one address book account – iCloud with syncing to iCloud and my iPhone.

Why wont my Mac Address Book overwrite my Palm Desktop????

I have spent the last few days messy about with this bloody isync and my treo 650 trying to configure the address books in the way i would like.
yesterday i managed to finally back up my palm top (treo 650) and merge it with my mac address book. the only problem with this was that there were a lot of duplicate names, or names from the address book that didnt have numbers etc etc.
Anyway, the good thing was that i now had all of my contacts from my phone into my mac address book.
this morning i spent hours going through my now complete mac address book weeding out and duplicates, and basically making it perfect.
now i cant figure out how to overwrite my treo and my palm desktop on my mac with my mac address book contacts!!!! its driving me crazy!
i am not worried about ical, or any of the other things syncing (although i suppose it would be a bonus) i just want to get my address book contacts on my treo and to overwrite the old messy version of palm desktop that has all of the duplicates in it.
any ideas? i am running OSX 10.4.8 isync 2.3 and have palm desktop 4.2.1
many thanks
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

not quite sure what has happened now. i backed up the address book and exported the v cards (when you said select all in the left most sidebar did you mean select all of the groups or just the group called 'all'? i selected just the group called all).
i then imported them fine into palm desktop using the methods you said except that in my mac address book i had 586 cards and in palm desktop it only seems to say i have 312.
also when i was copying them it asked it i wanted to keep the new or old version with the only differences i could see between the new and the old cards being that it now said CATEGORIES: Palm in the notes section. i said yes to replacing all of the old ones with these new palm ones.
when i went back to the address book afterwards, it now seems to have taken a lot of various addresses out of the various groups i had them set up in. they are all still there in 'all' though so at least thats something.
i also seem to have some random duplicates in palm desktop.
i have also noticed that if for example in mac address book you dont fill in the first name in the first name box and the surname in the surname box (ie you write the first name and the surname in the first name box) then this can cause problems when you try and display stuff alphabetically in palm desktop.
i have some contacts with just names and emails, and some with numbers, emails etc etc. could this cause problems? i am also wondering if each card isnt set up in exactly the same format, could this cause problems in palm desktop (ie the order you have mobile, home, email etc listed on each card?)
still not sure why i only have almost half of my numbers though!?
can you help?
many thanks

How can I import iPhone contacts into Mac Address book

I recently purchased a MacBook Pro and am in the process of trying to dump my Windows PC.
All of my important contacts are on my iPhone. How can I get those contacts into my Mac Address Book?
The same question goes for the music (ripped from CD) and my video files that are on my iPhone? The media is not that big of a deal because I can easily transfer it from my PC to my Mac but I assume I am not the only one in the world trying to do this and that Apple would make it very easy for MSFT Windows users to easily migrate to Macs.
I must be an idiot but I don't see any option in iTunes to transfer the data from my iPhone into iTunes and/or the Address Book.
Thanks

The iPhone's primary function is NOT a word processor or a spread sheet analyzer.
I didn't say, nor was I trying to imply ANYTHING of the sort. You should read what I provided again a little slower and in it's entirety, not taking this out of context, which you made into Apples and Oranges.
It IS an iPod, a device designed to store and play music (in addition to being a browser and a phone).
It is a phone, an iPod, and an internet device, which supports transferring iTunes content from iTunes on a single computer ONLY.
Making it difficult to transfer my legal music from my iPhone to my Mac does not make me want to go out and buy more Apple products or Apple software.
Good, then don't - no skin off my back. I couldn't care less if you want to remain a Windows sufferer. All this doesn't come from Apple. Much of it comes from those who OWN the distribution rights for content sold thru the iTunes Store.
All of Apple's commercials imply how easy the user experience is over Windows. Well, in this case, they missed the boat BIG TIME!
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let me get this straight. You will likely need to transfer much more than just music from your Windows PC to your Mac and if so, how do you plan on accomplishing this? If you are transferring Word and Excel files, photos, and any other data, you won't be using an iPhone for this, so I don't see the big deal with transferring your iTunes library along with all other data being transferred.
I understand that the iPhone was not designed to be used as a backup. However, you allow the contacts to be merged in but not the music that I legally installed (but didn't purchase from the iTunes store).
I don't allow anything - this is a user to user help forum only.
As I provided in my first post in this thread - the sync process for contact information, calendar events, and bookmarks with an iPhone is bidirectional with the supported application on your computer. This is a sync process by definition of syncing - which is not the same for other data such as iTunes content and photos transferred from your computer to your iPhone.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1296
Apple wants to make it difficult unless I purchased the music from iTunes.
No, Apple or really those who own the distribution rights or the copyright holders for content sold thru the iTunes Store wants to make this difficult. Content sold thru the iTunes Store is set up by Apple to be a break even - which is included with the Apple stockholder's report. Apple makes their profit via sales of the iPod and iPhone. The bulk of the iTunes Store revenue goes to those who own the distribution rights or the copyright holders for the content.
In addition, if my hard disk suffered a crash and I lost all my music it just seems stupid not to be able to pull it off my iPhone (yes, I know data should be backed up on a different drive, and mine is, but I am sure a lot of people do not back up their data).
Maintaining a backup of your data is important for this very reason, and for other reasons which is not Apple's responsibility. I believe iTunes includes an occasional warning message to backup your iTunes library (which can be turned off), and iTunes includes an option to transfer content purchased from the iTunes Store from an iPod or iPhone - since the overwhelming majority of this content includes DRM protection required by those who own the distribution rights or the copyright holders.
The iPhone was not designed as an external storage device or as a backup device - end of story. If someone chooses not to maintain a backup, they are playing Russian roulette with their data. Maintaining a backup is important regardless the platform, but even more so when running Windows with constant virus, adware, and spyware concerns.

Is there a way to transfer contacts from Mac Address Book to an iPhone?

I tried posting this before but no one answered. I dont currently have an iphone (or any smartphone). I do have a Mac and I have my contacts in the Mac Address Book (not in an email client like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail)
I want to know if I get an iphone is there an easy way to transfer contacts (names, addresses, emails etc) and especially HOME/WORK/CELL Phone numbers from the Address Book on the Macbook Pro to the iphone....
I would think there's a way to do that since both the Mac and the iphone are Apple products....but no one has been able to give me a straight answer on this...except to transfer contacts from Gmail but my contacts are not in Gmail
So if I get an iphone (or probably any phone) do I have to manually enter all my contacts each time? I thought that it would be easier with an iphone than an Android or other smartphone.

I appreciate the link but wasnt really looking to go through a 100+ page iphone guide. From what I saw, it said what other people have told me - which is it will sync contacts from Google (Gmail) or Yahoo...so that doesnt mean it will sync contacts directly from an Android phone's contact list. All the manual said was you sync thru itunes.
It looks like what I should do at some point is manually input all my contacts into a new "clean and unused" Gmail account...Unless there was an easy way to transfer my Mac Address Book to a Gmail Account.
It seems like if you have contacts in a Gmail account, it will be easy to transfer anywhere.
Im starting to wonder if an Android would be bette than an iphone anyway. Considering the nightmare time Ive had with a Mac in just a few months, Im surprised Im even still considering another Apple product.
Thanks

Lost all my contacts in Mac address book. Tried syncing my iPhone/iPad contacts to Mac is not working. Please help

Lost all my contacts in Mac address book. Tried syncing my iPhone/iPad contacts to Mac via iTunes and is not working. Please help

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Unless you have the contacts backed up somewhere, you won't be able to restore them.
You and your son should have your own iCloud accounts then you can keep your own contacts and calendars etc and avoid deleting each others.

How to sync iPhone 4 contacts to Mac address book

Hello!
I can sync all my contacts from the Mac address book on my MacBook Pro to my iPhone 4. However, why does it not sync the iPhone contacts to the Mac address book? Should it not be like a two way sync? I was looking at the syncing options but it does give that option. I just want to make sure that I have the same contacts on my iPhone and Mac. I do understand that MobileMe does that. But till I can afford to have MobileMe, maybe there is another solution?
Anybody... help!

I had a major drama doing this last night, have managed to restore my Address Book file with a backup after I mistakenly wiped all the contacts I had created on my iPhone. Yikes! I suggest when you sync your iPhone leave it plugged in after the sync until you check that the contacts are all where they should be. That way, the most recent backup that is done automatically when you plug in the iPhone will still have all your iPhone contacts should something go amiss and they can be restored. Also export your computer's Address Book (File>Export in Address Book) which should land in your Documents folder.
To get all my iPhone's contacts back into my Mac's Address Book, I created a group in my Mac Address Book called 'iPhones contacts'. When I synced the iPhone with my Mac, (Info tab>Sync Address Book Contacts in iTunes), I checked the box that says 'Add contacts created outside of groups on this iPhone to...' and checked the new 'iPhone contacts' group and when I synced, all the new contacts on the iPhone landed in my Mac's Address Book. Phew. Heartstopper!

ITunes 9.1 no longer synching iPhone Contacts to Mac Address Book

Since installing iTunes 9.1 (79) today. my iPhone will no longer synch to the Mac Address Book. iPhone software 3.1.3, Mac OS 10.6.3 MacBook Pro 3.1. The only thing I can think of is that my iTunes library is on an external drive (not with me). Everything else seems to be working OK. I tried resetting the iPhone (but did not erase content) to no avail.
Any ideas why this is happening and what to do?

Can anyone help with this? This has been an issue for me for weeks. Changes to contacts on my iPhone (the original one) don't show up in Address Book and changes in Address Book on my iMac don't sync with my iPhone contacts. Both seemed to be separate from each other. Prior to this, it has done so flawlessly since I have owed it.
I just tried the following, from this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=476130):
*1. open address book, go to File > Export > Address Book Archive, save to desktop*
*2. delete all contact info (including groups) from address book, quit address book*
*3. select "sync address book contacts" (all contacts) in itunes info tab (highlight your iphone on the left of the window)*
*4. under "advanced" at the bottom, select contacts under "replace information on this iphone / ipod".*
*5. sync.*
*6. uncheck #'s 3 & 4 above*
*7. back in address book, import your address book archive file to restore your address book.*
*that should do it- sorry if this was unclear, need to hit the hay.*
My Address Book imported back in fine. Now my iPhone contacts are empty and won't sync back with what is on the computer. When I click on my iPhone in iTunes and go to Info to click "Sync Address Book Contacts," there is nothing in the box. Prior to attempting the above fix, the iPhone's contacts showed up in that box, but not the most recent version of Address Book on my computer.
I have not lost my Address Book contacts, they are backed up, but I just want to be able to sync it all with my iPhone again. My iPhone contacts are currently empty and I could use them for work today.
Any ideas would be much appreciated -- thanks!

Mac OS 10.4 Address Book Contacts

Niether the Palm Data Transfer Agent nor the MissingSync program work under Mac OS 10.4, and I do not want to pay for 10.5 when 10.6 is coming out in September. Here is how I have found to copy all of my Address Book contacts to the Pre. It requires you to have a gmail account.
1) In Address Book, select all the contacts you want to export. You can select multiple contacts by shift-click or command-clicking. For example, to get all of your contacts click on the first one, then scroll to the last one and shift click on it. All of your contacts will be highlighted.
2) From the File menu, choose Export vCard..., enter of filename (or leave it as the devault "vCards"), note the directory where the vcards will be saved, and click the Save button.
3) Go to your gmail account using your favorite browser.
4) Click on the Contacts link (on the left side of the screen).
5) In the upper right hand corner of the contacts box, click on Import.
6) Browse to find the file of vCards you saved, and click on the import button.
At this point all of your contacts will be loaded into gmail. If you have already sync'ed your Pre with gmail, then your contacts should automatically update. Otherwise, follow the instructions for sync'ing with gmail.
While this procedure will copy all of your data over to the phone, it is not a real sync in that if you make changes either on the phone or in Address Book, you will have to manually push the changes over. I'll probably get MissingSync when I upgrade to a more recent version of OS X, but it would be nice if the Pre came with this functionality built-in...
Post relates to: Pre p100eww (Sprint)

Does anyone have a solution for converting Palm Contacts? I'm happy to buy software to make this happen. I have 2500+ contacts and use many of the fields (and would like to keep them). I am on a mac and use a droid phone (Samsung Intercept). Sprint says that they can convert the contacts, but that they will then only be on my phone. I need to be able to update on my computer and have that sync with my phone.
thank you!

Is it possible to export contacts from Outlook 2011 for Mac and importing this file back into Mac Address Book.? please reply me its urgent

Is it possible to export contacts from Outlook 2011 for Mac and importing this file back into Mac Address Book.? please reply me its urgent

Is it possible to export contacts from Outlook 2011 for Mac and importing this file back into Mac Address Book.? please reply me its urgent

Cannot transfer contacts from iPhone 3GS to Mac Address book

Hi there
I've been searching for an answer all over these forums and google, but to no avail.
I'm using a 3GS and I'm on Snow Leopard on the mac.
I have tried resetting the sync utility settings and all other tweaks with the phone and the iTunes panels, but I simply cant add any of the numbers that I have added to my phone on to the mac address book. The contacts are transferred to iCloud though. But there is no way to export the iCloud contacts over to the mac address book either. I have to now manually search for all the new contacts I've added (which is a project in itself) and retype it in the mac address book. Pretty ridiculous!!!!!
Is there a fix for this or is Apple wanting everyone to buy Lion to use the dektop version of iCloud.
Please let me know
Thanks
Best regards
Zam Shabeer Thahir

Hi guys
Managed to find the solution
1) On the iPhone go to settings > iCloud > Switch off contacts. (Keep contacts on phone)
2) Then on the mac go to address book and make an archive of your contacts just in case something goes wrong. You can do this by going to File > Export > Create an archive.
3) Then delete all the contacts and groups from your mac address book.
4) Then go to iTunes and backup by right clicking on the iPhone on the sidbar.
5) Sync
Your contacts from the phone should repopluate the mac address book
Hope that helps. It worked for me
Best regards
Zam Shabeer Thahir

Once Mac address book synched from iphone and contacts deleted they won't resynch back

I have a problem and have spent hours researching but to no avail
1. I got a new iphone 4S and put in my mail info from yahoo, gmail and low and behold I had a contact list now in my phone. I thought, "I just love Apple!"
2. I spent all afternoon on my iphone updating my contact list with contact photos, birthdays and all the stuff I never put in on my email program or my MacPro Leopard mac addressbook.
3. With trepidation, I synched via usb with itunes my contacts and suddenly I had 3 (or more versions of my contacts on every site or device). To see what was going on (as I wasn't sure if my mac would erase iphone contacts or add to them etc) I tried putting a test contact "iphone test" on my phone, yahoo test on my yahoo account, and mac test contact on my laptop address book, and gmail test in my gmail's contacts, and synched again.... For the most part every test contact showed up everywhere (not yahoo test in gmail's account mind you)
4. GREAT I thought. I will just DELETE the contacts in the mac address book, yahoo, gmail accounts, fix my iphone duplicate contacts so I have one perfect set on the iphone and resynch and I should have my iphone contacts filling in all the right places (yahoo, gmail, and mac address book from the iphone) and they will all now be identical... SO WRONG!
5. None of the prior contacts would sync. Only new contacts will synch (ones that were never before synched, ie, a new iphone test contact WILL show up in my Mac address book but the other 100 won't (apparently the computer knows they were already synced or something.)
I am now left with all my contacts on my phone and none in my computer! I have synched in itunes about 10 times with "contacts" checked trying different settings for yahoo, gmail but no source will retake my iphone contacts now that it was synced and the mac address book deleted...
Can anyone help???

Thanks for your timely response. I really appreciate the heads up on the My Contacts Backup App since when you have gone from 4 copies of contacts to one you are starting to feel insecure...
Unfortunately, after following this to a "T" (2x) no luck... The mac address book was empty to begin with so I added three new contacts, synched and then started from there...
I unchecked the sync box and synched. Deleted 2 of the 3 contacts and checked the "sync contacts"--all contacts (I have no groups). It synched without prompting me for a merge and the new single contact did not show up in the iphone... bummer. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.
SORRY, I ACCIDENTALLY GAVE MYSELF HELPFUL POINTS AND THEY WERE FOR RANDERS4....

.Mac Address Book/Contacts Design

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