Need to reset/reinstall address book (Contacts)

The first thing I did was made a backup copy of the address book to look at the format. I could not read it with a text editor
I importing a cvs file that contain over one hundred email addresses, but I didn't notice that the email address was not selected for import. I imported the entire file.
Rather than selecting one at time, I selected all of the entries in the address book and deleted them. I was successful all of my errors went away. I reloaded the database from the backup copy of the address book. I have tried muliple times, with and without a reboot.
The entries appear for a moment and then disappear every time.
Questions
How can I recover from this error?
Is there some file that needs to be delete?
If so where is the file located?
Is it a cloud problem?
Thank you!

I had to change my user name from Ebht to MrEbht. I tried you advise and it still empties out the address book. I can still manual add account, but what fun is that. I have over a hundred address to enter. I really would love to know how the software, remembers what I have deleted. Is there a way to reinstall just that program and erase it's memory?

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Need to reset/reinstall address book

I installed a trial version of AddressX and ran it once. Yikes. Now my address book hangs whenever I start it. I have to force quit every time. I need to clear it out or reinstall it. Does anyone know how? Thanks!

Hello and welcome to the Discussions.
Let's do a test of the AB application by creating a New User Account on your Mac, and as that New User attempt to launch the Address Book application. This will tell us if there is a problem with the application. See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh168.html
If it works as that New User, then we can purge some preference files without doing anything to the application.
Also, use Disk Utility from the Applications/Utilities to Verify the hard drive -- this is different from Verify or Repair Permissions.
Ernie

HT204150 Hi, I made a mistake by allowing facebook to download all my contacts in my address book. Now i need to clean my address book and keep only my original contacts. If i do it on my macbook, will it reflect on my iphone?

Hi, I made a mistake by allowing facebook to download all my contacts in my address book. Now i need to clean my address book and keep only my original contacts. If i do it on my macbook, will it reflect on my iphone? Or will my iphone redownload all the contacts i deleted when i connect it to my macbook or through the cloud?
when working with icloud, is there a primary device (macbok, ipad...) on which if the changes are made, they reflect on all other devices?

I see. If you are syncing contacts with iCloud on both your Mac and your iPhone, deleting a contact from either device will delete them from icloud.com and all other devices.
What's really going on with iCloud is that your contacts actually reside on the iCloud server. Your Mac and iPhone are merely reading the current contact list as it exists on the server. When you delete a contact (or make any other change) on either device, you are making these changes on the server. As a result, all other devices "syncing" contacts with the same iCloud account will read this change. When you log onto icloud.com, you are viewing the server from your browser.

Address Book Contacts Disappeared with new App Installation

Hello! I would LOVE anyone who can help me resolve this issue!
Yesterday, thinking it was smart to have another place where all my contacts would be backed up, I downloaded the Plaxo App for Blackberry. After following the installation instructions the application synced with my blackberry curve, and then I pulled up my address book to call someone I realized ALL MY CONTACTS WERE GONE.
They were backed up in the application still, but if I wanted to call or text anyone the number was gone. Any incoming calls show up as random numbers not saved in my phone book as well.
The random thing now is that when I receive a call, the number just shows us the normal xxx-xxx-xxxx format without a name. But in my call history a "name" appears from my contacts. It seems they are still somewhere in my phone's operating system, but maybe the app was corrupted and now the path is gone?
Any help is appreciated!!!!! I already tried the Plaxo support directly and they told me to uninstall the application, which I did - which did not make my address book reappear.
Desperately yours,
Ashley

You’re welcome.
All you have to do is copy those files & folders from the backup to the location where they should be, replacing any files with the same name that may currently be there. Your home folder is /Users/username/. And you must first quit any applications that may access those files.
Things are more involved if you do any kind of synchronization, though. Actually that could be the reason your contacts disappeared in the first place. In that case, the procedure would be as follows:
1. If you have a .Mac account and .Mac synchronization of Address Book data is enabled either in Address Book > Preferences > General or in System Preferences > .Mac, disable it before proceeding.
2. You may also need to reset the entire sync history (iSync > Preferences > Reset Sync History) to avoid synchronization issues if you use .Mac or iSync to synchronize your Address Book with other computers or devices.
3. Quit Address Book, Mail, and any other applications that might use Address Book for something. Or just quit all applications to be on the safe side.
4. In the Finder, copy the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist preferences file and the ~/Library/Application Support/AddresBook folder from the backup to the corresponding location within your home folder, replacing the files with the same name currently there. Alternatively, to avoid accidentally overwriting any files, you may first move to the Desktop the files that should be replaced and trash them after checking that everything is OK.
5. If your data has been successfully restored and .Mac synchronization of Address Book data was enabled at the beginning, enable it again, go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the Address Book data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server.

Address book contacts disappeared yesterday out of nowhere... how do I -

Hi,
Address book contacts disappeared yesterday out of nowhere... on my new MacBook Pro Core Duo. How do I re-import contacts from a "Carbon Copy" of my old MacBook G4 address book? I have a perfect copy of my Hard Drive on an External Hard Drive. However, I didn't set up my new MacBook Pro - and can't believe all my contacts just disappeared yesterday...
Suggestions? Step by Step instructions?
Thanks in advance...!

You’re welcome.
All you have to do is copy those files & folders from the backup to the location where they should be, replacing any files with the same name that may currently be there. Your home folder is /Users/username/. And you must first quit any applications that may access those files.
Things are more involved if you do any kind of synchronization, though. Actually that could be the reason your contacts disappeared in the first place. In that case, the procedure would be as follows:
1. If you have a .Mac account and .Mac synchronization of Address Book data is enabled either in Address Book > Preferences > General or in System Preferences > .Mac, disable it before proceeding.
2. You may also need to reset the entire sync history (iSync > Preferences > Reset Sync History) to avoid synchronization issues if you use .Mac or iSync to synchronize your Address Book with other computers or devices.
3. Quit Address Book, Mail, and any other applications that might use Address Book for something. Or just quit all applications to be on the safe side.
4. In the Finder, copy the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist preferences file and the ~/Library/Application Support/AddresBook folder from the backup to the corresponding location within your home folder, replacing the files with the same name currently there. Alternatively, to avoid accidentally overwriting any files, you may first move to the Desktop the files that should be replaced and trash them after checking that everything is OK.
5. If your data has been successfully restored and .Mac synchronization of Address Book data was enabled at the beginning, enable it again, go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the Address Book data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server.

Problems with outlook and address book contacts: my outlook contacts had around 3,000 entries. Outlook duplicated by itself and now outlook and address book have each over 340,000. What should I do?

Problems with outlook and address book contacts: my outlook contacts had around 3,000 entries. Outlook duplicated entries and have now 340,000. I reinstalled microsoft office and, thus, outlook, and reinstalled mac OS X system and applications. While I managed to delete outlook contacts so that I can re-sync with my blackberry, the contacts at Mac Address Book were not deleted and still have over 340,000 entries. I do not mind deleting all contacts since I have back up, but I have not been able to delete them. Also, when I go at Address Book and try to delete or merge duplicated entries, the system takes forever and never ends because of such large amount of entries. Worse, when I do so I run out of RAM memory.
My Macbook pro is just 2 months old.
What should I do? Is there a way to delete my Mac Address Book without having the problem above?
Many thanks
Regis

zlatan24 wrote:
For solving out troubles connected with corrupted or lost address book you may use address book recovery. It owns various features such as restoring wab files, it working under any Windows OS. The utility has modern and easy to use interface due to almost every experienced users.
If it is a windows problem it's not going to run on the OP's MacBook Pro

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!

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.

No entry sign on reinstalled Address Book

I have reinstalled address book (after deleting it for reasons I can't recall). It has contacts in it and opens up fine but a) there is a "no entry" sign when I open Applications as a stack and) b it doesn't sync with my iPhone 4, though everything else does sync, and the "sync contacts" box is checked in iTunes sync info tab.
Are these issues related? Can anyone help me with either/both?
Thank you!

Thanks. The plot thickens in that sync has now happened sucessfully and all my contacts from the Mac are on the iphone and viceversa (tho in two diffrent groups on the phone). So that's ok now - just have to de-dupe.
The story doesn't seem that strange to me having lived it...for the last 5 years I've had email contacts on entourage, addreses on a big fat Word document that I used for mail merge, and phone numbers on my old Nokia. I kind of half-heartdely started using Mac Address Book, but never worked out how to get it to talk to the other lists so it was wasn't very useful. Getting the phone was the nudge to bring all these things together. Which at last I kind of have.
The "no entry" sign is still there after the reinstall which I did using advice from this link http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/19535.html but it doesn't seem to be affecting things at all. Maybe a complete reinstall is the way forward.
Thanks for all your help!

Reinstall Address Book application

Reinstall Address Book application

RCDT wrote:
Application Disc for Mac Book Pro 15
Make sure you have your files backed up to a external drive before doing anything.
You need the OS X disk that matches your OS version 10.6.
Stick the OS X installer disk into the Mac and reboot holding c, simply reinstall OS X (includes bundled programs)
Your files and third party programs should be untouched (but that's why you made a backup on a external drive)
Reboot and use Software Update to get you on 10.6.8

When forwarding an e-mail I have lost the address book contact list on the left side.

I used to have the address book contact list on the left side of the page being forwarded to allow easy selection of addressees. It's gone and I need it back.
Thank you very much

Open a Write window and press F9 to toggle the Contact Sidebar on and off.
You can also turn it on from the View menu in the Write window.

What is the best way to sync Address Book contacts?

Please help!
I run a small Mac network and I need to sync all (we have 8 Macs) the Mac's Address Book's with each other and also with 5 different iPhones. We have a Mac Server running Tiger and all the Macs are running Tiger. 4 of the Macs are Intel. The server is PowerPC.
At the moment I am just using 1 .Mac account to sync to them all, but this is causing many problems with duplications, errors and 'stress!'
The reason for the above setup is money. But, as the problems continue and the syncing become more important, money is now allowed to be spent.
My question really is, as the subject header says, 'What is the best way to sync Address Book contacts?' In the past I have tried XC Connect, and a few other apps, but with the introduction of the iPhones, the setup has become more complex.
If I were to buy all new Intel Macs and an Intel Mac Server all running Snow Leopard, would the 'Address Book Server' do the job? I have found very little information on the net and the information I did find was all negative.
Is there something Leopard can do that Tiger can't? Is Tiger nolonger a good enough system to try and run an Address Book network?
Does anybody else out there in the Mac world have a similar setup to mine, and if so, how do you have your setup.
Incidentally, ALL users, incuding iPhone users, need read & write access to the Address Book!!
Any solutions or suggestions would be most welcome.
Thanks in advance
col_t

Oh, I meant Leopard does do more than Tiger Server.
I don't know enough about Server, even less abut Syncing.
SL is to new, not enough time to iron out the kinks yet imho.
One day SL will be better than Leo, but...
I'd ask over in server...
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=96
Or perhaps Collaboration Services...
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1352
They may even have a different opinion on SL.

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.

I need to transfer my address book from a Sony Ericsson ...

I need to transfer my address book from a Sony Ericsson K810i to a Blackberry 8120. Please can you help as I'm having great trouble doing it! Thanks

Hi there!
The device switch wizard is available for many non-BB devices...see this KB:
KB05459 How to use the Switch Device Wizard to switch from another smartphone to a BlackBerry smartphone
If your old device is not compatible with the wizard, then you need to find out if the old device can export the data you desire so that the BB can import it:
KB11194 How to import contacts from an CSV file to the BlackBerry device
If you are already using a compatible desktop PIM with your old device, then the RIM software can import from the PIM and bypass the old device completely:
KB12268 Applications supported by BlackBerry Desktop Manager for synchronization
KB17022 How to configure synchronization settings for BlackBerry Desktop Manager
If that does not work, then please return to these forums (http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/) and register an account so that we can provide you with direct assistance.
Cheers!
Occam's Razor nearly always applies when troubleshooting technology issues!
If anyone has been helpful to you, please show your appreciation by clicking the button inside of their post. Please click here and read, along with the threads to which it links, for helpful information to guide you as you proceed. I always recommend that you treat your BlackBerry like any other computing device, including using a regular backup schedule...click here for an article with instructions.
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I have an iPhone 3g and it won't sync address book contacts.

I have an iPhone 3g and it won't sync address book contacts. My iPad does it via the cloud but now my iPhone won't do it. Please help.

Have you tried a "hard reset"? If so, I would take the phone to an Apple store. If not,
1. Make sure the phone is OFF
2. Hold the HOME button and then press the power button and HOLD IT.
3. Hold both buttons until the phone comes ON, goes OFF and come ON again (about 45 seconds)
4. Re-sync with iTunes.
Hope this helps.

Need to reset/reinstall address book (Contacts)

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