Preferences don't work in Address Book

For some reason when I go to Address Book > Preferences, nothing happens. Do I need to reinstall Address Book?
Thanks.

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Navigate to ~(yourhome)/library/preferences/com.apple.addressbook.plist and delete that file. Then relaunch AddressBook and test preferences.
-mj
[email protected]

Similar Messages

Search option does not work in address book

The search field (upper right corner of window) does not work in address book (version 4.0.5) of my friend's Power Book. I eliminated the possibility of a corrupt plist (preference) file by dragging them to the desktop and restarting but it still didn't help. Any other ideas?
Meg

If searching in Spotlight works, I don’t know what could be the problem. You may try this:
1. Open Address Book.
2. As an extra safety measure, do File > Back up Address Book and save the backup wherever you wish.
3. Go to Address Book > Preferences > vCard, set the vCard Format to 3.0 and check Export notes in vCards. Close the Preferences window when done.
4. Select the All group in the main Address Book window and do File > Export Group vCard (the command should read “Export Group vCard”, not just “Export vCard”).
5. 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.
6. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ and trash any ABPerson.skIndex files you may see there. Open Address Book and check whether the problem is fixed.
7. If the problem persists, quit Address Book again, in the Finder go to ~/Library/Application Support/, and move the entire AddressBook folder out of there, e.g. to the Desktop (to be deleted after fixing the problem and making sure you don’t miss anything).
8. Open Address Book and try doing File > Revert to Address Book Backup to restore the backup you made in step 2. If the problem persists, repeat step 7 and this time try doing File > Import > vCards to import the cards exported in step 4.
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.

Since updating to 10.7.4 the 'search' no longer works in Address Book.

Search no longer works in Address Book since I updated the MAC software to 10.7.4.
Is there a 'fix' ?

I'm having the same problem. In addition, not only would the Search feature not work, but while in a view with list on left, card on right, clicking on a contact in the list would not bring up that contact's card on the right. Double clicking on the contact in the list, however, would bring up the card in a separate window.
First, I exported my Address book and saved the Archive to my desktop (Address Book - 07-25-2012.abbu). I then went to the iCloud System Preferences and deselected Address Book, then re-selected it. The test revealed the problem was still there. I then deleted all my cards (I didn't know how to do this except to drag down through all the contacts on the list on the left and hit delete) and the Contacts list was then empty.
I tried File>Import, chose my backup file, and the list of contacts returned, but not the contact cards. Still couldn't search either.
I quit Address Book and from the Go menu in the Finder, selected Go To Folder and pasted in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook. This is what I got:
Because the next instruction was Restore the folder that opens from the backup you made before you started, and because no folder opened, I didn't know what to do.
So I went to my desktop, double clicked on the backup file, and got this:
I chose Replace All, and the Contacts List reappeared, but there were still no cards, and Search still didn't work.
So, I think I tried all your suggestions, but I'm back at square one. If you have any other work arounds I would appreciate help in solving this problem.

Can't get verizon community e-mail to stop...set preferences, don't work

can't get verizon community e-mail to stop...set preferences, don't work...help

Hello - can you describe which notifications that you're receiving that you'd like to stop? Also, please confirm that if you'd like to no email notifications whatsoever, every single radio button is set to "No"/"Never" on the "Your Preferences" page?
Thanks

MultiMix Settings preferences don't work on an Intel Based Mac

I've downloaded the latest drivers from Alesis for my Alesis Firewire 12 Audio Mixer (supposedly for Snow Leopard) but get the message MultiMix Settings preferences don't work on an Intel Based Mac- any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Spencerwho

Any answers on this? I have the same issue and was wondering since the MultiMix is Firewire 400, it does't like the Firewire 800 converter I'm using....

My camera Nikon D800 don't work with Mac Book Pro retina... Why ?

Somebody Know why my digital reflex Nikon d800 don't work with Mac Book Pro retina ?

I shoot tethered which requires that the D800 be recognized by the laptop.
However, I just figured it out. Nikon changed their USB protocol so that the D800 doesn't show up as a mass storage device. That said, the d800 IS recognized by image capture and be computer in general, just not like previous Nikon dSLRs. If you're tethering via Lightroom make sure the Nikon tethering plugin is enabled (which it may not be if you previously shot tethered with Canon).

Safari preferences don't work and opens with tabs that were shut down

safari preferences don't work and opens with tabs that were shut down. what to do?

Quit Safari.
Hold the shift key down and relaunch Safari.
Reset Safari.
Launch Safari
Click Safari in the menu bar.
From the drop down select "Reset Safari".
Uncheck the box beside "Remove stored name and passwords"
Click "Reset".
Empty Caches
Safari > Preference > Advanced
Checkmark the box for "Show Develop menu in menu bar".
Develop menu will appear in the Safari menu bar.
Click Develop and select "Empty Caches" from the dropdown.
Turn off Extensions if any, and launch Safari.
Safari > Preferences > Extensions
Delete safari .plist file.
Quit all applications.
Option click the "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
Select "Library" from the drop down.
Library > Preferences > com.apple.Safari.plist
Right click it and select "Move to Trash".
Restart.

I don't get it: Address Book's low quality, UI mess, and bugs stand out...

... especially compared to all other great Leopard apps.
Hi Folks. I'm a switcher from Windows XP, and generally I've been very impressed with 10.5.2, and happy with my decision (Macbook Pro 2GB, 2.2GHz). However, one of the most incredibly painful experiences I've had is using the Address Book application.
Please forgive my sounding negative, but compared to the other apps on OS X, it is really, really crappy. This is after having imported and edited around 1,000 contacts. The ultimate deal-breaker here is trust: I put many hours into this thing, to find it's extremely easy to lose entries/data. The undo, UI mess, and save problems combine to make me nervous as **** every time I edit. Hit escape? Where'd that phone number go? Hit undo? You might have undone something three edits ago!
I don't want to be unfair to Apple - OS X is really good, and I recommend it. But this one program just is not ready for prime time... Three things:
First, can anyone give some background on this program? Not to be rude here, it just feels like something that was thrown together without much thought, was a very low priority, or was a summer assignment to an intern as a "learn the API" demo, but who didn't have the experience to put together a solid, functional program.
Second, can anyone recommend a usable replacement that works well? I have Office 2008, with Entourage, but I frankly don't trust MS apps to work well either, or to play nice with others (e.g., Spotlight).
Finally, below are a few observations after using the program for a week - not complete bug reports (sorry, I'm too busy to debug for you, Apple) but just a few examples of the pain the program's caused me. Am I alone in this?
matt
o #1 problem: It's lost my trust - the ultimate sin of a program. If I
hadn't created a backup, more than once I would have been extremely
screwed. Cards someone disappearing, field edits lost, etc.
o Edit/view modes: Bad. Apple: go read your own UI guidelines on this.
o What's up with Save? It seems to be automatic (saves when I exit),
but also has a command. Sadly, there is a bug in which Save disabled
when in View (not Edit) mode, >> even if changes have been made <<
(e.g., in the notes field, which can be edited in non-Edit
mode. Another example: add a smart group, try to save - gets a beep.
o Selection in Notes field: I can not figure out the selection
logic. Clicking on it selects all, but seems crazy inconsistent, e.g.,
it re-selects all when trying to make an edit. Want to really see
problems? Try shift-clicking!
o Undo is horribly unpredictable - It should simply undo the last
edit, whether it was typing in a field, merging cards, deleting a
card, etc. Unfortunately, it's not consistent. For example: delete a
card, edit a few others, then undo - undoes the delete, not the
edits. Many other problems with undo...
o Escape key: I can't figure this out: Does it undo, clear, or abort
editing? It's a mess.
o Printing formats: I can't say enough how terribly limited this
is. For example, it doesn't support classic planner sizes, and the
compact format is ungodly.
o Non-mouse navigation and editing is extremely frustrating, and 100%
keyboard operation seems impossible. For example, you can't select
field pop-ups (work, mobile, etc) or check the "Company" checkbox.
o CSV import just plain broken - unusable. I read practically every
post here on the topic, and it's terrible. I was able to work-around
the bug by using vCard instead, which does work. Had to convert from
CSV to vCard using an external program (Gmail). Ugh.
o BUG: Creating a new note puts an extra space character in the field.
o No support for encrypted information in Notes field. Isn't this
built in to OS X?
o I'd really like to be able to copy an address in one card, and
paste it into a new contact with fields preserved.
o BUG: Can't print multiple smart groups: Shift-select two ore more
smart groups, type command-P, it de-selects!
o Bug: Editing fields sometimes allows selection of the field name
itself, e.g., you can select the "Note:" tag on left.
o Q: Any way to filter items that are printed by whether a field is
empty or not? I have some without phone numbers, and I don't want to
print them...
EOF

Are you using the access control list on the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS)? If so, turn it off.
Open the Network preference pane. Drag AirPort to the top of the list. Better yet, disable Ethernet. Can it connect?
If that isn't it... the list of possibilities is short. The IP address starting with 169 indicates that it is not properly connecting with the DHCP server on the AEBS. Apparently, reading through your text, you have successfully established the wireless connection with the AEBS it is the communication with the DHCP server that is failing.
Have you been able to try the MacBook on other wireless networks?
Did you accidently configure this AEBS to use WDS? If so there is an option that prevents wireless clients from joining.
If you do have WDS enabled, you should disable it since you aren't wirelessly connecting any other base stations.

Reply works, but address book entry doesn't

I have an odd problem that's making me a litttle batty. I have an friend I e-mail regularly and--since recently switching to Mail from Eudora--I've been finding that some of my messages are not getting through.
I'm not 100% certain, but it seems that when I send a new message that's addressed from the Address Book entry, the message is never received. But when I REPLY to a message from this same recipient--same address--the message goes through just fine.
I've reviewed the address again and again and it's entered correctly.
When I look at the Long Header, one difference I note between the received and no-received maessages is under Content-Type.
A successful message has:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-8-603300258
And a failed message:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
Another difference is that the failed messages--the ones that originated with me have something called:
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
While the messages I reply to don't have that line at all.
The recipient--by the way--is at work at a large organization. So I wonder if their mail servers are blocking messages with certain kinds of encoding?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
OK, OK...this just in. While I was composing this message, I was also franticly corresponding with the adressee in question, trying to troubleshoot this. I may have solved my own problem, but I'm going to post this anyway... In hopes of solving someone else's problem, and possibly getting some responses that will enlighten me further (cuz I just don't get this).
On a wild guess/hunch, I went into PREFERENCES/COMPOSING and changed the Message Format: from Rich Text to Plain Text. The next test message got through! One difference (if it matters??) I found in the Long Header was the
Content-Type changed from:
text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
to
text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
So anyway...I'm completely flummoxed. Any ideas, clues, answers out there? I'm not going to trust yet that this problem is completely solved. So I'll leave this as an open question for now.
verbosely yours,
Roger
Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hmmm... there's nothing fancy about the signature (no bolds, itals or other styles or colors). But does that mean that it IS plain text? My setting when I made the signature(s) was Rich Text, I'm sure. So would that apply, even though it's plain for all intents and purposes? And if it's not. How is it changed to Plain Text?
As far as the SMTP settings. I tried one change last night. I changed the Server settings from "smtp.ispname.net:username" to "smtp.ispname.net:[email protected]". When I tested a message to the address/server I've had the most problems with, the message arrived successfully. But I don't think that proves anything as yet. The nature of the problem has been mysteriously intermitent anyway. (that message had my regular signature as well).
AS I'd mentioned, I've been moving stuff out of my Sent Mail folders to keep things organized and for reference (Is doing that OK? is Sent Mail suppposed to be left wher it is for some reason?). But on informal investigation, I would say that all of the messages I've sent--original or reply--HAVE shown up in the Sent Mail folder.
The discussion thread I'd been involved in with you before is:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=347863
However, I haven't added any posts since way back then.
Thanks you for any insights you can give me with this. If you're not on Apple's payroll, you should be.
Roger

Touch Contact Changes Don't Appear in Address Book?

If I make changes to my contact details on my Touch when I sync they are not reflected back into my Address Book?
I do get prompted to continue with changes/deletions etc but nothing is affected ion my touch or in Address Book?
Why not?

I have the same problem. It seems that my contacts were first copied to the touch changes made on either computer or iPod don't sync even though it goes thru the process. It almost seems like iTunes is working from a different address book database.
I've fully restored the iPod,
deleted preference files for Address Book & iTunes,
deleted cache files,
backed up my contacts & erased them from Address Book and the restored them again,
I even used the guest account on my mac to link to iTunes and wipe the iPod. That worked with the contacts in that account but when I returned to my account and re-linked to iTunes, essentially starting fresh, the contacts restored to the initial sync.
If anyone has any ideas please share them.
Thanks.

Spotlight not working in Address Book

I have upgraded to Snow Leopard and have noticed that when in the Address Book application that the spotlight does not function properly. Previously it would drill down to the specific text entered. Now nothing happens. Has anyone had this problem? Is there a fix?

I checked the spotlight preferences under the system preferences tab. the contacts box is checked. I could not locate any other places to set preferences for spotlight.
My upgrade to snow leopard was Sept 15th. That should be enough time for the system to index. I have also noticed at times that the contact data is mixed up. One contacts info in another contacts file. Using disk utility I repaired my drive. There were a couple of errors but they were repaired successfully.
During the last month I also purchased new RAM for the machine. I replaced the original 1GB with 3 GB. I don't see how this would be a problem though. Machine still seems to run fine.
Any further thoughts on why Address Book is not working? Is there a way to force Address Book to reindex?

URL hyperlinks won't work from Address Book widget.

Whenever I click on a web address in my Address Book widget, Dashboard disappears but nothing opens in my browser. When I click on an email address, it works just fine. It's just the web URLs that don't work. Is anyone else experiencing this? Any suggestions re: how to get this working?

Well, I just figured out that URLs that begin with "http://" actually work. Unfortunately, I have a few thousand contacts without that in the URL. Anyone know of a script or anything that will go through Address Book and add it to the URLs?

'Sort by last name' not working in Address Book

In Address book, the 'sort' function (under preferences-General) does not work for half my contacts (all people rather than companies). This does not work for 'by first name', nor 'by last name'. This random list appears at the top of address book, followed by properly sorted entries.
Curiously, the most recently inputted entries do sort properly, as do all company entries.
On MobileMe, everything sorts properly
On my iPhone address book, the same problem, except the random unsorted list now appears after the properly sorted entries (under the category #)
Is there any reason why this is happening, and any fix for this?

Curiously, the most recently inputted entries do sort properly, as do all company entries.
Does that mean "most recently inputted" AFTER you upgraded to Snow Leopard?
If that is true, it would mean that something about your existing records before the upgrade, for the records that are people contacts (with first and last names) instead of business contacts, do not agree with Snow Leopard and/or Snow Leopard's version of Address Book.
This may not be feasible, but if you exported the records with this problems and then imported them, maybe they will be re-inputted so that are properly sorted.
If you use Time Machine, maybe you can use the +flying through space+ interface to restore one of the records with this problem to see if the restore process makes the record sort properly.

HT2486 Searching doesn't work in Address Book (Mac OS X Lion), can someone help?

I've repeatedly tried resetting Spotlight and deleting AddressBook-v22.abcddb, to no avail.
What happens is I type a name in the text search box and get absolutely no response.
Help?

Back up all data.
In Address Book, select File ▹ Export... ▹ Address Book Archive... and save the archive to your Desktop.
If you use iCloud, disable contact synchronization in the iCloud preference pane. When prompted, select Delete From Mac. Re-enable synchronization. Wait for the contacts to re-synchronize, then test.
If you don't use iCloud, or if the contacts fail to synchronize, delete all contacts from Address Book, then select File ▹ Import... and import the archive you created. It may take a few seconds for the contacts to be indexed. Test.
If you don't like the results of this procedure, quit Address Book. In the Finder, select Go ▹ Go to Folder... from the menu bar, copy the text on the line below into the box that opens, and press return:
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
Restore the folder that opens from the backup you made before you started.

Help! iTunes not working with Address Book

I have the latest iTunes and the newest version of Adressbook.
When I go to Sync my iPhone 4. The Address Book Groups that appear in iTunes (under the INFO section) are not the same as the groups in my Address Book program.
I tried deleting all the contacts off my iPhone and then re-starting the computer and then restoring them, but iTunes will not pull the new Groups into the program. iTunes just continues to display the old Groups that no longer exist in Address Book (because I have deleted them) nor will it show the new Groups I've created.
Is there a way to reset this area? Or wipe out the preferences. I don't want to lose by iPhone backups.
Thanks.

Apple Store said the only soluction was to wipe computer clean and re-install system from original disks and restore from back-up.

Preferences don't work in Address Book

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for