Recover address book from a manual backup

I recently ran a manual backup (copied everything from the user's home folder, and all sub items) for a client before switching machines (and switching from Tiger to Leopard).
I was told he did not use address book, but it turned out that he did.
So how can I go about restoring the address book from the old backup?
Thank you.

I have a similar situation - with my old Powerbook, i would manually copy all the files inside my user folder (Users/<username>) to an external HD by dragging the files in Finder from the Powerbook to the external drive. However, i never did these manual backups while being logged in as a "root user" the way this support doc outlines. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553?viewlocale=en_US
Since then, my Powerbook has totally failed and I need to set up a new Macbook Pro using the copy of the <username> folder on the HD. But I'm not sure if I can just copy the files over using Finder? I was running Leopard on the Powerbook, and the Macbook Pro also uses Leopard.
In restoring your Address Book, did you have to be logged in as a root user when doing both the manual backup and the restore? I'm not sure how being logged in (or not) as a root user could affect the whole manual file copying/backup and restoration process.
Thanks in advance!

Similar Messages

How do I import address book from time machine backup

My address book was populated on an imac running Lion and I used time machine to back up to an external hard drive.
The imac crashed and I've purchased another one running Mavericks.
How do I import the contents of my address book from the backup on the external drive to the address book on the new imac?
Whenever I try to select or open an earlier version of the address book in the backup applications folder on the external drive, I get a message saying that I can't open the file because it is a time machine backup.
There is also a diagonal line going through the address book thumbnail icon and various other applications in the backup applications folder and I get the same error message informing that these apps are time machine backups.
If you have a solution please be as clear and precise as possible with instructions as I am not a computer boffin.

Here's the situation:
I have a G4 with Tiger OS that has 2 years of saved emails and Address Book entries. I just got a G5, installed brand new drives, and did a fresh install of Leopard. I did not use Migration Assistant during the install, because I have no router.
Then I connected the 2 'puters with firewire, and started the G4 in Target Mode, and attempted to Import my old mail and Address Book. I diddled around and was able to import my old mailboxes. I did just realize, though, that only about half the emails were imported; there's a huge gap of nearly a year up until I stopped using the G4.
Also, when I go to the Address Book and try to import my old one, it shows up not as a solid icon that I can select, but a ghostly icon, for lack of a better word, and it will not let me select it.
I really thought this should be easier and less painful. I'm open to suggestions, including whether I should try to use the Leopard install DVD to try the Migration Assistant with a Firewire connection or an ethernet cable.
Thanks.

How to restore address book from time capsule backup

I have a 500GB TC. I have lost my contacts from Apple Phone Book & IPhone 4 as I didn't select contact folder while syncing/back-up in ITunes. I see that I still have all my contacts in outlook but after spending few hours on intenet, I haven't been able to figure out how to import contacts from outlook or export from outlook to Mac Address Book.
Kindly guide me how can I get back all my contact from Outlook for Mac 2011 to my IPhone & Address Book.
Thanks for your help.

OS X Yosemite: Recover your entire system
To follow the instructions, you'll need to start up either from Internet Recovery or from your installation disc, depending on the model.

Restore Address Book from Time machine backups

Hi,
I need to restore my Adress Book contacts from my Time machine external harddrive backup. I found to Library/Application Support/Adress Book thing, but has Library is hidden in my MacBook, it seems to be hidden in my backup harddrive. A simple ''option'' click doesnt seem to work. How can i make it visible on my external harddrive?!
Thanks!
(On that hardrive i went: ''backup folder''/users/''user''/. Then used ''Option'' to make is visible. But still hidden. If i go ''backup folder''/Library/Application Support, the AddressBook folder does not appear.)

Navigate with the Finder into the location where your lost data would be located. Click on the Time Machine icon in the Dock or open the Time Machine application in the Applications folder. Navigate back to just before you deleted your data. You should find the missing data, select it, click on the Restore button.

Help with restoring Address Book from Time Machine

Problem: I really, really need to retrieve someone's number. I know it'll be in an old version of my Address Book. I can see when I open time Machine that my address book is backed up, but no matter the date I go to, it says the Address Book was last modified in 2012! I know for a fact I've updated (and backed up) the Address Book many times since then.
Whenever I try to restore the Address Book, I do Time Machine > Applications > Address Book > 'restore'. But whenever I do this, the mac refuses to open the restored Address Book because it's 'required by mac OS X'.
I don't understand.
Please, how on earth do I dredge my Address Book from the depths of Time Machine?
Please help!
M

Hello mb9236,
Thank you for the details of the issue you are experiencing with restoring a contact from Time Machine.
It sounds like you are trying to restore the Address Book application. The Address Book application is just the application and does not include the content in Address Book.
Instead, you will want to open Address Book and then launch Time Machine and restore your contacts from there. Use the steps below to restore your contacts form a previous date (in step one instead of opening Mail or Finder, be sure you have Address Book open and in focus):
If you use Time Machine to back up your computer, you can easily bring back one or more items you’ve lost, or recover older versions of files you’ve changed.
Open a window for the item you want to restore. For example, if you accidentally deleted a file from your Documents folder, open the Documents folder. If you want to recover an email message, open your inbox in Mail.
If you’re missing an item from the desktop, you don’t need to open a window.
Click the Time Machine icon in the Dock, or open the Time Machine menu in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine. If you back up to a Time Capsule or other network disk, a message briefly appears while Time Machine connects your computer to the backup disk.
Use the arrows or the timeline along the right side of your screen to browse through all the snapshots and backups Time Machine created. Gray tick marks on the timeline represent snapshots stored on your internal drive (portable computers only). Pink tick marks represent backups stored on your backup disk.
If you need more information about an item, double-click to preview it. The windows in Time Machine behave just like Finder windows, so you can open folders, click items in the sidebar, and use the search field in the upper-right corner of the window.
When you find the item you want to restore, select it, and then click Restore. You can restore individual items, multiple items, folders, or your entire hard disk. The restored item is returned to its original location. For example, if the item was found in the Documents folder, it is returned to the Documents folder. Time Machine may ask if you want to re-create one or more folders in order to return a restored item to its original location.
If an item you restore has the same name as another item on your computer, you’re asked if you want to keep the current item, the restored item, or both.
You can use Time Machine from within many applications. For example, you can open Address Book and then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock to recover contacts you may have accidentally deleted, or open iPhoto and then click the Time Machine icon in the Dock to view past versions of your iPhoto albums.
OS X Lion: Restore items backed up with Time Machine
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH4256
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

How to transfer Address Book from old iMac to new MacBook Pro?

I will soon be getting a MacBook Pro 15" Intel Core i5 with Snow Leopard and want to transfer my Address Book from my old 2003 iMac flat 15" panel running 10.4.11. What is the best way to do that? Is there a particular file or folder that I can copy onto a flash drive to transfer to the new computer? Or can I use my Mobile Me Backup that is on my external drive (or on CD) to do it even though the Backup on the new computer would be a newer version from the older Backup that has the data? I would like to avoid having to use the Migration Assistant if I can, since it looks like that is designed to transfer whole categories of files (like all "files and folders", etc.), which I don't want to do. Thanks in advance for the help.

When I bought my new MacBook Pro, the sales person showed me how to do the V-card method that you suggested. I tried it at home, and it worked. I have been worrying for years about the best way to do this, so was very relieved to find such a simple method. David Pogue in the Tiger Missing Manual also mentioned another tip which I used: he said to select all the address entries you want to transfer (in my case it was all of them) and then just drag the whole lot out onto the desktop. A V-card icon appeared that said: "Name of Person plus 344 others". I then copied that to a flash drive and then onto the new computer desktop. I then dragged it into the Address Book window. As you said it was done in a matter of seconds. Thank you so much!

Transfer Address Book from Pearl to Curve

The USB port on the Pearl is partially broken so that it will take a charge but not transfer data. So I bought a Curve and want to use bluetooth to transfer the address book from the Pearl to the Curve if possible. Is that possible?
Here is what I've done. I added the Pearl as a bluetooth device on the Curve and the Curve onto the Pearl. In Bluetooth options on each device, I set the Discoverable as Yes, Allow Outgoing Calls as Always, and Address Book Transfer as All Entries. Then I had one device Search for the Other which was set to 'Allow another device to find me.' The searching device showed "1 found" then listed "No new device found; ensure the device you are searching for is in pairing mode. Search again?" I reversed the process and had the Curve search and the Pearl "Allow". No success. What else do I need to do?
I tried to connect the Pearl to the Blackberry Desktop Manager via bluetooth but although my Tecra device manager shows that there is a bluetooth rfcomm, the Bluetooth Local Com says there are no existing com ports and the bluetooth device is not ready. The Tecra device manager lists the following ports - BT Com 19, BT Com 20, BT Com 21, and RIM Virtual Serial Port V2 9 and Port V2 10.
Is there any way to avoid having to re-enter all 387 contacts which include names, mutliple phone numbers and addresses???
Bruce

I bought a USB BlueTooth dongle for those situations and Sync the phone with desktop manager.
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Recover Address Book Contacts

All my Address Book Contacts have disappeared (0 Cards), and I don't know why. When I attempted to recover them by syncing with the contacts stored on an iPad, the result is that all the iPad's contacts were deleted, too (the most recently accessed card briefly appeared, but then vanished along with all the other cards). Can I recover the Contacts from a Time Machine backup, and if so, how do I do that?

Yes you can recover all your contacts from Time Machine. Just restore Address Book from a time when you know the contacts were there. Also you have a misunderstanding about syncing your iPad (or any other IOS device), the computer sycs data such as contacts, music etc with the device, the device DOES NOT sync with the computer. So if you lose music or contacts from the computer you cannot restore them from the iPod. That is why you backup the computer it's to safeguard your data.

Merge address books from 2 blackberry's

I just tried to merge two address books. I transfered my address book from my blackberry 8110 to my 8330. All my 8110 contacts went over to the 8330, but all the contacts that were on my 8330 are gone. Any idea how to recover those without losing what is on the phone now?

Yes, good at least you have the backup.
Do as John suggested... that is where I was headed with asking if you head the backup.
So, backup the 8130 also, first.
Sync it to Outlook.
Restore the 8330 data and sync it (set the sync config one-way) to Outlook.
Get all your data correct and fully in Outlook, and sync (set the sync config back to two way) back to the BlackBerry
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.
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How to recover address book and all mailbox data

How to recover address book and all mailbox data, from mounted drive that had OS10.4.11 now has bad blocks, and is not boot-able.
Any help would be appreciated.... hermann

The drive is mounted (appears as a drive on the desktop)? You can't just copy the files, or is it not really mounted?
It would help to have more details on the status of this drive since I am obviously confused as to whether or not it is mounted and appears on the desktop. Is this an internal or external drive? If internal, how are you booting your computer now?
There are data recovery tools such as [Data Rescue II|http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php] or [FileSalvage|http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?mainpage=product_info&productsid=1]. Both have free trial versions that let you see if the software will help before you decide to buy. You will also need a second hard drive equal to or larger in size than your first drive as a destination drive for recovered files. If the critical files are located on the bad blocks then there isn't much hope other than to send the drive out to a professional data recovery service which could cost $1000.
The easiest way to recover the files is to get them off a backup drive.

Importing Addresses in Address book from text file

Hello all,
I am attempting to import my address books from Microsoft Outlook into the Address book on the Macintosh.
More specifically, I have several distribution lists under Outlook that I use to send out various newsletters from where I work. These distribution lists have addresses that are specifically NOT within my Contacts under Outlook.
So far, I HAVE been able to get the 400 email addresses exported into a plain text file. This text file has only the email addresses, one per line within the text document.
The problem I have been having is finding some way to make this information "useful" for the address book program. Attempting to import the text file doesn't work (understandably, since I assume the program will only see the text document as "one" card.)
So my question is, how can I import these 400 addresses into the address book under a specific grouping or distribution list? Is there some way I can create individual vcards for EACH of these addresses, THEN import them?
Or am I doing things all wrong from the get-go, and need to attempt something else?
Here' hoping you can help!!
Thanks

Here's instructions. I find it hard to believe that this much work is required, but I'm not at home and so I can't experiment with my Mac.
<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050828200319417&lsrc=osxh>
I was thinking that you might just want to drag contacts from Outlook to a folder in Windows -- all the contacts get exported to individual "cards" which I'm pretty sure you can import directly into Address Book.
As for your distribution lists -- I wouldn't be surprised if Mac OS requires everyone on the list to appear in Address Book. If you try creating a list manually, can you include recipients that don't go in Address Book?

How do I transfer an address book from one computer to another?

I'm trying to transfer an address book from my G4 to my Imac G5 and can't seem to figure out how to do it. I've tried exporting out of one, but the other doesn't read it. These computers are not connected so I'm transferring via cd.
Thanks,
Dick Skover

Hi Dick
If they are both running Tiger
Use "Backup Address Book" in Address Book > File to make a copy then
"Revert to Address Book Backup" on the iMac
I use this for backing up both Address Book and iCal as a matter of course (it is the Apple recommended way in the Help files) I put them into a folder in my "Documents" and clear old copies once a month. If you use .Mac I would certainly recommend it seeing the problems with data loss some folks have had.
chris

How on earth do I restore my old Address Book from Time Machine?

Problem: I really, really need to retrieve someone's number. I know it'll be in an old version of my Address Book. I can see when I open time Machine that my address book is backed up, but no matter the date I go to, it says the Address Book was last modified in 2012! I know for a fact I've updated (and backed up) the Address Book many times since then.
Whenever I try to restore the Address Book, I do Time Machine > Applications > Address Book > 'restore'. But whenever I do this, the mac refuses to open the restored Address Book because it's 'required by mac OS X'.
I don't understand.
Please, how on earth do I dredge my Address Book from the depths of Time Machine?
Please help!
M

Look at Q15 here. http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
There are separate sections for iphoto and itunes.
It has to be so complicated because Apple made TM to do too much and be too many things to too many people.. a horse designed by a committee. It has become flakey in later editions.
If you still have the iMac you can move the files directly from the source.. you don't need to use TM backups at all.

Sync between MacBookPro and iPhone 3G does not sync properly. Calendars duplicate events but worse is that only contacts from Address book from letter T onwards sync. Any contacts on iPhone which are not on Mac are lost during sync.

Sync between MacBookPro and iPhone 3G does not sync properly. Calendars duplicate events but worse is that only contacts from Address book from letter T onwards sync. Any contacts on iPhone which are not on Mac are lost during sync.
Solutions?

No, I never really found an easy solution. I believe it is an issue with some corruption in the iTunes database on the specific device. In my case, both my iPad and iPhone now show duplicate stream songs if viewed through iTunes on my Mac, but they show different songs. A couple years ago I had a similar issue on my iPhone, and Apple support suggested I back up the phone, completely reset it, and then restore it from the backup. It did work, so I imagine it would probably work for my current issues with the iPhone and iPad. But resetting and restoring an iPad or iPhone always makes me a little nervous that something will get lost. When I did reset/restore the iPhone, I do have to say, the restore process was 100% perfect and I did not lose any data at all even though Apple support said I might. If you try to go that route, I would suggest backing the device up both to a computer through iTunes, and to the iCloud so that you have a double backup.
None of this really resolves the issue with how the iTunes databases are becoming corrupted on the apple devices though, so it is very likely to happen again until they fix it. I have been unable to determine if there were any specific actions or conditions which caused the corruption to happen in the first place.
Might be worth another call to Apple support, or dropping in the local Apple store if you have one near by.

How to transfer or copy my complete address book from my BB to another smartphone

Hello Everybody, Could someone tell me how to transfer or copy my complete address book from my BB Torch 9800 to another smartphone and vice-versa? Many thanks in advance for your replies. Best regards, Eric ---------------------------------------- [email protected]

You didn't say what format the other phone will need to import a file into it. That is important.
But creating and exporting your BlackBerry contacts to a generic ascii csv file is possible.:
How to export contacts from a BlackBerry smartphone using BlackBerry Desktop Software 6
And, importing from a CSV file to your BlackBerry:
How to import contacts from an already created CSV file to the BlackBerry smartphone
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.
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Join our BBM Channels (Beta)
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Recover address book from a manual backup

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