Restoring Address Book files?

All:
I managed to delete a bunch of address book entries. I have a printout out them (dozens) but I'd rather restore than rekey them back in.
Via Time Machine, I restored (to my desktop) a copy of the Metadata folder, which has the individual vcard files. So, I think it's simple as copying the missing cards back into my Macintosh HD/users/username/Library/Application Support/Addressbook/Metadata folder. Wrong! When I launch Address Book, the restored file isn't there.
What extra step(s) am I missing?

Ok, that was stunningly easy. At work, I'm a sysadmin and I'm used to 'peaking behind the curtain' all the time. I overthought this restore process!
I had the app in question open (Address Book), clicked on the Time Machine icon on the dock, and went back several months and found the cards I'm looking for! Other than some latency issues (my TM disk is in the basement, hanging off of my Airport Extreme), this process went very well. Thanks!

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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.

Restoring address book data and mail

I wonder if anyone can help. I lost the hard drive of my iMac PowerPC G5 to a crash, from which no recovery was possible. Fortunately I had backed up all my data to a LaCie external hard drive. I have had the iMac hard drive replaced, and in the process the OS was upgraded from Tiger to Leopard.
I am now trying to restore data from the external drive to the iMac and am finding it challenging. I have found the address book data file but the icon is like a blank sheet of paper i.e. a file in an unsupported format. I have tried dragging and dropping into address book, but to no avail. I would also like to find my Safari bookmarks as well but worry that I will have exactly the same problems.
Alternatively should I just be dragging the whole library (myusername/library) into library on the new hard drive?
Any thoughts on this plus general tips on how to restore data much appreciated.

I have just followed your instructions for restoring Mail and Address Book files after I did an Erase and Istall. I didn't do a restore from my back up but reinstalled all the software from discs and am carefully bringing files back into my clean laptop bit by bit.
I got my address book files back but I don't have all the Mail files back....just my Inbox and Smart Mailboxes. I don't have the emails I put into all the files in my side bar....they are still empty.
Also, I could not find: /Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/ on my back up.
Thank you
Macbook Pro. 10.6.8.

Unable to delete Address Book File

I am unable to delete nor copy over an Address Book file that I have on an external HD connected via Airport Extreme. When I connect the HD directly to my Macbook Pro, I am able to delete the file - but not via Airport Extreme. When I attempt to delete the file, I get a message from Trash as follows: The operation cannot be completed because the item "Metadata" is in use. Same message when I attempt to replace the file with a new file. In other words, I am unable to use AE to transfer my Address Book file to my external HD, unless I change the name of the file. What is going on here?

Hello Bob.
You may be having a problem with some Firefox add-on that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?
Whenever you have a problem with Firefox, whatever it is, you should make sure it's not coming from one of your installed add-ons, be it an extension, a theme or a plugin. To do that easily and cleanly, run Firefox in [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Safe+Mode safe mode] and select ''Disable all add-ons''. If the problem disappears, you know it's from an add-on. Disable them all in normal mode, and enable them one at a time until you find the source of the problem. See [http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes this article] for information about troubleshooting extensions and theme. You can troubleshoot plugins the same way.
If you want support for one of your add-ons, you'll need to contact its author.

Obsolete Address Book Files

I was poking around inside the address book files in user/library and I think that there have been some changes to the file structures that leave some old files as obsolete. Some of the ones I have date to 2001.
I created a new user and didn't find any files for address book so I opened Address Book and it created these files. I can assume that these are current, all in users/<user>/Library/Applications Support/AddressBook
ABPerson.skIndexInverted
ABSubscribedPerson.skIndexInverted
AddressBook.data
AddressBook.data.previous
and a folder called Images with a single file (which is the the Apple logo)
DAB81935-712C-4BA2-A70B-59AA7725FD8F
In my regular account I have these files PLUS
ABPerson.index (dated in Oct 03)
ABPerson.skIndex (dated in Apr 05)
AddressBook.data.beforesave (dated in May 05)
AddressBook.data.previous (dated 3 days ago, probably current)
Further at the ~/Library level I have
Address Book Plug-Ins (folder, empty)
Addresses (folder, with stuff dated '02 and earlier)
I assume that this old stuff is obsolete but I couldn't find anything about it on the Knowledge Base.
- gws

eventually all the obsolete files were identified and deleted

Error message "cannot open address book file" thunderbird freezes

If I try to write an e-mail i get an error message "cannot open address book file". Then the program freezes, and I can not close the page, and none of the features of thunderbird works.

Do you have the .swf file available still ?

Where in Snow Leopard are address book files kept?

I have a Macbook Pro circa 2008 running OS 10.6.8. My Address Book file seems to have become corrupted and sometimes one file opens(missing names and/or addresses) and sometimes the complete file shows up. What is the address and name of the Address Book files?

In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including
folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Calendars (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)

Why doesn't apple have a file of events that ties to the iCal program and the Address book file? By having that relationship it seems that you could call up all of the events tied to a customer while in the address book or likewise call up all of the even

Why doesn't apple have a file of events that ties to the iCal program and the Address book file? By having that relationship it seems that you could call up all of the events tied to a customer while in the address book or likewise call up all of the events tied to a contact that was in the iCal program as a scheduled meeting. Even in the to do's you could easily look back at the events tied to an individual so as to bring yourself up to speed with what you were doing with the individual in mind.

I definitely understand your concern and I apologize for all the frustration. Verizon Wireless has a strong customer commitment to delivering the best from our service and staff. I am disappointed to hear the service you received did not reflect this commitment.
I definitely want to help get to the bottom of this and further assist you. Please reply to my direct message so I can access your account and further assist. I am sure we can get this resolved.
JohnB_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

Restore Address Book from Time Machine

if i lost all my address book data, is there a way to restore it from a date in time machine that has my data?
shouldnt there be a simple way in addres book to select a time machine backup?

To restore address book data from Time Machine, launch the Address Book application, then click on the Time Machine icon in the dock. Within the Time Machine user interface, you'll be looking at an Address Book window that displays the data it had at the time of the Time Machine backup. You can go back in time to find a particular contact to restore, or you can choose the Restore All option.

Address book files

Are the address book files in Home - Application Support - identical to those in Home - Library - Application Support.
If so, why? i.e. whats the point?

Hi,
There shouldn't be an Application Support folder in your Home Folder, just in your Home Folder->Library folder. Don't know how you got it, so I can't offer any further advice. Maybe you accidently copied it there? Or moved it there? Did you notice a loss of application preferences at any point in the past?
The Application Support folder in your Library folder should be the one that the OS keeps updated; the other might just be a red herring, otherwise there's something screwy going on.
Hope this helps.
SiR G.

Old address book files

Address book is very slow when typing a name in the search box. Another post in this forum suggests deleting the file addressbook-v22.abcddb. I did that with no noticeable effect, but when I checked the other files (in ~/library/application support/address book/) I found all sorts of small address book files with modification dates as old as 2003, e.g., ABPerson.index, ABPerson.skindex.
Does the application updater leave this garbage hanging around or are these essential files? If they're not used, as seems to be the case, according to their modification dates, does it make a difference?

User library>Application Support>Address Book folder. Copy the whole folder.

How do i erase a corrupt contact list from iCloud,iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro and restore Address Book backup to all devices and cloud?

how do i erase a corrupt contact list from iCloud,iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro and restore Address Book backup to all devices and cloud?
I saved a corrected, most up to date version of my master Address Book Contacts as a back-up on my Mac Book Pro.
then in an effort to "simplify my life" i attempted to sync my I phone contacts - ( pre clean-up version) with my clean list on Mac Book Pro, New I pad and newly available icloud. DUH!! Using iTunes to do the sync caused the clean MacBOOK Pro list to be commingled with the dirty iphone contacts. amd now the whole mess is in the cloud.
I need to clear out the contaminated lists from all iplaces, and startover with Back-up on my macbook pro. BUT HOW???
Help
Karen

I had exported an address book backup: abbu
so since i wrote, i have found my way into the cloud: selected all entries - deleted them all from the cloud.
This wiped out contacts on my iphone and i pad, and MBP, as well as on the cloud. I then imported the abbu back into my now empty address book.
To repopulate the crowd, i selected all in my address book and created a single card vCard for export to my desktop. I then dragged that vcard into my empty cloud. Now my cloud has the same clean contacts as my MBP addressbook. The cloud then pushed the clean contacts into my empty ipad and iphone contacts.
I had to go back to Address Book>preferences>Accounts and Add an I cloud account - but if you accidentally create a second i cloud account - all of a sudden your address book will duplicate itself. I quickly reversed it by deleting one of the icloud accounts in my Address Book>preferences>Accounts.
I created a new entry on my MBP and it is now on all devices and in cloud
I also created a new entry on my iPhone and it is now in the address book on my MBP.
I feel empowered!!
Have i missed anything??

Using "Send Update" from the address book file menu.

I plan to use the "Send Update" from the File menu in Address Book to notify a large group I've created of my upcoming change of address. If a person on my list of people to to receive the update message has more than one email address, to which email address does Address Book send the message? All email address' of each person?
Also, I assume, from the email message window created when sending an update, recipients will see only the name of the group I created instead of all of the email addresses of all the people to which the update was sent. Have I assumed correctly?

How did you move your Thunderbird data from its default position?
If you had simply shifted your entire profile, the address book files would have moved too, so I suspect you've used the dangerous and inadvisable "Local Directory" option in Account Settinhgs to relocate specific mailstore files. :-(
I don't know of any way to set the path for address books. They are, it seems, required by design to reside in the user profile folder.
I don't like to advise use of the Local Directory settings, since doing so detaches message stores from your profile and makes profile management and maintenance a whole lot more difficult. Automated tools such as Mozbackup won't know to look outside the regular profile to safeguard your messages. All the published advice about profile management assumes you use the default locations which are within the profile. The Local Directory setting should, IMHO, be hidden inside the about:config editor for use only by power users.

Re:Is it possible to have more than one Address Book file

My Address Book file has many, many contacts listed. My problem is that when I sync my iPhone with my desktop, all of the contacts go to the iPhone, even though I don't want them all in the phone. Is there a way to control the phone contacts by having two Address Book files? Or is there a better solution. Thanks.

No, you can't have multiple Address Book files. You could create another User account on your Mac and use the Address Book in that account to hold the contacts you don't want synced to your phone. Another option would be use another application such as SBook to sync your contacts with it, then delete all the contacts you would sync with your phone from SBook and keep the ones you don't want synced in SBook.
SBook: http://simson.net/ref/sbook5/

Lync client can't fetch the address book files

Hi,
We have 3 FE Lync 2010 servers. All the clients are giving an error "cannot synchronize with the corporate address book".
I can access Internal Web services URL and download the AB file. I have also made an entry for Lync Internal web services in the host file and signed into the Lync. Then the client was able
to download the Address book files successfully. Any ideas to resolve this.?
Thank you !

Force a contact list update to make sure that your information is synchronized. To this, follow these steps:
Locate one of the following folders, depending on your operating system:
For Lync 2013:
Windows 7 and Windows 8: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Lync\sip_<sign-in name>
For Lync 2010:
Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<sign-in name>
Windows XP: %userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data \Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<sign-in name>
Delete the following files:
Galcontacts.db
galcontacts.db.idx
CoreContact.cache
ABS_<sign-in name>.cache
Mfugroup.cache
PersonalLISDB.cache
PresencePhoto.cache
Restart Lync, and then wait for 30 minutes for resynchronization to finish
Please remember, if you see a post that helped you please click "Vote As Helpful" and if it answered your question, please click "Mark As Answer"
Mai Ali | My blog: Technical | Twitter:
Mai Ali

Restoring Address Book files?

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