Restoring Address Book - help!!

Yesterday I upgraded my Dual 1.8 G5 to Tiger from Panther. I took my Mac HD and copied the drive to an external, then reformmated the internal and installed the new OS.
So far everything is fine, except my Address Book. I did not specifically make a backup in the Address Book program, like i said above, i simply copied over my entire drive contents to another drive for backup. So obviously the new A. Book is empty (except for the personal card and Apple) and i cant find a way to get my old addies back. Of course I see that option under File or whatever but since I didnt not make a backup IN Address Book.. am i screwed? Most programs have a text file or some sort of file i can import, but i cant find it for this... any help, please?? thanks!!!
dual 1.8 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

If you backed up these folders & files, just replace them on your new system with your backups:
~(YourHome)/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
~(YourHome)/Library/Preferences/AddressBookMe.plist, com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist, com.apple.AddressBook.plist
Then relaunch AddressBook.
-mj
[email protected]

Similar Messages

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 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??

Address Book Help is not available

I don't believe I have ever had Address Book Help. When I go to it, it will give me the prompts for Content, etc., but there is no information there.
Can someone assist me in figuring out how to download Address Book "Help". Would I go to my start-up disk and somehow just download that part? or is there a download on line which I can use?
I have no idea why it's not available. I've had the computer since 04 and seldom have needed to access Help in this regard. Now, I really need it.
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Take a look at the following article:
Troubleshooting Help Viewer

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 help can't find files

My address book help files can't be found by the help viewer. It only shows the first page. When trying clicking on the link it gives either the error message 'can't find the file' or 'something ...1001'. The same goes for Automator. I haven't checked the other applications but Image Capture which can find its files. I have also peeked with Pacifist into the apps packages and there ins't any help file in mentioned apps.
Can anyone help or confirm?

HI
Control or Right Click on the Address Book Application. From the resulting menu select "Show Package Contents". You should see a folder called Contents. Look inside this folder and you should see a number of files and folders. One of them will be called Resources. Look inside this folder and you should see a plain file (ie: one with no specific icon) called AddressBook.help. On 10.6.5 it should be approx 10.6 MB in size and be version 4.0. This itself is a package and if you control or right click on the icon you should be able to select "Show Package Contents". Drill down through the resulting folder and you should see all the files and folders that make up the Help Section for address book.
If for some reason you are missing some of these files or (more likely) don't have access to them (permissions have got messed up for some reason possibly) then either repair permissions or use Pacifist to extract AddressBook from the Installer DVD to reinstall the application again. I think it's also possible to copy over a working copy that's the same version from another mac.
Most applications on OSX are 'standalone' and pretty much everything to do with that application will be contained 'within' the application itself. There are other ancillary files some applications use or even need - such as files placed in the User Library and Application Support folders - again it depends on the application. Your mileage as ever will vary.
Tony

Time Machine did not restore Address Book Contacts!!! HELP!!!

I have an iPhone. I had to get a new one because the old one was acting all weird after the latest update.
I have a MacBook. I had to reformat the hard drive so I can partition part of it off for Windows (for work, puke.)
When I reinstalled Leopard on my MacBook, I uploaded the information from the latest back-up on Time Machine. This did not, however, restore my contacts. I have a metadata folder which contains a lot of files which are supposed to be people's information, but nothing will open these files. I really need my contacts back. Can someone help?
I ran Time Machine just about every day while my computer was home and just copied over my entire Library folder before reformatting my computer. Is the information somewhere in there? How do I get it back?
This is very frustrating. The applications and music and stuff came back fine, why not my contacts? This makes me doubt whether Time Machine is a reliable back-up.

i will try the restore all feature, but i already restored everything except applications and nothing came back. there were some old stuff that i didn't want restored (deleted files/programs) so i did not do that restore all.
when i open address book, then time machine, for some reason nothing shows up. my home folder was renamed in the process (perhaps without me knowing i was doing so.) would that matter? i can still access all the files through the backup, but i can't access address book through time machine and i cannot open the contact information in any programs. they are all there, but they won't open.

Restoring Address Book with Time Machine

I am trying to restore my Address Book contacts all but one of which vanished a couple days ago - but when I look at it in Time Machine it reads "last update 5/11/12" even as far back as Sep 2011. I've checked other files and TM has saved the correct older versions. Thoughts?

Boy, I really wish I could help, but I don't use , like, or trust TM.
Oh wait, maybe try the free demo of this...
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/backintime.html
http://www.tri-edre.com/english/products/backintime_tm.html

Can't restore address book from Desktop Software 6.0.0.43

To my regret, I had to do a security wipe in order to activate my Blackberry 8830 (World Edition) with my company's BES. (I had used BES in the past with a different company.)
Now, I'm trying to do a custom restore of address book contacts and memos from a backup file ("Blackberry 8830.ipd") using Desktop Software 6.0.0.42
I see that I have 269 address book entries and 2 memos in the restore window, so I assume that the backup file has not been corrupted.
When I click "Restore," I do not get any error messages, but no contacts appear in my Phone Book after I get the successful restore confirmation -- except for the generic Customer Care entry which I had retrieved from my Phone SIM card.
I am aware of Issue DT755153 from http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartphone_users/deliverables/18351/BlackBerry_Desktop_Software-Releas...
Could a permissions or synch setting on my company's BES be the cause of my address book restore problem? I'm not sure if understand the full implications of DT755153. I am afraid of doing a full restore because I don't want to mess with my BES activation.
Can I manually change/delete a setting in the Service Book that would allow me to complete my restore?
Other Notes:
1) I have checked my address book database size after each restore and it's still 1KB (that 1 record).
2) I have checked for other contacts on my phone SIM card.
3) I have not switched phones or devices.
4) I tried rebooting my phone by pulling out the battery (while it was still on), but still no luck.
I would appreciate any other suggestions. I really need access to my contacts from my backup file!!!
Cheers,
TK

Hey Lenfrancis,
Welcome to the BlackBerry Support Community Forums.
Do you have any other email accounts setup like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail? If you do, you might need to remove the *email address {SYNC}* service book prior to setting up the synchronization.
-ViciousFerret
Come follow your BlackBerry Technical Team on Twitter! @BlackBerryHelp
Be sure to click Like! for those who have helped you.
Click Accept as Solution for posts that have solved your issue(s)!

Restoring Address Book from Time Machine. "Error Message"

"Address Book can't be modified or deleted because it's required by Mac OS X.
I had HD wiped clean at Apple Store and just trying to restore from TM copy. Not trying to delete or modify. At least that I know of.
HELP.
Quilterlynn

"Address Book can't be modified or deleted because it's required by Mac OS X.
I had HD wiped clean at Apple Store and just trying to restore from TM copy. Not trying to delete or modify. At least that I know of.
HELP.
Quilterlynn

How to restore Address Book with Time Machine -

hello, I'm quite desperate beacuse the new version of iTunes has cancelled all my contacts and does no longer sync with Outllok for Mac.
On the Time Machine I see my old contacts in yesterdays' address book, but if I click on restore it just does not do it and returns to this messy verion of my address book. can anyone help me?
please

It looks to me like this other discussion from last year may offer you some useful suggestions:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17891606#17891606
Hope that helps.
Ivan

Restore Address Book via time machine failed (10.7.3)

Tried to restore my address book (10.7.3), but I terribly failed. What files do I actually have to restore? Tried the all the metafiles (library) and both com.apple.addressbook.plist, but no success. Any help welcome. Cheers, K.

Does it show with the default set to On my Mac? If it got "knocked out" by settng it to "iCloud", it would appear that you have a dataset On my Mac.
If you do find a dataset, it is as well to do a File>Export>iCal Archive to produce a .abbu file and keep it safe. This can be used to import during the procedure I described, to renew the iCloud data. But restoring the folder from TM should work, if you are signed out of iCloud.
If you have since done a TM backup, you may need to look further back for a valid dataset.
You could also try logging in to iCloud.com and see if, in fact, there is a dataset there already.

Trying to restore Address Book from Time machine

I lost all but 32 0f my 1200 address book entries recently. I know not why. I tried to restore from my Time Machine back up in line with other posts I have found. The machine shows the 1200 entries as having been restored but as I watch they all disappear and go back to the orginal 32. I have tried a number of times and using differet back ups but the same thing happens. Any ideas would be gratefully received.
I sync my devices via iCloud. I have a G$, Mac Brook Pro, Mac Book Air, Ipad and iPhone 4.
Thanks in anticipation of your help.

Leicasnap wrote:
I sync my devices via iCloud.
That's the culprit.
iCloud, by definition, thinks it has the "master copy." So when you restore your 1200 entries, iCloud immediately overlays it with the contents of the cloud, which is, apparently, the 32.
See the 5th post here for a possible workaround: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3453735

Restoring address book

I was restoring my address book from Time Machine. It asked to restore the contacts, they appear and when I went to get a few more contacts from TM, the new ones appear but the first contacts I restored are no longer there. What am I doing wrong?!

That's quite strange -- I don't think I've ever seen that problem posted here before, and it works for me on 10.6.8.
You might try a Restart. If that doesn't help, try verifying your internal HD, per #6 in Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks.

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.

Restoring Address Book - help!!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for