Safe to Restore Adress Book from Time Machine?

Hi. I have not used Time Machine a lot, but I did import some contacts from Entourage into the "Adress Book" application within Osx 10.5. The import did not work perfectly as some contacts were lost (it was a script performing the export).
I would like to revert to a previous state of the Address Book. Is it safe just to go on trying to update that one file named "Address Book"? I guess it is a database (consisting of several files)? So that Time Machine would have to revert more than one file? Does Time Machine take care of all of that? ? I hope for some qualified answers here!

Well this sounds logical. The folder you are referring to contains 1849 files which seems to consist of contacts (persons). The whole size of that folder is 9.1 MB. However when I search Macintosh HD there are several files and other folders "EasyFind" finds when I do the search. So you are sure this is the folder and there is no need to think about all the other folders like "/Users/name/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook"? Thank you for your time!

Similar Messages

How do I restore adress book from time machine, How do I restore adress book from time machine

How do I restore address book from time machine

See the yellow box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

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.

Restored address book from Time machine no images on contacts

hello all
had an issues with my address book
unfortunately i deleted my contacts from adress book fom my macbook and lost al my contacts even from iphone (so propably deleted the icloud contacts)
now thank god i found a way to restore them from Tiem Machine
everythin is good and have al contacts back
BUT
not contact images
is thetre any way to get them back?
thank you!

This worked for me:
From Time Machine, restore a good backup of the entire "/Users/james/Library/Application Support/Address Book" folder to a different location, like to a folder on your desktop.
(note: the Library folder typically won't show up in Finder. To make it visible, in Terminal, issue this command:
        defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
        then restart Finder: killall Finder )
Go offline. Do whatever you need to do to get completely disconnected from the internet (turn off Wireless, unplug the ethernet cable, etc.). Otherwise, iCloud will immediately overwrite your restore.
Delete the real folder: /Users/james/Library/Application Support/Address Book
Copy your restore (at the different location), to the real location ( /Users/james/Library/Application Support/Address Book )
Restart Contacts. Your restored data you want should be there. Before going online again, Export all these contacts (File - Export - etc...)
Go online again. iCloud will wipe out your Address Book with what's on iCloud. Re-import contacts as needed from your Export.

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.

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.

Restoring deleted books from Time Machine

Hi all,
I deleted one of my keepsaker books and I'd like to restore it from my Time Machine. However, I had no idea what file or folder I need to restore. I have other books in my iphoto but every time I search then in Finder i did not find any file or folder related to, just the pics. How should I proceed?
Thank you very much!
P.

Books are virtual things that exist only in the iPhoto database until you preview and/or upload them
Quit iPhoto, Open Time Machine and go back in time to a time before you deleted the book,select the iPhoto library (in your pictures folder by default) and click restore - restore to the desktop so as not to overwrite your current iPhoto library - depress the option key and launch iPhoto and select the iPhoto library you just restored on your desktop and verify your book
You may want to look at Old Toad's tutorial #9a on archiving an iPhoto book for later use - http://web.mac.com/toad.hall/ToadsTutorials/No._9a.html
LN

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 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

Photos in address book not restoring with Contacts from time machine backup

I successfully restored my Address Book from time machine with the exception of contact photos. The photos appear in time machine, but do not appear in my Address Book on my mac.
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X
Version 10.7.2

I had the same problem,(Only I'm trying to recover Contacts after my HD crashed) followed the path, you suggested, and installed in the new HD address book folder, only had to go back and delete the other files that were in new Address book folder, that did not match the old folder.
And Hallelujah!!!! 153 cards were restored thank you very much!!!

How do I restore a calendar from time machine?

how do I restore a calendar from time machine?

You can find the solution already discussed here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3944847.
1- restore ~/Library/Calendars from time machine
2- restart in safe mode to clean the caches.

IPhoto crashed. When reopened, 70 some events were grayed out (no photos). Restored iPhoto library from Time Machine, fewer grayed events. Said yes to a msg on fixing library, 3K more photos. Still wrong. What next to do?

iPhoto crashed. When reopened, 70+ some events were grayed out (no photos). Restored iPhoto library from Time Machine, fewer grayed events. Said yes to a msg on fixing library, 3000 more photos. Still wrong. What next to do?

Do you still have the library that you were using when the crash occurred? If so apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button and select the library you want to add in the selection window..
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

I need to restore iphoto library from time machine, but have a question

I need to rebuild my library but already have 5 libraries which are taking too much space on my HD to finish a complete rebuild. Is it safe to move those 5 libraries to the trash and restore the one from time machine???
thanks in advance,
Kari

IF nothing goes wrong - hardware - software - human - then you will be fine
Personally my photos are important to me and I'd purchase an external harddrive and backup everything to it first - then do the deletes/rebuild etc
Then I would continue using the new EHD for a second backup using a clone package (Carbon Copy Cloner or SUperDuper)
LN

HT201250 Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? I'm trying to restore lost photo files and I see them listed in Time Machine (without use of an external drive), but when I try to restore I get a error code 36.

Can I restore photo files from Time Machine without the use of an external drive? While I was transferring photos back and forth from a thumb drive something went haywire and my IPhoto was wiped clean! When I click on Time Machine I see all the dated pages (without an external storage drive connected), go back to a date where all my photo files are there, click "restore", and I get the message: "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in file cant be read or written (error code - 36)"

Thanks so much Terence. I tried some of the fixes from that page, but then discovered the suggestion to compress the Time Machine Back up of the original library and transfer it as a zip back to my computer as detailed here:
http://pondini.org/TM/E9.html
That worked like a charm. I really appreciate it.

How to restore iTunes Library from Time Machine on Mavericks?

Please, can someone give me the instructions on how to restore iTunes Library from Time Machine on Mavericks?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Safe to Restore Adress Book from Time Machine?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for