Well Hidden Address Book Files

I found out to my surprise today that there is a well hidden folder of contact info from my Address Book.
Here's what happened. I thoroughly deleted all my addresses from my Address Book (including all the files in ~library/applicanpreferences/address book). I then did a sync to my windows mobile phone using the sync from address book option in 'missing sync'. Surprisingly, sync services brought in 100 contacts from somewhere. A look on my phone confirmed that these 100 contacts were true contacts.
I reopened address book, and there are still no contacts in there, (apart from "Apple Inc", and "Me"). I did a sync to Yahoo from the Address Book Preferences, and the same 100 contacts got synced over.
I tried to search for these contacts, but have not been successful.
Where are these contacts hiding? Where is address book getting these contacts from, and why are any of them not displaying in the main address book window? I really would like to get to these contacts. Trying to get to the bottom of this is taking a lot of my time, and seriously bugging me. Any suggestions? Thx, in advance.

Try doing a search for ".abcdp" (the extension for a "person"s V-card) or ".abcdg" ("group" V-card). This should find your files (if they are on your Mac).
They "should" reside in ~/Library/Application Support/Addressbook/Metadata (at least they do on mine)
Also, when doing the search, add the criteria to search "System Files".
HTH

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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.

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

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.

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"
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Mai Ali

Restore entire Mail and Address Book files

Hi,
I reformatted my computer (erase and reinstall) to clear out all the clutter. I figured I could use the Time Machine records to restore whatever files I needed. I have encountered 2 problems:
I have consulted this Apple article for assistance: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301239
1) Mail: When copying the Time Machine files for Apple Mail (the mail folder and com.apple.mail.plist files) back onto my user accounts a strange things happens. For my admin accounts, the transfer worked fine; however, for my managed accounts when I copy over their respective files and open mail it prompts me as if mail had been opened for the first time (asking for email address, user name, etc...) Are there different files to copy because they are not admins?
2) Address Book: The apple article states to backup address book through the file -> backup, etc... method. I only have my entire Mac HD files on my Time Machine, what files do I copy back to restore my address book? I noticed their are several located in preferences, application support, and more, but I do not know which ones to copy back.
Thank you,
TM

1) Have you restored the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file for each user?
2) I think you need to copy the *~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook* folder. Also, I have ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist as well as com.apple.AddressBook.adb.plist (in the same folder). I'm not sure what that latter file is for, but if you have both too, you should probably restore them both.

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!

Retrieving Address book files & emails from old G5 (10.4) to MacPro (10.5)

My G5 died last week - both processors. HDs are OK though and I thought accessing old files would be easy.
I would like to recuperate the old Address book contacts and also my old emails from the old HDs.
Although I can mount them in the MacPro, I can't open the old Address book with Leopard and don't know where they might be in the old system; Same with the old emails. I did save the old email boxes as an mbox file but Leopard won't open it although I can open the old files individually.
Any solutions ?

David,
I once had a similar experience with a G5, but I love my Mac Pro 8 Core.
You should be able to simply "transplant" the com.apple.mail.plist (old User Directory/Library/Preferences) and the Mail folder from your old User Directory/Library, as well as the AddressBook folder from User Directory/Library/Application Support and then launch Mail and also the Address Book application, and have everything taken up where you left off, despite the version change. This is best done before every setting up anything in Mail or AB.
More info, please.
Ernie

Lync 2013 - How to find out if the Full or the Delta address book file is being downloaded

Hello
We have had various issues since upgrade to Lync 2013, specifically, Lync 2013 address book generation and download (bandwidth usage impact).
I was wondering if there is a way to find out which version of AB is downloaded; FULL AB or the Delta file ?
Thanks for your assistance,
Luca

Full address book contains a large set of user and contact object attributes.
Delta files contain incremental updates.
If a client is accessing the URL for the first time and successfully connects, the client attempts to download the current full data file. On subsequent days, the client attempts to download
a delta file based on the last full synchronization date.
Open Lync Configuration Information, check the ABS Server URLs, you can determine where the address book information comes from.
Lisa Zheng
TechNet Community Support

Well Hidden Address Book Files

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