Why doesn't Address Book retain my imported contacts?

Hello, I converted my Outlook 2010 content with O2M. Importing in Mail (mbox format) and iCal (ics format) goes fine. However, imported contacts in Address Book (vcf format) disappear as soon as Address Book is closed and re-opened again. Any suggestions?

Hello again,
I found in the mean time some workarounds in this Support Community forum.
More importantly however, I found in the documentation on OS X Lion in the App Store that Lion has its own Windows Outlook migration utility. You can find this info via the OS X Lion support link in the App Store "hidden" under "Installation and Recovery. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4796. Unnecessarilly spent $12,95 therefore.
More unfortunate is that in the mean time my iMac has become almost inoperable thanks to the installation of OS X Lion. Virtually every session ends early with a froozen screen, the need to force quit applications and finally a hard stop of the computer (sorry "Mac") by holding the button in the back until it stops. The stop is needed because once I force an application to quit it will not start up anymore at all. the hard stop is required because by this time the Mac doesn't execute its regular shut down procedure anymore.
Several functionalities are out of order such as the automatic linking up to my Time Capsule at start up. Going on line now requires going to System Preferences, Network and then pushing several times the Network Name selector before the available networks finally appear. By then the led on the Time Capsule is already green a long time as starting up with Lion is considerably slower than with Snow Leopard. My Windows XP PC next to it beats the iMac consistently.
Perhaps worse of all is that OS X Lion also screwed up my the Time Capsule back up functionality. Although the connection is their Time Machine keeps on searching for the back up disk for hours until you finally notice nothing is being backed up anymore and you put the pour App out of its misery. When looking into the back up history on the Time Capsule I also noticed that some of the back ups dating from before my Lion install were modified after that same install judging by comparing the date of the back up and the modified date in Finder.
In short it's a messand I will go back to Snow Leopard. Just need to figure out how to do that without causing loss of data.
Ciao, Kees

Similar Messages

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    I ran into a incredbily frustrating problem recently whereby attempting to restore a backup of my Address Book resulted all my contacts being deleted once I reconnected my computer to the internet and my Address Book began syncing with iCloud. I wasn't able to find a solution here but I was able to eventually find one online. I thought it was worth sharing.
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    3) Select "All Contacts"
    4) Select, File > Export > Export vCard...
    5) Save the file to your Desktop
    6) Reconnect your computer to the Internet
    7) Select "Import"
    8) Select the ".vcf" file that you just saved to your Desktop.
    Importing your backup as a ".vcf" file will prevent iCloud from deleting all of your contacts upon syncing.
    ... at least it did for me ( :    

    I had the same problem on both my iPad & iPhone. I adding a contact on my iPad and now everything seems to sync properly. Hmmm, interesting.....  THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION.

  • Tip: why Open In Address Book opens a "random" contact

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  • Why does Lion KEEP reversing changes you make in address book and other applications without your consent and without wanting it to??? Plus address book will NOT import old address book contacts from Snow Lepoard 10.6 and keep them.  This Lion OXS 7 is ..

    Why does Lion KEEP reversing changes you make in address book and other applications without your consent and without wanting it to??? Plus address book will NOT import old address book contacts from Snow Lepoard 10.6 and keep them.  This Lion OXS 7 is .. becoming very frustrating ... it will NOT keep changes made in the Address Book and it has destroyed my contacts which I only have electronically since 10.4 in my address book. I am NOT happy with this OS7 it has a lot of issues and faults.  How can one stop automatic reversing of data when inputting???
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    Relax. Your address book database is corrupted.
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    Open your Library by holding down the Option (alt) key while selecting the Go menu in Finder. Select Library. Navigate into your Application Support/AddressBook folder and delete the addressbook-v22.abcddb file.
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  • The address book that was imported is incomplete -why? I already re-installed T-bird.

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    Jamie: If you still have the PB G4 you may be able to get your problems solved.
    Back on the PB G4 I would first run some maintenance operations (permissions repair, disk repair, use a utility such as OnyX or C ocktail to run a series of maintenance operations including cache cleaning).
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    Next, make a backup of the Address Book database and copy the backup file to the MBP.
    If you have not added new addresses to the database from the MBP, clear out the existing files (database, preferences) for Address Book (except for the application itself) that exist on the MBP.
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  • HT3952 Why can't Address Book allow me to add "spouse" to the print job?

    I can add "spouse" to a card, so why can't Address Book allow me to print the name on the card plus the spouse name? So if I try to print "Ravi" I have the option in the print dialogue to add "Mei"? Seems simple, even Word can do it.

    Hi,
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    As shown in the earlier post, the code:
         
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    is really all on one line.  Here is a screen shot of my plist file as viewed in TextWrangler:
    The good news is we have 358 days to figure this out before Christmas.
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  • Why have my Address Book contacts disappeared after uploading to iCloud?

    I am using my MacBook Pro w/OSX Lion.
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    DONE
    as well as any secondary accounts from system preferences > mail, contacts and calendars –
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    DONE (not even introducing other Macs or IOS devices to the equation until I get the iCloud and MacBook syncing contacts correctly)
    I'd log into iCloud.com and check my Address Book was empty and empty it if necessary –
    DONE (it was empty already)
    and then delete all contacts from every Address Book on every device
             DONE
    Then I'd turn Address Book syncing back on –
    DONE (This assuming that by ‘turn back on’ you mean System Preferences > iCloud and check marking the box next to Contacts)
    and import my contacts from the backup file –
    DONE (This assuming that by ‘import my contacts’ you mean importing the previously exported Address Book back up file back into the Address Book. I see contacts listed in the Address Book when I did this.)
    No syncing seems to happen at this point?
    you might also take a look at this User Tip, to ensure you understand the differences between the different accounts in Address Book before adding the contacts back.
             I did read this but understand is probably not an accurate term for my interpretation of what I read.  I get that On My Mac will not sync with what is in the cloud and iCloud will sync with the cloud.  In Address Book under the single head red ribbon I see neither account heading that is mentioned.  I also was not asked at the time of import to select which ‘account’ I’d like the contacts setup under.
    A) If there is no indication as to what Address Book account the contacts fall under, how does on find this out? 
    User Tips states
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         My assumption is that I'm not synced with iCloud if I don't see either account option listed. I also would think that if I'm not synced and thus don't have more than one account then perhaps the All Contacts default to an On My Mac account but don't reflect an account heading of 'On My Mac’ as seen on the screen shot of the User Tips example.
    Furthermore, User Tips also states
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    B)  How do you change which ‘account’ your contacts are setup under if they are under the wrong account?
             Assuming again that my contacts are ‘On My Mac’, then how do I move them to the ‘iCloud’ account of which is not listed?
    C)  Will any of this be affected by groups? 
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