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Question Profile
| DATE | Jan 12, 2007 |
| TICKET | #332848 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Address Book data disappeared |
| CAT | Computers, Operating Systems, Applications or Connected Devices |
| TYPE | Operating System Features, Bugs and Problems |
| DESC | Apple |
| DESC | 10.4.X (Tiger) |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (Intel) |
| MODEL | Apple MacBook |
| PROC | 2GHz |
| RAM | 512MB |
| DRIVE | 60 GB |
| NAME | Coral |
| USERNAME | coralhkr |
| TECHNICAL | Little Experience |
| ISSUE | Totally Lost |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Address Book data disappeared
coralhkr - Jan 12, 2007 - 4:14 pm
Mac OS X 10.4.6. All the data in my address book just disappeared. How can I find it and restore it?
stottm - Jan 13, 2007 - 10:18 am
The AddressBook data is stored inside your home folder's Library folder structure. It's stored here:
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/
The files look like this under Tiger:
ABPerson.skIndex
ABPerson.skIndexInverted
ABSubscribedPerson.skIndexInverted
AddressBook.data
AddressBook.data.beforesave
AddressBook.data.previous
Images/
LastImport.plist
Within AddressBook there is a File menu option to back it up. There is also an option to Revert to an AddressBook Backup. Now if you had it backed up you can easily restore it using the built-in revert feature. You can even double-click a backed up "Address Book - 1/13/08" file and it will automatically restore it when you click OK.
But you likely didn't have it backed up. So now we need to figure out what happened to your data. Take a look at the directory listed above and see if the files even exist.
Possible things that may have happened:
1. You renamed your user account in Mac OS X and when you login all your data is gone, not just the AddressBook. This is because you cannot easily just rename your home folder or user account in Mac OS X.
2. You are not logged into your normal user account, make sure you are logged into your account and not another family members account.
3. The hard disk may have had a failure and the data files may be damaged. There are only two moving parts in a computer. The cooling fans and the hard disk. Both are prone to failure. The hard disk spins at 4200 to 7200 RPM (revolutions per minute) and if the bearings or read/write head springs fail the head will crash into the disk surface and destroy data written on the surface of the disk.
Worse case scenario, if your email is still intact you can add people back into the AddressBook one at a time. You can Option-Click (Right-Click) email addresses in your sent or received email and Add those individuals to your AddressBook. If you had synchronized a cell phone with your AddressBook you can simply sync it again to restore the data back to the AddressBook from your cell phone. Or if you sync'd your contacts with .Mac then you can get them back as well.
If future, you need to come up with a backup strategy. The easiest will be to go buy a Firewire external hard disk. You can use it right now to make backup copies of your critical data. The new Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 will come with Time Machine which will use an external disk to automatically backup all your data easily and allow you to browse backwards in time to find missing files that were backed up. This one feature alone is worth the upgrade cost of Leopard. Of course, you can burn CD's or DVD's to backup your data but it takes longer and requires greater personal discipline.
The following utility is a free disk cloning tool that allows you to make a complete copy of your hard disk and copy it to the external drive. You will even be able to boot from the external drive copy if it's on a firewire drive. This way if your disk fails you can simply replace it and re-clone back to normal. In the mean time you can connect the firewire drive and boot from it to get to your backup data and still use your computer.
SuperDuper - Free - there is a shareware version that has more advanced features that most people don't need. It's more for Tech's and IT people. i.e. you don't need to buy the shareware version. The free one works fine.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html
Alternatively, you can use either Google's or Yahoo's web mail and store your AddressBook on those systems. Both will allow Mac Mail to connect as well so you don't have to use the web interface. You can export the AddressBook using the utility below and then import it into either Google or Yahoo's email thereby having an extra copy on the Internet where Google and Yahoo will back it up. Both email systems are excellent. If I had to say if one was just a little bit better I would say Yahoo currently has a slight lead.
Here's an AddressBook Exporter utility to get the addresses into a format other programs and websites can use:
http://www.gwenhiver.net/address-book-exporter.html
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/
The files look like this under Tiger:
ABPerson.skIndex
ABPerson.skIndexInverted
ABSubscribedPerson.skIndexInverted
AddressBook.data
AddressBook.data.beforesave
AddressBook.data.previous
Images/
LastImport.plist
Within AddressBook there is a File menu option to back it up. There is also an option to Revert to an AddressBook Backup. Now if you had it backed up you can easily restore it using the built-in revert feature. You can even double-click a backed up "Address Book - 1/13/08" file and it will automatically restore it when you click OK.
But you likely didn't have it backed up. So now we need to figure out what happened to your data. Take a look at the directory listed above and see if the files even exist.
Possible things that may have happened:
1. You renamed your user account in Mac OS X and when you login all your data is gone, not just the AddressBook. This is because you cannot easily just rename your home folder or user account in Mac OS X.
2. You are not logged into your normal user account, make sure you are logged into your account and not another family members account.
3. The hard disk may have had a failure and the data files may be damaged. There are only two moving parts in a computer. The cooling fans and the hard disk. Both are prone to failure. The hard disk spins at 4200 to 7200 RPM (revolutions per minute) and if the bearings or read/write head springs fail the head will crash into the disk surface and destroy data written on the surface of the disk.
Worse case scenario, if your email is still intact you can add people back into the AddressBook one at a time. You can Option-Click (Right-Click) email addresses in your sent or received email and Add those individuals to your AddressBook. If you had synchronized a cell phone with your AddressBook you can simply sync it again to restore the data back to the AddressBook from your cell phone. Or if you sync'd your contacts with .Mac then you can get them back as well.
If future, you need to come up with a backup strategy. The easiest will be to go buy a Firewire external hard disk. You can use it right now to make backup copies of your critical data. The new Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 will come with Time Machine which will use an external disk to automatically backup all your data easily and allow you to browse backwards in time to find missing files that were backed up. This one feature alone is worth the upgrade cost of Leopard. Of course, you can burn CD's or DVD's to backup your data but it takes longer and requires greater personal discipline.
The following utility is a free disk cloning tool that allows you to make a complete copy of your hard disk and copy it to the external drive. You will even be able to boot from the external drive copy if it's on a firewire drive. This way if your disk fails you can simply replace it and re-clone back to normal. In the mean time you can connect the firewire drive and boot from it to get to your backup data and still use your computer.
SuperDuper - Free - there is a shareware version that has more advanced features that most people don't need. It's more for Tech's and IT people. i.e. you don't need to buy the shareware version. The free one works fine.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html
Alternatively, you can use either Google's or Yahoo's web mail and store your AddressBook on those systems. Both will allow Mac Mail to connect as well so you don't have to use the web interface. You can export the AddressBook using the utility below and then import it into either Google or Yahoo's email thereby having an extra copy on the Internet where Google and Yahoo will back it up. Both email systems are excellent. If I had to say if one was just a little bit better I would say Yahoo currently has a slight lead.
Here's an AddressBook Exporter utility to get the addresses into a format other programs and websites can use:
http://www.gwenhiver.net/address-book-exporter.html
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