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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Mac Osx Panther Address Book

kevinewright - Jun 29, 2005 - 11:03 am

All of a sudden my address book doesn't work. I can see it in Mail, but can't add or edit addresses. The Address Book application appears to be open in the dock but there is no application open. How can I fix this? or how can I reinstall the application?

Tetano - Jun 29, 2005 - 11:19 am

Hi Kevin,
first of all you should backup your address book; therefore, open Address Book and choose Back up Address Book from the File menu. A dialog appears, asking you to choose a save location—it also adds the current date to the saved file name too. Choose where you want to save the backup, then click Save. Then, delete the com.apple.addressbook.plist file, and try to launch the app again. if it doesn't work, you can trash the app and reinstall it.. you can explore the panther installation disk with pacifist (you can search for it on versiontracker.com), and launch the .pkg file for address book...
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Stefano
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kevinewright - Jul 1, 2005 - 4:07 am

Stefano.

Thanks for your help.

I couldn't back up my address book as I couldn't open the application properly. I deleted the 'com.apple.addressbook.plist' file as advised. This helped by letting me see the address book but wouldn't let me do anything with it. I clicked on one of my contacts in the 'Name' column and I just got the 'wait' cursor.

I 'force quit' the Address Book, and followed the rest of your advise by reinstalling the application with the assistance of Pacifist. I am still having the same problems as before the reinstall. Even though I can now see my address book I just get the 'wait' cursor. I have even opened the application and quit straight away – and I'm still waiting.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
Kevin.

Tetano - Jul 1, 2005 - 4:21 am

Are you using a plugin for Address Book? Also, have you tried the routinary maintenance for your system, such repairing permissions from Disk Utility?
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Stefano
Thanks for choosing macosx.com

kevinewright - Jul 1, 2005 - 5:13 am

Hi.

Yes I've tried maintneance, and no, I'm not using any plug-ins (as far as I know).

Kevin.

Tetano - Jul 1, 2005 - 5:20 am

Try also to delete the com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist file... also, from the terminal, type this command
sudo plutil -s ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist and then press enter... you will be asked to enter your administrator password
You can also download a program like Cocktail or Onyx on www.versiontracker.com and run it...

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Stefano
Thanks for choosing macosx.com

kevinewright - Jul 1, 2005 - 5:30 am

Thanks Stefano.

I'm not sure what you mean about 'the terminal' but I'll try the 'Coktail' option. Thanks again for your help.

Kevin.

Tetano - Jul 1, 2005 - 6:03 am

The terminal opens a Unix shell for your system... you can find it in your Application/Utilities folder...
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Stefano
Thanks for choosing macosx.com