Address Book Fails to Search Entries

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Level 2

267 points

Address Book Fails to Search Entries

At first i thought the address book was losing entries, but now it appears that the real issue is that it just won't show the results in a search even if you type the name out as it appears within the note. The entry is there, it just doesn't come up in search. i was re-entering the "lost" entries, when i found that i was ending up with duplicates... what the heck is going on?

MacPro Dual-Core 3 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.9), ATi X1900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 5GB RAM, 2.8TB, 20" DEll LCD, 2xViewSonic 17"

Posted on Oct 31, 2007 5:54 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

bneely

Level 5

5,255 points

Oct 31, 2007 6:11 PM in response to Gene Surber

To be sure, do you have Leopard? Your config info says 10.4.9 but this is the Leopard section of the discussions. My suggestion here only really works on Leopard. Also, please back up your AddressBook folder before you do this in case something goes wrong.

1 - Quit all apps except Finder
2 - Open a Finder window and go to (home folder)/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/
3 - Drag AddressBook-v22.abcddb to the trash
4 - Launch Address Book

These steps will rebuild the address book database from the files that are in the Metadata folder (at the above-mentioned location). Sometimes the address book database doesn't contain the information that it uses when searching, even though all of the contact information is still there.

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Answer 2

Gene Surber Author

Level 2

267 points

Oct 31, 2007 7:21 PM in response to bneely

Thank you. Yes, i am using Leopard. i just haven't updated my information on this site yet... guess i will do that after i try your suggestion out.

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Answer 3

Nov 12, 2007 6:08 PM in response to Gene Surber

I can confirm that this appears to work. I was searching for a regularly used address and was surprised that it failed to show in Address Book (within a fresh and clean install of Leopard). A Spotlight search showed the contact present and correct and when clicked, showed within the Address Book correctly. It seemed that Address Book search itself was at fault.

Trashing the file mentioned above does seem to fix this particular problem - thanks!

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Answer 4

Nov 14, 2007 8:09 AM in response to Nathan Jones2

This works for me, too. Thanks for posting the solution.

Mike

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Answer 5

Gene Surber Author

Level 2

267 points

Jan 4, 2008 10:40 PM in response to bneely

Yes, this worked beautifully! Thanks a bunch!

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