Transfering Buddy List to new Computer
What is the best way to transfer all my Ichat perferences and buddy lists to a new computer?
Thanks!
Alison
Thanks!
Alison
Hello Alison,
Preferences are held in your home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ichat.plist file. With iChat AV off on both computers, transfer that file to your second Mac and replace the existing file with the one from your first Mac. When you launch iChat AV on the second Mac, your preferences will be the same as your other Mac.
The best (and safest) way I know to transfer your buddy list is to:
- make sure that each buddy (at least the important ones) has a card in your Address Book.
- You can make an Address Book Group called iChat Buddies if you like.
- Then use the
b Address Book > File > Back up Address Book...
menu command to make a backup.
-(Regular Backups of your Address Book is a good practice even after this transfer.)
- Transfer the back-up file to your other computer. (If you have a dot Mac account, you can do this with the Sync feature.)
- Use the
b Address Book > File > Revert to Address Book Backup...
menu command on the second computer to load load your current Address Book database on your second computer.
- Launch both iChat AV and Address Book on the second computer
- Drag the buddy names from your address Book list to your iChat AV Buddy List
- (If you made an iChat Buddies "Group", you can select and drag the entire "Group" from your Address Book to your iChat AV Buddy List at one time.)
- You're done.
If your Buddy List goes blank for any reason, you can just drag them back from your Address Book. If Address Book gets messed up, you will have a Backup copy. It has saved me once since I learned my lesson. (I backup regularly now.)
EZ Jim
Preferences are held in your home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ichat.plist file. With iChat AV off on both computers, transfer that file to your second Mac and replace the existing file with the one from your first Mac. When you launch iChat AV on the second Mac, your preferences will be the same as your other Mac.
The best (and safest) way I know to transfer your buddy list is to:
- make sure that each buddy (at least the important ones) has a card in your Address Book.
- You can make an Address Book Group called iChat Buddies if you like.
- Then use the
b Address Book > File > Back up Address Book...
menu command to make a backup.
-(Regular Backups of your Address Book is a good practice even after this transfer.)
- Transfer the back-up file to your other computer. (If you have a dot Mac account, you can do this with the Sync feature.)
- Use the
b Address Book > File > Revert to Address Book Backup...
menu command on the second computer to load load your current Address Book database on your second computer.
- Launch both iChat AV and Address Book on the second computer
- Drag the buddy names from your address Book list to your iChat AV Buddy List
- (If you made an iChat Buddies "Group", you can select and drag the entire "Group" from your Address Book to your iChat AV Buddy List at one time.)
- You're done.
If your Buddy List goes blank for any reason, you can just drag them back from your Address Book. If Address Book gets messed up, you will have a Backup copy. It has saved me once since I learned my lesson. (I backup regularly now.)
EZ Jim
