How can I restore my address book?

Since my initial post I made several disturbing discoveries. Not only had my Address Book been wiped clean, but my iCal was also wiped clean. In addition Firefox wasn't loading properly so I closed and reopened it and found that it was like opening Firefox for the first time. My personal toolbar and all my bookmarks were gone. Also, I have an email account that utilizes Thunderbird. The email account was gone. I was prompted to create a new account from scratch. Additionally, all my Desktop files were gone, the Dock was missing all of the program icons that I had put there, and configurations that I had set up such as the right mouse click button were all gone!

There was one piece of information that I left out of my description in my first post, and this may be important. When I connected my iPhone to sync for the first time, I was prompted in iTunes if I wanted to name my iphone "Apple User's (or Appleuser's) iPhone". Rather than just put a different name in that field, I blundered by renaming the username in the Finder Sidebar. It was from that point on that I started having the problems. When I renamed it back to "Appleuser" later on, none of the missing items returned.

So, I don't know if renaming the user in the Finder Sidebar, or syncing my iPhone for the first time caused this problem. I think (hope) somehow that I just inadvertently effected the user information, that it still must be on my computer, but I don't know how to get it back again. I want to mention again that I do have a backup external hard drive, so chances are that I have the files intact there, if not on my internal Mac HD.

Can somebody help me to restore my settings so that I can get these lost items back again?

Hi wjosten-- I think you're right on target but I'm having a problem bringing back the original user name. When I tried to rename it to the original name I got a window pop up that read, "That name is already taken. Choose a different name". In the Users folder I see the old user name folder and all of the sub-folders that appear to be intact. What I don't see is the old user name "house" icon that I think needs to be placed in the Finder Side bar.

Here is a link to a screen shot with description that might be helpful.
http://s756.photobucket.com/albums/xx209/Danny_Weiss/?action=view&current=Finder withusernames.png

I went to System Preferences> Accounts and see that Apple User Admin is there but I don't see how I can log in. There are no other accounts listed there and that includes this new mistake, appleuser. What should I do next?

wjosten-- your solution of logging out & then logging back in using admin account almost solved the problem. I found out that it lacked one aspect. (see article link below) It was necessary to change the new directory name, then rename the old home directory to the user's correct short name. Regardless, thank you so, so much for your help!

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

Although I was successful reversing all the damage from renaming my home directory, my Address Book is still corrupted from when I synced my iPhone, which resulted in replacing my Address Book contacts with my iPhone contacts instead of merging them. I don't even know if merging is an option, but that is the outcome that I would like. Do you know anything about that?

Thank you, again!

I have information on each that I would like to merge into one. I have been building my Address Book contact list since I migrated from Windows to Mac about 3 years ago. The contact list on my iPhone was created from my contact list on my old cell phone, and transferred onto the iPhone just 2 days ago. That list has mostly different information, just names and phone numbers. Is it possible to merge the two lists together? In any regard I would like to restore my Mac Address Book. I believe that I have secure backup files on my external hard drive, and also with the file 'AddressBook.data.previous'. Could you help me with that process?

I want to let you know how much I appreciate your support! Thank you!!

wjosten-- some difficulties. I disabled auto sync in iTunes. I wasn't able to restore the Address Book as you directed; I couldn't find any .abbu file extensions. Could that be for later versions of OSX then 10.4.11? However I did manage to restore my original Address Book by going into the Address Book directory and renaming the existing file AddressBookold.data, moved it to my desktop, then renamed the previous file: Addressbook.data. That worked.

Before connecting my iPhone, in itunes I right clicked and then chose "reset warnings". I connected the iphone, and then clicked sync. There was no popup. iPhone synced, then said that I could disconnect. After syncing neither the Address Book nor my iPhone contact list was changed. It's good that the Address Book wasn't replaced by my iPhone contact list, but I am still frustrated by not being able to merge them together. Any ideas how to proceed? Thank you--

This is very discouraging -- it didn't work. Just to test out my iCal to see if it would update from the iphone, before syncing I changed a start and end time of an entry. It didn't update it. But getting back to syncing the Address Book, I wonder why it's not working. Any other ideas? Thanks again.

Do you think this might be significant? After connecting iphone, clicking reset warnings, then clicking syncing, I do get a pop up each time, but it doesn't ask if I want to merge. It's a solicitation from Apple that asks if I will share information. Here's the popup screen shot.

http://i756.photobucket.com/albums/xx209/Danny_Weiss/Popup.png

I have the box checked,"Do Not Ask Again" each time but it always comes back. Strange that this pop up keeps loading while the merge doesn't. Thoughts? -r