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mdesignffm Author

Level 3

545 points

addressbook lost after update?

before updating from mojave to big sur, i exported my addressbook contacts as an abbu archive.

after the update, all contacts appeared twice in addressbook. so i made another backup of these, and then i erased them all.

but unfortunately, the import from my mojave abbu backup does not work, there is the dialog that my import will erase all existing contacts, but nothing happens.

importing the big sur (ie double) backup shows all card titles in the left column, but selecting any one, it is empty ('no card ...').

how can i get my contacts back from the abbu?

thank you!

mac pro 2013, macos 11.1

Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jan 26, 2021 1:50 PM

Top-ranking reply

mdesignffm Author

Level 3

545 points

Posted on Jan 26, 2021 2:22 PM

solved it myself:

had another backup via superduper of the original mojave addressbook. from ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources/Metadata, i copied all entries (every contact has one entry there) into the corresponding folder of my new big sur installation. then i deleted every other file in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook except the Sources folder. opened addressbook - bingo!

if you try this, better make a backup copy of your addressbook folder in case anything goes wrong.

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addressbook lost after update?

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