Addressbook has changed languages

Question

Level 1

39 points

Addressbook has changed languages

In trying to move files from an old iMac, OS10.4, I have done something to cause the Addressbook to think it is German. All its menus and contents are now in German. Everything else is still in English.

How do I remedy this?
What file(s) should I pitch?

TIA for any help.

MacBook 7, 2.4 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.5), 2 GB memory

Posted on Jan 2, 2011 7:46 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 3, 2011 1:42 PM in response to Lorelei

Hmmm.

Find Address Book.app in the Applications folder and right-click, choosing show contents from the pop-up menu. Browse to Content/Resources and scroll down to see if the English.lproj folder is present. If it is, drag one of the .strings files in it to TextEdit (or other text editor) and see what language is used on the right side of lines, after the = signs.

AK

Reply

Answer 2

Lorelei Author

Level 1

39 points

Jan 3, 2011 8:54 PM in response to Austin Kinsella1

Thank you, Austin, for your apt advice. You pinpointed the problem. Unfortunately, either I or this old Mac failed to work it out. Instead, the entire addressbook app disappeared. Totally. There are still dozens of addressbook files, but no app.

It doesn't really matter. I don't need the app and could import the data to the newer computer, BUT the data files are always dimmed out when I connect. Do you happen to know the answer to that one too?

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 4, 2011 2:21 AM in response to Lorelei

How are you connecting? What app are you running (Finder? Address Book? ...?) when you see the dimmed data files? What sort of names are on the data files?

AK

Reply

Answer 4

Lorelei Author

Level 1

39 points

Jan 4, 2011 6:30 AM in response to Austin Kinsella1

I am connecting wirelessly through an Airport connection. I was using Addressbook in two OS: 10.5.8 and 10.5.3. It was obviously not a match made in Heaven.

I have tried importing a number of variously named files: AB data, previous data, data before save, compressed and archived. It's the "newer" OS that won't accept them. As a matter of fact, the User file on the old computer shows a minus sign in a red circle when displayed on the newer desktop. I have never seen that symbol before and can't figure out why it appears.

msr

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 5, 2011 4:02 AM in response to Lorelei

10.5 Address Book uses a different file format, and can't directly read 10.4 files. Ideally you would export them as vCards from 10.4 then move them to the 10.5 system for import, but take a look at this post by BDAqua.

AK

Reply