Help importing csv to address book

ApplesAndAudis wrote:
I exported from att.net web mail, all her contacts into a .csv file.

Were there any other options, such as "vCard"? That might work better. If you can export to "vCard", then double-click it, Address Book should open and offer to import those entries. Unfortunately, that will result in the loss of the editing you've done to the ".csv" file.

This may not work, but you might also do a control-click on the ".csv" file, then choose "Open with...", then "Other" (presuming that Address Book isn't one of the choices), then navigate to Address Book and choose it.

You really need to pour through the spreadsheet and look for any odd data fields. Anything that Address doesn't expect will kill the import.

If you don't see anything, you might try breaking the spreadsheet into parts and try the separate parts. That may help isolate where the issue is.

Just in case any information in this link might be of use to you in working with the .csv file:

Importing contacts into Address Book
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AddressBook/4.0/en/ad808.html

ApplesAndAudis, as Barney-15E pointed out, oddities will kill the import. The issue that prevented me from importing the CSV file was that the spreadsheet included commas and hidden returns. In all hopes, that is what is killing your import.

Questions similar to yours have been asked before on this forum, and I replied to one with the below instructions. (I'm using Numbers, but I think everything I mention can be done in Excel.)

((Begin copied text))

Deleting Commas>
The problem with commas in your spreadsheet is that the CSV format uses commas to distinguish when a new cell is formed. So having other commas will inevitably confuse Address Book during the attempted import. I didn't have too many commas in my spreadsheet, so I was able to quickly remove them. Yet, if you have dozens or hundreds of cells with commas in them, you'll need an easier solution. I imagine opening Number's Inspector>Cell Inspector>Format will have the solution of removing commas from, say, currency amounts or something else. Yet, how many commas arise in contact information? Perhaps the easiest way is to use the same method of removing those hidden RETURNs. Read on...

Deleting Hidden RETURNs>
You can't see them, and I couldn't find a "show invisibles" option in Numbers. So you need to search and find them. Yet, how do you search for something hidden? Do the Command-F thing to bring up the search field. The search bar should automatically be ready to search what you type. Hitting the Return key will do nothing for you, but hitting Shift-Option-Return will (you'll likely need to hit Return again to actually perform the search). Numbers will point out how many times these hidden returns are in your spreadsheet, which cells contain them, and give you the option to automatically replace them with something else (a space is a safe option). You can do the same search and replace with commas too.

((End copied text))

Here is the link to my full reply: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12200296&#12200296

I hope it works for you!

I think the problem with simple import these days is the extended use of XML which in my case required a label next to the imported field before Address book would import. To Developers can you please add an import type that will find wild characters except comma and tab and excluded them also it would be helpful if addressbook could import without the need to transpose.

Had a customer ask me to import all the CC addresses from an email into Addressbook and this is what I had to do.

1. Saved the email to desktop opened with Textedit and copied addresses.
2. Opened Excel and selected under edit Paste Special, then in this dialog box ticked Transposed
The End result should be the address flow downwards
3. Now we need to clean the data select find Command+F and click the replace button
Search for < and replace with NUL (nothing not even a space) also do this with > and with a
space (press once on keyboard) and click the Replace All button each time it will tell you how many it replaced
4. Click on the top of the "A" column it should highlight the whole thing then goto pull down menu Insert->Cells
5. In box A1 Type "Email (Work)", copy this and highlight with shift all the A cells down and paste to the last email address
6. Save as Excel .CSV file
7. Make a new group in Addressbook and highlight before importing

I added two contacts to my iphone 4 last night and tonight synced my phone to my MAC. The new contacts did not go into my Address Book. I searched through the message boards and did not find an answer why. The contacts that I added on my phone had phone numbers only, not email addresses. So, I put a dummy aol email address in one of these, on my phone, and re-synced. Guess what? That contact transferred to my Address Book - but the phone number did not. I was able to add the number manually on my computer but am not sure why this happened.