After Lion upgrade, my addressbook does not work++

I am having the same issue. When I go to Finder...it doesn't even open. I have to go through Word. Then when I get to App Support there is no address book? I'm not sure what to do now?

Thanks

Word isn't going to help you do anything required, and you went to the wrong Library.

If your Finder isn't opening, start a new thread for yourself describing the problem you are having with Finder.

I had to call tech support - AppleCare - to get the matter resolved. It took a while, but they fixed me up.

Unfortunately, that fix did not work for me. Contacts opens, but I can neither view or create cards - any other suggestions?

thank you! it works again

🙂

Delete addressbook.abcddb.

i have AddressBook-v22.abcddb

should i delete that?

Delete addressbook.abcddb.

i have AddressBook-v22.abcddb

should i delete that?

That's what I meant. Sorry.

it worked. thanks.

Hi Barney,

I found this just now ... I know it's two years ago since you posted the reply about Contacts not working .... but if you're still there, maybe you could confirm if it might work for Mavericks?

I have several devices syncing, two laptops, an iMac and an iPhone, and Contacts seems to have given up sorting, and only about half of the items are under letters of the alphabet, the rest are randomly listed under the # sign.

Your advice to mkmcfr for Lion does seem to make sense, but I'd just like confirmation that it's a good idea to do it for Mavericks.

Hope you're still there! I posted about this last week but no one has replied!!

Yes it does, but there are also subfolders for different account types inside the Sources folder. Each have the .abcddb index file. I would delete the ones where you are having problems. The one in the top-level "AddressBook" folder is for the ON MY MAC account.

There are also a couple more variants of that file (-wal, -shm). I haven't figured out what they do, but I delete them all. In addition there are Change Logs with the similar naming conventions. I'm not sure how those are used, either, and I would just delete them along with the rest.

If you have an iCloud or other online account type, I would make sure the online source is good, then remove that account from the Mac (e.g. for iCloud, go to iCloud System Prefs and deselect Contacts).

With all accounts removed from Contacts, you can then just delete the Sources folder, too. Then, when you restart Contacts, re-add those online accounts.

So, in order to reset everything,

Delete any online accounts

Delete everything in AddressBook EXCEPT: Images, Metadata, Configuration.plist, and the three MailRecents files so it looks like this:

I have done this twice and didn't see any issues in loss of data, but I would still suggest having a good backup before trying. A Contacts Archive (File Menu, Export) will create a copy of that whole folder, so you'll at least be back where you started.

Amazing this thread still continues after so long. Barney, you have outdone yourself by providing a solution no one else could figure out. We have an older MacBook Pro with a feeble processor that can only run OS 10.6.8. We were manually backing up a list of contacts to Address Book and suddenly the search field began to misbehave. Every letter you typed into this field would double or appear twice. For example, if you typed "n" you would get "nn." Over a period of about a week and checking other discussions, I tried repairing permissions, verifying the disc, deleting any .plist file with Address Book as part of the name. But, of course, these solutions did not work. In fact, nothing worked and I wondered if we needed some drastic action, like deleting the app or even wiping the drive. But, after reading your suggestion and this thread, I went to Home>Library>App Support>Address Book and found two files with nearly identical names: AddressBook-v22.abcddb and AddressBook-v22~.abcddb. I deleted them both, restarted and . . . Voila! Problem solved. Address Book now usable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you so much for your detailed explanation. I'm a bit nervous about doing it though, in case I make a ghastly mess of it all! I was too busy to give it a go before, but will summon up my courage soon .......

Thanks Barney-15e this helped a lot;)

This saved me, thanks. Should I uncheck Contact in my iCloud so it is there as a back up in the future?