How do I restore addresses from archive file or time machine without iCloud overriding?

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Level 1

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How do I restore addresses from archive file or time machine without iCloud overriding?

I recently had an issue with my address book contacts. About 90% of the contacts disappeared, then synched through iCloud to my iphone and ipad.....so nearly all my contacts were lost on all devices. I have both time machine and an address book archive file.

When I tried restoring from time machine, the iCloud synching saw it as an older version of the file and went to the deleted contacts version....i.e. I was right back where I started.

When I tried importing from the address book archive, the same thing happened.....iCloud saw the imported version as an older copy of the contacts file and deleted out everything I had just imported.

The only way I was able to get the contacts back was to go to time machine (with address book application open), select all the contacts, copy them, cancel out of time machine, and then paste the contacts into the current version of address book.....I guess the system sees that as a "new" version of the contact and doesn't overrite it. Problem is that it doesn't carry over all the different groups that way, and I have to move addresses into the groups all over again....kinda time consuming.

Any ideas on how to import from archive or restore from time machine (the normal way) without iCloud synching overriding the "older" and desired version of the file? Address book doesn't have any option to "override current contacts with imported ones".....

Thanks.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 26, 2011 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

MacGazza

Level 1

4 points

Jan 1, 2012 2:12 AM in response to nitzerp

I think you may have to turn off iCloud syncing (in system preferences-->iCloud and just tick the Address Book to OFF) to enable the RESTORE from your Time Machine back up.

As an added precaution (before turning iCloud back on) export the Address Book file to your hard drive to re-import (if needed).

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Answer 2

MacGazza

Level 1

4 points

Jan 1, 2012 5:13 AM in response to MacGazza

Just realized the System Preference icon to activate is the Blue @ Sign (Mail, Contacts & Calendars) which gives you the options to turn Contacts and Calendars off etc (and not the iCloud icon).

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Answer 3

Jan 1, 2012 8:40 AM in response to nitzerp

Try this:

Turn off your internet connection completely: check it's really off.
Import your backup into Address Book.
Select all your contacts.
From the File menu choose Export>vCard and save the file somewhere convenient.
Now turn the internet connection back on. Your contacts will disappear from Address Book again.
From the File menu choose 'Import' and select the file you exported to.
Hopefully this contacts list will stay in place: wait until it's synced to iCloud and check that it's on the website and syncs to your Phone.

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Answer 4

Nov 13, 2012 8:59 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Hi. I had the same problem and your solution seems to have worked for me. Thanks!

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Answer 5

May 1, 2013 9:51 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Yeah, that's great if you don't use groups. But, if you want to recover groups, each time you select a group and restore it from Time Machine, it thinks all the cards that exist in other groups are duplicates. This wouldn't be a problem if Contacts had any sense whatsoever about what constitutes a duplicates, but since it sees two people at the same company as a duplicate, I have to manually review each and every "duplicate" card and tell it whether to keep the old one or the new one or both or to merge. With thousands of cards and dozens of groups, this is days and days of labor. Horrible!

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Answer 6

Jul 9, 2014 5:39 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Finally a solution that makes sense.

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