No entry sign on reinstalled Address Book

I have reinstalled address book (after deleting it for reasons I can't recall). It has contacts in it and opens up fine but a) there is a "no entry" sign when I open Applications as a stack and) b it doesn't sync with my iPhone 4, though everything else does sync, and the "sync contacts" box is checked in iTunes sync info tab.

Are these issues related? Can anyone help me with either/both?


Thank you!

iPhone 4, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 15, 2012 9:10 AM

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4 replies

Jan 17, 2012 11:32 AM in response to Cattus Thraex

Thanks. The plot thickens in that sync has now happened sucessfully and all my contacts from the Mac are on the iphone and viceversa (tho in two diffrent groups on the phone). So that's ok now - just have to de-dupe.


The story doesn't seem that strange to me having lived it...for the last 5 years I've had email contacts on entourage, addreses on a big fat Word document that I used for mail merge, and phone numbers on my old Nokia. I kind of half-heartdely started using Mac Address Book, but never worked out how to get it to talk to the other lists so it was wasn't very useful. Getting the phone was the nudge to bring all these things together. Which at last I kind of have.


The "no entry" sign is still there after the reinstall which I did using advice from this link http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/19535.html but it doesn't seem to be affecting things at all. Maybe a complete reinstall is the way forward.


Thanks for all your help!

Jan 15, 2012 10:03 AM in response to Patrick2012

You must NEVER, really NEVER apps, which are installed by the system installer. The AB database is not in the app itself though, therefore deleting the app does not delete the database. It is located at the user level in ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book. If you are in 10.5.8 as shown, you may see it there.

How did your reinstall the AB? There is no installer for it, it is within the system installer.

Your second problem is syncing, which is indeed connect to AB as well. Why did you delete the app, when you knwo it requires syncing with your iPhone?

Your third problem is that you do not have, I assume, regular backup of your data. If you had this, you would not have such problems. So choose a backup utility at your choice. If with system 10.5.8, I think you may still use Apple’s Backup, if not you may choose a 3rd party backup utility, there are several, check with macupdate.com. I may recommend iBackup of grapefruit.ch, but there are others too.

Jan 15, 2012 11:29 AM in response to Cattus Thraex

Thanks for the telling off! Though I think there's a word missing in your first sentence?


I deleted it about 5 years ago when I did not think I would have any use for it and before teh iPHone had even been invented. I did not know that deleting things like this was a NEVER NEVER. I reinstalled it follwing the advice on apple.com by using the "Custom Install" function on the Leopard system disk, and as explained, I have the database and contacts that were there when I deleted it. Not sure why you assume I do not back up my data - in fact I use Time Machine to back up everything. How do I proceed from here? It's all fine except for the syncing...

Jan 15, 2012 12:38 PM in response to Patrick2012

Correct, lapsus calami, add ‘delete’ so ‘NEVER delete’. Well, 5 years ago is something. I wonder what data you may have in Address Book if was deleted 5 years ago. I am afraid I do not understand many things in this story, among these: 1 if deleted 5 years ago, it means entries are five years old or older; 2. what address book have you been using meanwhile? none? 3. you discovered that you need AB when you purchased the iPhone, correct?

Frankly, this story is unique to me, and I do not think I can put things together so that I may reproduce your case. If you have a backup (5 years old? or what address book have you been using since then?). I do not think custom install adds Address Book in any Mac OS X, it adds various fonts, printer drivers and various other stuff, depending from model to model. My logical suggestion is to reinstall the system after a good backup, so that you have a clean, new system. And, again: never delete apps installed by the system installer, let them untouched, even if you do not use them.

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No entry sign on reinstalled Address Book

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