Imported contacts disappear after about 5 seconds
I'm guessing this has to do with a bug in iCloud.
Before this import I created a backup by using Export -> Address Book Archive.
After importing about 1000 company-wide contacts into my Address Book, Address Book started behaving strangely. It was slow and fan was going at full speed. Next time I looked in Address Book I had 3000 contacts, then later 5000 contacts. I deleted them all, which eventually worked even though Address Book was extremely slow.
So, now I had no more contacts. My iPhone eventually synced as well. So, I then had no contacts in Address Book on my mac and neither on my iPhone.
Then I tried to import that archive again. It said, and I still get this whenever I try: "Are you sure you want to replace all of the contacts in your address book with the contacts in “Address Book - 01-23-2012.abbu”? If you click Replace All, the information in this Address Book archive completely replaces the information in your address book. You can't undo this action."
So I choose Replace All, and for 5 seconds my contacts reappear, and then disappear again.
When I look on iCloud.com there are no contacts. I have tried deleting all the files in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ as well as the preference files for Address Book in ~/Library/Preferences/
I have also tried shutting off iCloud Contacts on my desktop before doing the import, and sometimes it talks to iCloud nevertheless. I have run out of ideas...
Anyone got a clue what to do next?
Macbook alu, Mac OS X (10.7)