Address Book confusion

Question

Address Book confusion

I have an old (2007) MBP. Though it was dead but I've got it working again. I installed OSX 10.5.8 on it a few days ago... My new address book has only two contacts in it: mine and Apple's. My old address book had 700-900 contacts. If I look in HD>Applications>Address Book it appears the Address Book is large, 53MB. If I look in HD>Previous Systems>Applications>Address Book it appears the Address Book is small (5.1MB) I suspect the new address book cannot find contacts from the old Address book. I've run into this before and cannot remember the solution. Do I need to move something from one folder to another? Anyone have any ideas or advice? Thanks, in advance.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Old MBP (2007)

Posted on Jul 7, 2012 8:03 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,063 points

Jul 7, 2012 8:53 PM in response to somewhitechick1

Hello, It is not reading the one in Previous systems, but possibly if you quit AB, Nail, Safari, & iCal then move the bigger one to replace the older one, then assuming no Permission problems on the newer/lder replacemrnt it'll read them.

The important files/folders for AB, whether in old or new are...

For Address Book, quit AB...

Files...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist

Folders...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/

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Answer 2

Jul 8, 2012 6:24 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks, BD Aqua. Much appreciated. Thanks for the response. I'm still confused though. (Sorry.) Not sure what files I need to move and/or delete.

In the NEW system, if I go to:

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist (it's only 4 KB)

and...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist (again 4KB)

If I go into Previous System//Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist (still only 4 KB)

and Previous System//Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist (also just 4 KB)

NEW System:

Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/

that contains:

AddressBook-v22.abcddb

Folder called "Images"

MailRecents-v4.abcdmr

Folder called Metadata

(These files and folders are all very small.)

NEW System:

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/

I see the Address Book folder but it has no contents.

PREVIOUS system:

Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/

I find many files and folders...over 18MB.

PREVIOUS system:

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBook/

a few small straggler files...nothing much.

So...should I simply move the contents of

PREVIOUS system/Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/ to the exact same place in the NEW System folder?

And finally, is there an easier way to do this? Should I have done something different when I installed the new OSX? I'm thinking I should have done something when I installed -- to move my old AB to the new system -- but I was an idiot and did it in a hurry. Bad me!

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,063 points

Jul 8, 2012 7:17 PM in response to somewhitechick1

PREVIOUS system:

Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/

I find many files and folders...over 18MB.

Can you list those? I think that is what we need.

And finally, is there an easier way to do this? Should I have done something different when I installed the new OSX?

It seems you may not have selected Preserve Users & setting!???

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