User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
102 points

merging or exporting PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS databases??

i am having a battle with the Previous Recipients databases on my mac pro and my macbook pro. i am using icloud but i gather there is no syncability for this and i am wondering how folks manage these beasties.


i would like to add them to my CONTACTS in a GROUP so that they are not all dumped into Contacts willy nilly and i would also love to find a way that an existing contact with the same first and last name was able to accept the new email from the Previous Recipient being added instead of creating a whole new contact which i then have to manually sort.


i would also love a way to add the contact in a way that does not require my sorting it into a group after the fact.


ALSO, if i have the same Previous recipient on the databases on my laptop and on my desktop do i basically have to add it on both (so that it shows up as being added) and then delete the second version from Contacts so i don't have two? I MEAN isn't it going to be a /nightmare/ to maintain this database if i add everyone that i want on each of these machines (make them available to all my devices) and then two months down the road i have to add more Previous recipients who show up on both of my computers? this is going to be "add - add - and delete one" ad infinitum, no?


am i missing anything that will simplify this for me?


TIA!


merging or exporting PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS databases??

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1), with 64 bit Win7 Boot Camp | iCloud

Posted on Dec 27, 2012 11:14 AM

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20 replies
User profile for user: Barney-15E
Barney-15E
User level: Level 10
122,126 points

Dec 28, 2012 1:26 PM in response to hotwheels22

i mean, i keep asking this question and no one seems to have figured out how to use this functionality in a way that makes sense - basically because it is a very unintelligent database/functionality at the moment.


and there is no way to give feedback on it that i am aware of...

Likely because you (and very few others) are trying to make use of it.

I put contacts in my contacts. I don't depend on Previous Recipients to do that for me. It has the capability to add a contact if I wanted, but never have.


http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html


If you want to dump the previous recipients to a comma separated values (csv) file, copy and past this into a text document and save it to the Desktop with a name such as DumpMailRecents.sql


.mode csv
.output "Desktop/PreviousRecipients.csv"

SELECT DISTINCT
          ZFIRSTNAME, ZLASTNAME, ZEMAILNORMALIZED
FROM
          ZABCDMAILRECENT r JOIN
          ZABCDLASTEMAILDATE l ON r.Z_PK = l.ZMAILRECENT
ORDER BY l.ZDATE DESC;


Open Terminal and copy/paste this into the window and hit return.

sqlite3 Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr

At the sqlite> prompt, copy/paste this into the line and hit return. If you chose a different name, modify it as such:

.read Desktop/DumpMailRecents.sql

If it completes without error, you will have a file called PreviousRecipients.csv on your Desktop.

You can edit that with any text editor or spreadsheet, then import into Contacts.

I sorted it by most recently used email address.


Type .quit at the prompt to exit sqlite3.

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User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
102 points

Dec 28, 2012 1:57 PM in response to Barney-15E

hi barney. thanks.


i didn't know to add comments to the OS X section but that makes sense. thanks.


yeah, so - well i had someone that was kind enough to write a script that would basically dump all my Previous Recipients into a Group in Contacts so i could get them to autocomplete on all my devices. but this was a real cluster for a number of the reasons described above, not the least of which was that i had multiple duplicates but also that i had the original Last Name First Name entry and then (oftentimes two) First Name Last Name entries. this was uber confusing.


i /can/ see how exporting this file to a csv would be very helpful - particularly i suppose if i could do this on both my devices and then /merge/ the two files.


and - well mind you i am still trying to work this out but the nice thing about doing this through the Previous Recipients database is that i /know/ when something has been added (by the little mark next to it) so i don't have to add it again.


anyway, i will add commentary to mac and keep my fingers crossed on help on this or other threads. i can't see how they could have overlooked this as it seems like such an obvious functionality (even say at a minimum having my email addresses autocomplete on my iphone) and also since it is in fact there, it would be great if it worked decently.


anwyay, thank you.


i must say that i was laughing a bit to myself about all the new social media integration in Mountain Lion. i personally could do without a lot of it and overlooking such a simple functionality as getting emails to my various devices like i can get contacts to my various devices - or, say spending some time getting Mail preferences and settings sync or be portable to my various devices would save me a TON-O-TIME...


a demain.


- jon

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User profile for user: hotwheels22
hotwheels22 Author
User level: Level 1
102 points

Dec 28, 2012 3:37 PM in response to Csound1

hi CS. thanks.this is what i am doing.


i think the two things that are going to prove problematic are that i am not finding a way to get the contacts to get added from Previous Recipients (on the MBP or the Mac Pro) in a consistent manner that lets them come in so that the first and last names are in the right section in Contacts. i have tried a number of different ways to do this and i cannot figure out if this is a setting in Mail and if so /where/ it is. right now this does not work and it is a major pita.


second, these two databases need to be maintained independently (apparently) and it would be great to find a way to do this (somehow) with a one time effort. what i mean to say is now that i have ADDED contacts from each of these databases (one on the MBP and one on the Mac Pro), everything including the contacts that show up in each of these have been added to Contacts. this necessitated at the very least that i delete the second one that was added.


in the current scenario, if i /don't/ add the contact from each database (say i delete it) they will continue to get repopulated in the database and there will be no way to keep track of what has been added or not added. the simplest way - at least to start - appears to have been to add everything that i need added, delete the random support email addresses and then DELETE the second one from contacts. but if there is a way to avoid this in some way in the future it would be fantastic.


1. first name last name order

2. managing in some way to handle the two databases together instead of independently in a way that doesn't cause contacts to get repopulated in the database or that causes them to get re-added to contacts.


i'll post a link to this thread to the support forum.


THANKS

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merging or exporting PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS databases??

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