How to transfer Address Book 10.4 to Contacts 10.8?

Question

Level 1

0 points

How to transfer Address Book 10.4 to Contacts 10.8?

I recently upgraded from a prehistoric iBook G4 running 10.4.11 to a MacBook Pro Retina running 10.8.2. Is there any way to transfer my old Address Book data into the new Contacts application that replaced Address Book? I have over 500 cards, many with ample notes I definitely want to keep. It would take me the rest of the year to re-key all this information. Ouch!

I've already tried exporting vCards and all the cards and phone numbers show up in Contacts 10.8.2, but all the notes at the bottom of each card are missing! AppleCare tells me that 10.4 to 10.8 is too big of a jump. They also say that 10.7 was the last OS to use Address Book. What if I find a mac with 10.7, drag my old address book into that library, and export a 10.7 version of vCards? Or is there an easier way?

Surely Apple provided a clean way to convert Address Book to Contacts???

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Posted on Feb 6, 2013 10:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,752 points

Feb 7, 2013 4:38 AM in response to kargadan

I don't believe 10.8 will auto-convert from the 10.4 version.

If 10.7 will convert it, then you wouldn't need to export, just copy the contents of your user/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder over to the 10.8 Mac (same folder). It will auto-convert it again.

Not sure if it will lose the notes, also.

Surely Apple provided a clean way to convert Address Book to Contacts???

They did, when you follow the normal upgrade path, or even get close. Supporting 4 OS's back seems a bit of a waste of resources.

Reply

Answer 2

kargadan Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 8, 2013 8:42 PM in response to Barney-15E

Problem solved. The solution was breathtakingly simple. And none of the experts had a clue...

After spending untold mindnumbing hours with AppleCare's Level 1 techs and Sr. Advisors, I consulted a real "senior" advisor: my own dad.

Dad (turning 79 this summer) happens to use a MacBook Pro and likes to research things. After getting an earful of my woes and snooping around a bit on his own, dad asked me if I had checked the appropriate box in OS 10.4's Address Book preferences. Huh?

In Preferences, vCards, there's an "Export notes in vCards" box. For some dumb reason this is unchecked as the default. I checked it, exported the vCards and voila, all 500+ cards with all the notes intact imported without a hitch into Mountain Lion.

I can't fathom why no one at AppleCare knew about this (the notes/no notes default is basically the same in 10.8, so "we no longer support 10.4" is a lame excuse). They wasted my time with failed target disk migrations, root user transfer, and using my father's computer as an OS stepping stone, none of which worked, of course, since the crucial default hadn't been touched.

Lesson learned: Before you put your faith in "experts," ask dad...

Reply

Answer 3

Ziatron

Level 5

4,186 points

Nov 26, 2014 10:09 PM in response to kargadan

Hi,

I need to transfer my contacts from a Mac Pro running 10.9 to a MacBook running 10.7 (10.7 is newest it can run).

Anyone know how to do this?

Reply

Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,045 points

Nov 28, 2014 7:56 AM in response to Ziatron

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

Reply