iCloud makes restoring a Contacts archive impossible???

Sign out of iCloud Contacts, restore the contacts, sign back in.

Mobile me had something called iDisk. iCloud does not, and only holds specific formats of data in the iWork section. It likely would not allow a contact archive to be saved there, as it does not support that format.

Time machine does not restore on a "group-by-group" basis, so I an unclear what you mean by this. To restore your contacts, you should be able to do the following:

- first on your computer, open up a finder window, then go to "go" in the top menu. With the "go" drop down showing, hold down your option key on your keyboard. This will make a "library" appear under your home in the Go drop down. Select the library. Leave this window open

- launch the time machine application

- navigate to a date and time when your contacts were in good shape on your computer

- in the finder window, navigate to your contact data (application support). Here you will see an "addressbook" folder. Select it, then click restore

Note - you many need to stop the iCloud contact sync while you do this

Apple does not require $20 to listen to your issue, however they will require $20 if you require assistance to fix your issue. Keep in mind, your local apple store will give 15 minutes of support for free, if you were to take your computer in.

I think you meant to reply to the OP.

Then you are no longer in need of help.

I think you need to disable iCloud contact syncing before the restore.

I found this article, it may help

- http://mathijskadijk.nl/post/28430596626/recover-lost-or-deleted-contacts-from-t he-address-book.

Maybe this will help.

ICloud - Calendar and Contacts Syncing – Advanced Troubleshooting

I use and have used the method regularly, it works just fine for me, but I am glad that you found a method.

Just needed to chip in here to express my great disappointment with this icloud contacts archive restore situation. I got my address book botched up by accidentally hitting "Add Sender to Contacts" in Mail, while I wanted to apply rules to all emails in the inbox. So I selected all messages, then wanted to apply rules, instead hit "Add Sender to Contacts". No warning. My brand new rMPB started the fan and a while later I had 1000 more contacts in my address book. Lots of duplicates. Etc. What a mess.

I tried getting the address book folder from the user library/application support in a time machine backup. I tried swapping the current folder with my time machine folder. When I open contacts (while offline!) everything looks dandy.

I then tried copying all contacts and groups to the "on my mac" section, hoping it would keep that there after getting back online. But no. Now my Address book had two sections called "icloud", despite only one mention of icloud in the internet accounts preferences. the "on my mac" dissappeared. and now I had 2 sets of all the contacts, old and new. -> instead of around 800 contacts I now had around 4000!

Great.

I'll try jacques4242's suggestion now.

what a mess I say again. Really hurts to see all the painstaking work of keeping a clean and functional address book with groups used for mailing lists, etc. and it getting all f***ed up so easily.

that's enough. thanks for reading :-)

One thing to add:

When re-importing the individual group vcf files, I found it saved me a bit of time, if I first created the group in contacts, and then dragg-and-dropped the vfc file right on the group name in contacts. (instead of grabbing the last import and copying into a new group)

So my preferred workflow was:

1. in finder window containing the vcf files of the contact group backups: hit enter on the next group to import. Hit CMD-C to copy the name

2. in the Contacts application: CMD-shift-N (for new group) followed by CMD-V to paste the name.

3. bring back finder window and drag the respectice vcf file into the newly created group in the contacts app

(3b to make it even faster: arrow down to next group vcf file in the finder window, hit enter and cmd-c to copy name of next group. -> jump from step 4. to step 2. from here on.)

4. in the contacts app click on import (or click enter).

and repeat until all groups are in.

And don't forget to make an export of "all contacts" too, and import them all too. not all of my contacts are in a group...

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This seemed to do the job. Thanks to you all for your suggestion!!!! Took me 2h, but I think I'm back in business.

btw. I'm on Mavericks 10.9.1 - so I guess I should be in a nother thread....

You can try to recover contacts from iCloud by re-syncing iCloud:

Open Settings and go to “iCloud”

Flip Contacts to OFF

Choose “Keep on My iPhone” when asked about what to do with previously synced contacts

Flip Contacts to ON

Choose “Merge” to merge existing contacts to those stored in iCloud

Head back to the Contacts (or Phone) app and check to see if the contact(s) that were deleted are back.