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User profile for user: Daddy D
Daddy D Author
User level: Level 2
212 points

Trying to reload saved contacts file

I gave my old laptop to my wife, and deleted my calendar and contacts information in the mistaken belief that they were stored locally. But it appears that when I got my iPad, I sent that info to the Cloud, and when I deleted it from my old computer, I deleted it from the Cloud as well.


Not a big problem since I back-up religiously, but when I try to reload my contacts file (importing from .abbu file), the names and groups first appear, then disappear again leaving me with "No contacts."


I can probably recover the most important addresses from the "Previous Recipients" window in Mail, but I can't recover my groups, or any of the dormant contacts that I haven't written to in a while.


Any idea about what's happening or why? Any suggestions?


I believe that I upgraded to Mavericks after the last save of my contacts file. Could that be a factor?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Feb 22, 2014 12:48 AM

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13 replies
User profile for user: Barney-15E
Barney-15E
User level: Level 10
112,650 points

Feb 22, 2014 6:21 AM in response to Daddy D

Disable Contacts in iCloud prior to restoring the backup. Once it is installed and functional, re-enable iCloud contacts. It will ask if you want to merge them. Choose yes.


If that doesn't work, disable iCloud Contacts again, and close Contacts.

Ctrl-click on the abbu package and "Show Package Contents."

You'll see some folders and some files.

In another finder window, open the AddressBook folder which is in your user Library/Application Support/ folder.

If you don't see your user Library, hold down the Option Key and select Library from the Go menu in Finder.


In that folder, you'll see similar things.

In the AddressBook folder, delete everything except the MailRecents file (that is your previous recipients).

Copy the folders (only the folders, not the files) from the abbu package into your AddressBook folder.

Start Contacts and see if everything is back.


If it is, re-enable iCloud Contacts.

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User profile for user: Daddy D
Daddy D Author
User level: Level 2
212 points

Feb 23, 2014 2:08 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney --


You wrote, "disable iCloud Contacts." I went into System Preferences, iCloud, and unchecked "Contacts." Was that correct?


If so, then your fix didn't work. The behavior was exactly the same: I saw all my contacts and groups for about 2-3 seconds, then they disappeared.


As a side note, there were 3 files in the AddressBook folder that started with "MailRecents." I just kept the one without a suffix if that is relevant.

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User profile for user: Barney-15E
Barney-15E
User level: Level 10
112,650 points

Feb 23, 2014 6:29 PM in response to Daddy D

Ok, try this. Keep iCloud Contacts disabled and clear out the AddressBook folder of everything except the MailRecents files (you can leave them all--deleting the other things doesn't hurt as they get rebuilt, but those aren't the problem).


Start contacts and see if you can add some contacts manually. If that works through log out and log back in, see if you can then restore the backup by double-clicking it.

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User profile for user: Daddy D
Daddy D Author
User level: Level 2
212 points

Mar 4, 2014 11:35 PM in response to Barney-15E

Barney -- this is really weird. I tried what you suggested without success.


I deleted my iCloud account from both my Mac and my iPad. I then reloaded my calendar and my contacts from my back-ups. Everything fine so far.


I re-added my account on my Mac. Okay so far. Contacts and calendar info still there. However, System Preferences would not allow me to check the box next to "calendar."


I re-added my account on my iPad. No calendar info, but that didn't surprise me because the calendar wouldn't connect from my Mac.


But the Contacts on the iPad included ONLY those contacts that I had added from the previous recipients window. None of the contacts that had come from my previous back-up were there. So I tried unchecking the box in System Preferences. All of my contacts disappeared from my Mac. None disappeared from my iPad.


So at this point, my iPad becomes a games machine. I can't get my contacts to it. I can't my calendar to it. Email is no good without my contacts.

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User profile for user: Barney-15E
Barney-15E
User level: Level 10
112,650 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:42 AM in response to Daddy D

When you restore the contacts to the Mac, do they go into the iCoud account or are they in the local, "On My Mac" account?


After having restored the contacts, do they show up on the iCloud web site?

Then, when you disable Contacts on the Mac, are they still in iCloud?


Also, try getting one system working with iCloud at a time. If you can get the Mac to work without issue, then maybe it is the iPad that is causing the problems.


Also, is your iCloud account removed from your old laptop?

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User profile for user: Daddy D
Daddy D Author
User level: Level 2
212 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:57 AM in response to Barney-15E

iCloud account had been set to inactive on the old MPB. It is now removed from there. I had removed it from the iPad, but restored it when I thought things were working. I've now deleted it again.


The calendar events are visible on the iCloud website.


I tried something from long ago: exported individual calendars, the re-imported them one-by-one. That seems to have worked, although I had to force-quit Calendar twice when it was merging calendars and upgrading calendars.


Contacts are still a mess with some on iCloud but not all. I'm going to post a question to the Address Book group.


Thanks for your help.

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Trying to reload saved contacts file

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