import abbu file to address book, no contacts

Question

Level 1

8 points

import abbu file to address book, no contacts

Saw this has been a problem for at least 5 years. Apple still has not geared up to get it solved (too busy I guess making money off iphones and whatnot.)

Anyway, backed up my address book. Imported into my address book on another Mac. Surprise, surprise, no contacts.

So how does one get addresses from one address book on one Mac to another ... yea, yea iCloud but that is not the answer because Apple's address export/import function apparently does not work.

Any ideas out there?

Thank you.

MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Feb 8, 2016 12:12 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Feb 9, 2016 8:00 AM in response to riegal

Clarification question - did you export your contacts from the first computer and copy the file to the second computer?

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Answer 2

riegal Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 9, 2016 9:59 AM in response to Eric Root

I exported the file from the first computer and saved it to Google Drive. Then I downloaded it to the second computer and tried importing it. When that did not work, I exported the file from the first computer to a USB drive then tried importing directly from the USB and also tried copying the file to the second computer first then tried importing it. All three came up with the same results, nothing imported. Thank you.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 9, 2016 11:45 AM in response to riegal

Are the old Contacts still available on the other Mac?

If they are you can select them all & drag them to a folder on the Desktop, it will group them into one vCard (a common format for contacts). That vCard will import into many other apps, including Address Book/ Contacts.

The address book archive will also keep groups, so that is the preferred way to move them if you want everything.

What versions are you moving between?

NOTE: The 'Contacts.abbu' backup is actually folder, so you have to take care in how you transfer it (e.g. email can make a mess of it unless you zip it up first). I'm not sure about Google drive - it is probably kept on Linux formatted volumes, which may not preserve some Mac file system metadata.

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Answer 4

riegal Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 9, 2016 11:47 AM in response to Drew Reece

The old contacts are still available, I have learned with Apple, do not ever (ever!) delete anything until you are absolutely sure it works.

Yea, the drag & drop worked perfectly. Thanks! It did not keep groups, but that is okay.

I am using the same version operating systems for both Macs so I am not sure what is going on there. My wife imported the same contacts I sent her via Dropbox and it worked great. So really, I am not sure what is going on there.

Thanks again.

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