All contacts in Contacts app gone

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Level 1

49 points

All contacts in Contacts app gone

I had all contacts synced to my iPhone and MacPro (tower) but somehow all contacts on my MacBook Pro have suddenly disappeared. Trying to understand how any intuitive app would DELETE DATA without a prompt. I'm guessing its an iCloud issue but when I select Import I don't know where to find my synced contacts. I tried iCloud drive, but nothing there.

I know this is basic, and probably due to pilot error. But Apple OS used to help users AVOID mistakes.

Suggestions appreciated -thanks!

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Proc: 2 Ghz Intel Core i7 Ram: 8Gb

Posted on Sep 5, 2016 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,070 points

Sep 5, 2016 12:57 PM in response to JazzJunkie

From your Mac log out of iCloud and back in again

>System Preferences>icloud

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Answer 2

JazzJunkie Author

Level 1

49 points

Sep 5, 2016 1:54 PM in response to JazzJunkie

Thanks! That led me to the error . . .

Sadly, my ignorance of the current OS is even worse - somehow email/contacts simply were not enabled in iCloud. I never disabled them, perhaps that was default when I upgraded to El Cap.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,293 points

Sep 5, 2016 1:55 PM in response to JazzJunkie

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library/Application Support/AddressBook. Move the 3 AddressBook V-22 files to your Desktop

Restart the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the files from the desktop.

If the same, return the files to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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Answer 4

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,070 points

Sep 5, 2016 3:00 PM in response to JazzJunkie

Simpler yet, just restore your contacts from a Time Machine or Boot clone.

If TM is turned on you have local snapshots.

see reference: How to create a boot clone

I do know with Verizon I have a "backup contacts" app to their cloud as well. Maybe you do too.

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