Today MacFixIt carries one of those gut-wrenching horror stories from a reader that you read about from time to time:

Tonight, while cleaning up my address book to sync to the blackberry, I got the spinning ball of death, which resulted in having to restart the computer. When I did, address book was empty the next time I opened it. Database gone. Backup database gone.

Not long ago, a Hawk Wings reader experienced something similar after syncing his PowerBook with a Nokia 6682. Although he enjoyed the added bonus of a very puzzling exchange with Apple Tech Support following his wipe-out.

Of course, prevention is the best cure. That is to say, you can’t really lose what you have backed up. Back up your ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder often.

However, if you find yourself in a jam and the backup is not as up-to-date as it might be, there is still hope.

Address Book is smart. It keeps a little backup of its own in a AddressBook.data.previous file inside the directory mentioned above:

To restore it, all you need to do is quit Address Book, delete the dead AddressBook.data file and rename the backup to AddressBook.data. Whew! not apple mail, address book, data loss, recovery, deleted contacts, tips, backup, productivity

Even though there are a truckload of backup solutions for Apple Mail, ranging from Apple’s own Backup software to dedicated apps like Email Backup and many more, the statistics are damning.

During the keynote at WWDC this year, we learnt that only 25% of Mac users perform backups and only 4% of them do it in a fail-safe automated way.

So another option is always welcome.

Doug Blatti has written an applescript that will backup your Mail folder and Address Book quickly, neatly and conveniently.

All you have to do is launch it. It will prompt you to close Mail and Address Book if they are open and go about its business:

It took about 9 minutes to create a zipped up backup of my Mail and Address Book. The zip file ends up at 620.5MB, just right for burning off onto a CD-Rom with some room to spare. (See further, “How the delete key is your best friend”).

That’s great. There’s only one problem. You.

Remember Apple’s high hopes that Time Machine in Leopard will drastically increase the number of people who do backups? As I’ve suggested before, they are kidding themselves:

Will it work? I don’t think so. The current ability to automate backups with Backup 3.0 and the plethora of third-party automated backup options haven’t brought large numbers of users to the party. This won’t either. It’s not the technical ability that’s missing; it’s the personal habit.

The best solution is to automate it with iCal, so that you are set free to develop more interesting and enjoyable personal habits.

It’s easy. Create an all-day event in iCal and under the alarm option, set it to “Open file”. Navigate to wherever you saved MailBackup.app and select it.

Set it to run at a time when you don’t usually use Mail.

I’m setting it to 9 am because I am having great success with the theory that you shouldn’t open your email until an hour or two after you start work (see more on this in “Emailing to live, not living to email”).

That’s the time to stay in control of your own agenda and actually get some stuff done.

Burn the backup file to a CD-Rom and store it somewhere safe. (Did you hear the one about the guy who kept his backup CD in his laptop case? One day his bag was stolen and…)

Now you are free to enjoy your bad habits worry-free. Your emails and contact details are safe.

NB: This script does not backup your Apple Mail preferences file, com.apple.mail.plist, which lives in your ~/Library/Preferences folder. Is it important? Ask Tim Bray .

You can find some more backup apps in the Hawk Wings Plug-in and Add-on List and in the Related posts section below.mail.app, apple mail, backup, ical, applescript, data security, automation, address book

Email Backup and its shareware version Email Backup Pro have been updated.

The more fully-featured Email Backup Pro (shareware, USD 9.95) has improved restore functions, including the ability to restore backups made with the freeware version.

Also, you can now launch a restore by clicking on the backup file in Finder.

It now also supports GyazMail .

The freeware version (1.1.2) now quits the email client first in order to produce a more reliable backup.

You can read more about these simple backup utilities on the developer’s web pages for Email Backup and Email Backup Pro .mail.app, apple mail, email, thunderbird, entourage, eudora, gyazmail, backup

I’ve had three emails in as many days from people wondering how to set up automated archiving in Mail.app, so that messages older than a specific date are moved out of the app and into a separate folder.

Although some other email clients do this (I have a vague memory that Outlook used to ask me about this from time to time), Mail doesn’t.

The only solution I could think of revolved around creating a repeating event in iCal, say once a month, and setting it to run the Archive script from Andreas Amann’s Mail scripts which can export messages in standard mbox format.

But that’s not very automated. You still need to select the mailboxes to export and other bits and pieces.

I asked Andreas Amann who is gobsmackingly clever with AppleScript why this isn’t easier to achieve. He tells me:

The problem is that AppleScript Studio applications themselves are not scriptable so they don’t lend themselves to be run without user interaction. Since my archive script needs the user to select which mailboxes to archive as well as some options for the archive, this won’t work.

Another solution would be to create a rule and then apply that to selected message. However, since you can’t run rules via AppleScript either, this won’t work in an automated, non-interactive way either.

I guess people will have to look at some of the commercial offerings for this (I don’t know whether they support automated or timed archiving though…)

Any ideas? (Non-commercial solutions preferred)mail.app, apple mail, archiving, applescript, automated, backup, export, rules

Graeme Mathieson has produced a great tutorial on using Mail.app as an offline archive for Gmail, complete with step-by-step instructions on creating the rules to push emails into the right folders and screenshots.

He recently switched to using Google apps for your domain but like any prudent Scot wanted access to his email when he is not online and “a backup should something go wrong” (see further — “Gmail user gets kneecapped” and the Gmail “Black Hole treatment”).

Nice. mail.app, apple mail, gmail, google apps, backup, archive, rules, screenshots, email

Email Backup Pro is an easy to use backup utility for all the major Mac email clients: Apple Mail, Entourage x.V and 2004, Thunderbird, Eudora.

Its simple interface and “set-and-forget” features make it hard for a user to claim that creating a regular backup is too much hassle. (See an earlier, more extensive Hawk Wings review.)

There is only one new feature in the 1.1 release, but it’s a good one—support for multiple email clients:

Email Backup Pro costs USD 9.95 and a demo version (with scheduling disabled) is available from the developer’s web site .email, backup, restore, apple mail, mail.app, eudora, thunderbird, entourage

A Hawk Wings reader emailed me today with a depressing tale.

The Address Book had been wiped from her (or his) PowerBook, smartphone and .Mac account after syncing the Powerbook with a Nokia 6682, except for three contacts recently added through the new .Mac interface.

A rather weird email exchange with .Mac support followed, before a fix was found independently.

The names of the reader and the .Mac support person and the support ticket numbers have been removed.

The Hawk Wings reader contacted .Mac support:

Hello,

I recently sync’ed my .Mac account with my Address Book on my PowerBook G4, and all my contacts were erased, but for the three I had recently added via the .Mac website.

I can be contacted by email at Xxxxxxx@mac.com or by phone at x xxx xxx xxxx. Please let me know ASAP how to fix this, as this is a very, very serious problem, with heavy consequences for me.

Thank you
Xxxxx X Xxxxxxx

.Mac response:

Dear Xxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting Apple and the .Mac Support Team. Based on the information provided in your email, I understand that your Address Book contacts disappeared after syncing with .Mac.

I’m sorry to hear that some of your data is missing, but data lost through .Mac Sync cannot be recovered.

.Mac Syncing is not designed to back up data, such as Address Book contacts or Safari Bookmarks. I recommend using an application designed specifically for data backup, such as .Mac’s Backup.

Backup allows you to automatically save photos, family movies, your favorite music, and other important documents to your iDisk, a CD, a DVD, or an external hard disk. This will lessen the possibility of losing any important messages or data in the future.

You can also save your important files to CD, DVD, or other removable media using Mac OS X instead of Backup, as described in these articles:

Mac OS X: How to back up and restore your files

How to back up and restore your important Mac OS X 10.4 files

Sincerely,

Xxxxxxx
.Mac Support

Puzzled, another attempt is made:

Let me clarify: I know .Mac syncing is not design to back up data. But I don’t think it’s designed to erase it, is it?

I do not sync my Address Book with my .Mac account and my cell phone in order to back it up. I do it, just as most of your customers, in order to be able to use the same contact info on my Mac at home, on my PC at work and on my smartphone on the go.

This “glitch” has caused an extremely severe damage to the personal use I make of .Mac, as well as to my professional practice. That is why I very strongly encourage Apple to make sure this never happens again to me, or to any other .Mac subscriber. This is an advice I am giving both as a faithful Apple customer and as an attorney at law.

Should this happen again, not only would I lose any confidence in Apple’s .Mac service — I would also probably consider seeking reparation.

Cordially,
Xxxxxx X Xxxxxxx

.Mac Support replies:

Dear Xxxxxxx,

I apologize for any inconvenience that this issue might have caused. Based on the information in your latest email, it appears you might be using iSync rather than .Mac Sync.

I have forwarded your report to a .Mac Support specialist for assistance. After the matter has been investigated, a .Mac Support representative will respond to you with additional information.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience, and I appreciate your patience as we work to make your experience with .Mac more enjoyable.

Sincerely,

Xxxxxx
.Mac Support

Fortunately, the reader did not have to rely on .Mac support in the end.

The solution, using Address Book’s AddressBook.data.previous backup, emerged in a forum thread he started, basically following this macOSXHint tip for restoring lost contacts.

[Thanks, Xxxxxx]address book, .Mac, dotmac, syncing, backup, isync, support, erased, solution