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, productivitySimilar Posts:

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