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Lost All Contacts! but OK, I have a backup...but...

RAMtheSSD

RAMtheSSD

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 23, 2013
121
20
High on a Mountain Looking for Wisdom
Every time I try to use the backup, all the contacts disappear as soon as I connect to the internet and the exported backup seems to always be empty even if the contacts book was not at the time of the export.

What I have done up to now:

1. opened my backup image
2. Copied the contents of ~/library/ApplicationSupport/AddressBook to a folder on the desktop
3. Deleted the contents of the same file in the current install, emptied the trash, and pasted the files from the image
4. opened contacts -all contacts are there
5. Exported the contents
6. connected to the internet
7. Everything is gone again!!

I have a MacPro and an iPhone 4s. The MP is in one place and I am in another so I can't turn it off but the phone is currently turned off.

This would work if it weren't for the constant erasing. Worse case scenario, I would have to upload individual vcards to icloud as it will not take the exported file (which oddly enough, shows over 2mb of contents)

anyone have any ideas as to how to prevent icloud from erasing everything?
 
r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
RAMtheSSD said:
Every time I try to use the backup, all the contacts disappear as soon as I connect to the internet and the exported backup seems to always be empty even if the contacts book was not at the time of the export.

What I have done up to now:

1. opened my backup image
2. Copied the contents of ~/library/ApplicationSupport/AddressBook to a folder on the desktop
3. Deleted the contents of the same file in the current install, emptied the trash, and pasted the files from the image
4. opened contacts -all contacts are there
5. Exported the contents
6. connected to the internet
7. Everything is gone again!!

I have a MacPro and an iPhone 4s. The MP is in one place and I am in another so I can't turn it off but the phone is currently turned off.

This would work if it weren't for the constant erasing. Worse case scenario, I would have to upload individual vcards to icloud as it will not take the exported file (which oddly enough, shows over 2mb of contents)

anyone have any ideas as to how to prevent icloud from erasing everything?
Click to expand...

Here is my suggestion:

1 - turn off icloud sync of contacts on both your phone and your Mac
2 - import contacts into address book.
3 - verify that they stay there and that they don't disappear
4 - back up address book to a local file using menus in address book

This gets you to the point you have a good address book on your Mac.
I haven't successfully did an "overwrite iphone" sync using iCloud, but I found a thread here at MR from someone who did... https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17199791/

Basically he wiped the contacts on his phone then allowed sync and everything came back over from his mac.

I had some troubles back when I had a Blackberry and I remember running isync and resetting sync services. I think those techniques were all pre-icloud so perhaps a call to Apple could get you a quicker fix. I also took a look at icloud.com to see if there was any help there. I didn't find any but I would hope you have some iThing that is still enrolled in free Applecare support.
 
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