contacts.app vs. address book.app

[djsound]

I am trying to copy over my contacts from Contacts.app on my new imac to my old imac which has address book.app on lion. for some reason when i import the .abbu file it does not import anything. Anyone know why? I imports fine to mountain lion with contacts.app.

 

[robgendreau]

Might be that the new file format for Contacts doesn't work with the old Address Book. Generally new file formats don't work with older software, but going the other way is fine.

 

[Weaselboy]

I am trying to copy over my contacts from Contacts.app on my new imac to my old imac which has address book.app on lion. for some reason when i import the .abbu file it does not import anything. Anyone know why? I imports fine to mountain lion with contacts.app.

Are using iCloud by any chance? If you are, importing .abbu files does not work. If you watch closely you will see the contacts do get imported, then immediately deleted by iCloud.

Go back to the old machine and do a command-a to select all the messages, then in the export menu select the top option to export as a .VCF file. That will import into Contacts with iCloud on the new machine without issue.

If you are not using iCloud, ignore everything I just said.

 

[Mal]

Are using iCloud by any chance? If you are, importing .abbu files does not work. If you watch closely you will see the contacts do get imported, then immediately deleted by iCloud.

Go back to the old machine and do a command-a to select all the messages, then in the export menu select the top option to export as a .VCF file. That will import into Contacts with iCloud on without issue.

If you are not using iCloud, ignore everything I just said.

Actually, the same tip is probably correct, if I read correctly. The new Contacts.app in Mountain Lion probably has made some changes to the .abbu format, which means when the file is opened on the old Mac, it doesn't read the data properly. Exporting from the new machine as a VCard file should work properly, although you'll have to do groups individually (or recreate them afterwards).

jW

 

[Weaselboy]

Actually, the same tip is probably correct, if I read correctly. The new Contacts.app in Mountain Lion probably has made some changes to the .abbu format, which means when the file is opened on the old Mac, it doesn't read the data properly. Exporting from the new machine as a VCard file should work properly, although you'll have to do groups individually (or recreate them afterwards).

jW

I don't believe so. I was helping someone with a similar issue in another thread the other day and they were able to move .abbu from Lion to ML.

 

[Mal]

I don't believe so. I was helping someone with a similar issue in another thread the other day and they were able to move .abbu from Lion to ML.

If I'm reading the OP correctly, though, they're going the opposite direction. Of course a Lion .abbu file would be useable in Mountain Lion, but it may not work in reverse, particularly if it's further back. If they're transferring contacts from their new Mountain Lion computer to a computer running Tiger, I can definitely see it not working, but a VCard file should work fine.

jW

 

[Weaselboy]

If I'm reading the OP correctly, though, they're going the opposite direction. Of course a Lion .abbu file would be useable in Mountain Lion, but it may not work in reverse, particularly if it's further back. If they're transferring contacts from their new Mountain Lion computer to a computer running Tiger, I can definitely see it not working, but a VCard file should work fine.

jW

Ah.... I missed that. Could be.