How to retrieve lost Address Book contacts?

[Tomlija]

Hi Guys!

I am just desperate. I synced my Nokia 6300 with Address Book and all about 450 contacts were transferred successfully. I used the iSync. In the meantime, I added some 50 more contacts to my cell phone Contacts and wanted to sync them with address book as well. So, I deleted all the existing 450 contacts from the Address Book on my Mac, hoping the next time I sync cellphone with computer, only the new 50 contacts will be transferred to Address Book. Here is what I ended up with: Address Book with only 50 new contacts and CELL PHONE with only 50 SAME contacts! All of the previous 450 contacts just disappeared from my cell phone! Just like that! I was wondering if there is any chance I can retrieve my contacts, it does not matter where to...either cell phone or Address Book on my Mac. Btw, I am using Leopard 10.5.8 and I have searched all over the web, everybody is mentioning some AddressBook.data.previous file but I cannot find it anywhere! I even created Automator ShowAllFiles Finder Plug in, the Addressbook.data.pevious just is not there.

Is there any hope for my contacts or should I try to do something?


ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Thank you so much in advance,
Matt

 

[miles01110]

You probably overwrote your AddressBook data when you synced the second time. Do you have a TM (or any kind of backup) image from after you synced the 450 contacts but before you synced the next 50?

 

[Tomlija]

You probably overwrote your AddressBook data when you synced the second time. Do you have a TM (or any kind of backup) image from after you synced the 450 contacts but before you synced the next 50?

Thank you for your quick reply, miles. No, I don't have time machine, miles. the thing is, I didn't overwrite data, first I deleted all the address book contacts hoping the iSync will transfer ALL of the contacts (new and old ones) at the same time. The worst of all is that I lost all of the contacts from my cell phone ((. Any ideas? Any hidden files, zips, folders where these contacts might be?

Thank you for your quick reply, miles. No, I don't have time machine, miles. the thing is, I didn't overwrite data, first I deleted all the address book contacts hoping the iSync will transfer ALL of the contacts (new and old ones) at the same time. The worst of all is that I lost all of the contacts from my cell phone ((. Any ideas? Any hidden files, zips, folders where these contacts might be?

btw, sorry for writing 'miles' two times

Hey, guys, does anybody have any idea where Mac native applications developers like iSync or Address Book gather. Maybe some forum or something?

Thank you!

 

[-aggie-]

There's really nothing you can do with Address Book or your iPhone. The sync is a two-way sync and it should've asked you if you wanted to merge contacts. You must have not clicked that. Anyway, your contacts are gone. Your ONLY hope is if you made a backup of your iPhone before this. If so, restore from backup, then sync again and you'll be back to where you were before you added the 50 contacts. Say merge when you sync this time. Also make a backup of the Address Book, at least.