Restore failed...both Time M and icloud

[Phil in ocala]

For some unknown reason...my address book on my Mac running latest OS...is now empty...tried to restore with Time Machine...got "error"...then went to my iCloud and clicked restore address book....icloud says it was restored....yet there is still nothing in the address book...not a damn thing.
I think Time Machine is one of the worst Apps ever invented.

 

[chscag]

If you're running the latest version of OS X, you don't have an address book; you have a contacts.app. Open your contacts.app, keep it open, then open Time Machine and select restore. If the contacts were backed up, TM will restore them. It's also a good idea to keep a separate backup of your contacts. You can back them up (export) to a PDF file or a vcf file. Then if you lose your contacts for some reason, you can import them back and then sync them to your iPhone, iPad, etc.

 

[jasnw]

Do not depend on TM or iCloud for anything critical. They "just work" except when they don't, which for me has been on several occasions. Back up to an external drive anything you feel to be important to you at least weekly using something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, or even drag-and-drop or good old 'cp' from the Terminal. TM and iCloud are OK for "oops, I didn't mean to delete that" quick recovery, but they are just not dependable enough for cannot-afford-to-lose-it backups.

 

[Fishrrman]

I would like to second jasnw's post above.

OP:
I know this doesn't help you now, but advice for the future:

If you want a backup that works this time, next time, every time, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable cloned backup of your internal drive.

Either one will create an exact, BOOTABLE copy of your internal drive, with ALL YOUR FILES RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU, in "plain old finder format".

Just connect your backup (it will mount on the desktop), then you can copy one file, a bunch of files or folders, or even "re-clone" the entire drive back to your internal drive.

After a "re-clone", you will be EXACTLY where you were at the time of your last cloned backup.

CCC (or SD) is simple, easy to set up and use, and almost foolproof.
It's one of the finest pieces of Mac utility software out there.