Unable to restore contacts from time machine

[Buerkletucson]

Until it doesn't. You can't even back them up. Never let Apple be authoritative for anything you care about. Learned that the hard way.

Been using it just fine for over 10 years.......zero issues. Works beautifully.

You sure can download & back up everything on iCloud......you seriously need to do a little more research.
A lot of misinformation....

 

[novanut]

If you're in one of the TM versions of the AddressBook folder just "select all", copy, navigate to the present day version of the AddressBook folder and paste the older stuff there.

Thanks again,
When I use the 'shift command G' it takes me to the computer's address book and not the TM. Is there another way to access the address book in the TM?
Thanks.

 

[novanut]

Been using it just fine for over 10 years.......zero issues. Works beautifully.

You sure can download & back up everything on iCloud......you seriously need to do a little more research.
A lot of misinformation....

Thanks again for your input. I'll do more research.

 

[NoBoMac]

Been using it just fine for over 10 years.......zero issues. Works beautifully.

Ditto.

But just in case: I have an every two weeks reminder to create a Contacts archive (Contacts > File > Export > Contacts Archive...) and an ASCII backup (Select all Contacts, then Contacts > File > Export > Export vCard...; encrypt that file and copy to my cloud accounts) just in case everything goes wrong (read: Time Machine and iCloud are borked) and have something to import. vCard file is also convenient for moving to some other service (eg. Google Contacts reads vCards).

 

[novanut]

Well, it's taken me this long to finally find the 'restore' button but I'm now wondering if it's in my mailbox where the trouble began.

I noticed missing names when I would begin a new mail message. I'd have to go back to an older mail message, copy the name and paste it into the new mail message.

However, I did have a lot of names/email addresses stored in my contacts app that were suddenly gone, leaving only the one, my brother.

Maybe I have a bug? If so, how do I get rid of it?

As always Thanks for the input.