How can I restore deleted contacts from Address Book, Mac OS X?

OK, so I'm in quite a dilemma...

I recently got a Motorola Droid, and have synced my contacts from Address Book with Google, in order for the Droid to get them, which it did. I have also got these contacts on my iPhone 3G S. Now, I deleted some contacts off my Droid, recovered some but some are missing... They have been removed from my Address Book too! I have read about a file that you recover called Addressbook.aba but I cannot find this. My lost contacts are on my iPhone, but when I sync it does not bring them up in Address Book changes.

Any help would really be appreciated.

Yours sincerely
Ari

Connect the iPhone to your Mac, click Address Book on the sync contacts options, and they get transferred when you sync.
It's a 2way sync.
Back up onto an external drive before you do this.
In future, keep an external backup with time machine, and even another one with a clone using CCC or SuperDuper so you don't run into problems like this again.
Also see this article Overview of syncing iPhone or iPod touch with your computer

Just remember, backups are essential!

6string said:

Connect the iPhone to your Mac, click Address Book on the sync contacts options, and they get transferred when you sync.
It's a 2way sync.
Back up onto an external drive before you do this.
In future, keep an external backup with time machine, and even another one with a clone using CCC or SuperDuper so you don't run into problems like this again.
Also see this article Overview of syncing iPhone or iPod touch with your computer

Just remember, backups are essential!

Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm lucky it was only +-5 contacts, redid them quick quick...

Yeah, I backed Address Book up this morning, so hopefully I'll be fine. Thank you very much

There is a seeming little known feature that will let you archive your address book, iCal and maybe other software (I think itis in iTunes as well) to eliminate problems like this. Go to File>Export>Arvchive (I think that is the correct wording, not at the mac right now). I have created folders for my iCal and my Address book archives and keep them there. If anything goes wrong, I can simply import a known good file back. I discovered this when I discovered that when I sync my blackberry, sometimes things get duplicated or corrupted. So, before I sync, I always make an archive so I can always go back.

This is not to say you should not back up as 6string stated -- you most assuredly should. But it is a quick and easy way to archive your data.

address book lost all contacts when syncing.

I was syncing my iPhone to my MacBook Pro when an error message came up now I have lost all of my addresses and phone numbers. I went into my library dragged this AddressBook-v22.abcddb to my desktop and it still says no new addresses added.

I hope someone has an idea to restore my contacts. Also mobile me has been erasing files on my iCal so is there a glitch in Apples mobile me program. I feel like it has caused more problems so I have stopped using it.

Problem Fixed

edv said:

I was syncing my iPhone to my MacBook Pro when an error message came up now I have lost all of my addresses and phone numbers. I went into my library dragged this AddressBook-v22.abcddb to my desktop and it still says no new addresses added.

I hope someone has an idea to restore my contacts. Also mobile me has been erasing files on my iCal so is there a glitch in Apples mobile me program. I feel like it has caused more problems so I have stopped using it.

Click to expand...

After calling Apple support and paying for the $250.00 for the tech support on my MacBook Pro that I bought a few month ago so they could help me with my problem. After being passed around I looked at my desk and I had a USB memory card I used for backing up my old Mac so I tried it and all my addresses plus phone numbers are back. No using mobile me and I must back up my files every week to avoid this again. The only answer is to backup files to avoid any more problems like this

edv said:

After calling Apple support and paying for the $250.00 for the tech support on my MacBook Pro that I bought a few month ago so they could help me with my problem. After being passed around I looked at my desk and I had a USB memory card I used for backing up my old Mac so I tried it and all my addresses plus phone numbers are back. No using mobile me and I must back up my files every week to avoid this again. The only answer is to backup files to avoid any more problems like this

Click to expand...

That is utterly ridiculous and a rippoff too.
I have a MacBook Pro, running Lion and an iPhone 4 S.
Each time I sync my address book half of my contacts are thrown out and the other half is doubled, both on my phone and on my Mac. The IQ of this process is obviously in the idiot-range.

So I copy by hand my adresses from Outlook for Mac. Sometimes I can't and am told Outlook is not linked to a standard identity. What the **** is that. I never found an option to tell the system utlook is mine and is my primary mailprogramm. Why?
Is Apple trying to force their "me"-mail-programm on me??
All very annoying and I'm certinly not going to pay $ 250 not to get my problems fixed.

drflip said:

Sometimes I can't and am told Outlook is not linked to a standard identity. What the **** is that.

Click to expand...

It's a Microsoft error. Nothing to do with Apple at all, and thus the following statement looks foolish and paranoid.

Is Apple trying to force their "me"-mail-programm on me??

Click to expand...