Switching over from older MacBook to iMac

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Hi all,

I'm upgrading my computer from a very old MacBook (12 years old) to a somewhat newer iMac. I'm running Sierra (Mac OS 10.12.6) on this (new to me) iMac. I'm in the process of bringing over all my files and data from my older MacBook to the newer iMac. It seems after 12 years of use that there is a lot of chaos and disorganization on my old MacBook, especially with contacts (or address book) and bookmarks. I have not had good luck using Migration Assistant so that's out for now.

I'd like to integrate all my contacts. I have three different sources: 1) Address book from my MacBook which I've already successfully copied to the iMac's contacts, 2) my Gmail account has it's own contacts as well as 3) my Hotmail account (now Outlook) does also. Many of these contacts files have the same or incomplete info. For example, one might have a name and a phone number, the next might have the name and email address while another might have a mailing address or all of the above. How do I integrate all these without having a few hundred duplicate files to deal with? In a perfect world, I'd like each name to have all the info stored and integrated in all of the three contacts files.

Obviously, I can do this manually but isn't this why we have computers in the first place?

Thanks for your help and suggestions,

Bob M.
 
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Obviously, I can do this manually but isn't this why we have computers in the first place?


I don't know if it will help you in your situation, especially with multiple address books, but most address books and especially macOS X Contacts.app have an option to search for duplicates and then for any found duplicates, you have a choice whether you want to merge them or not and end up with all data from duplicate cards on one card.

You may still end up doing a bit of manual editing, but usually pretty easy.





- Patrick
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chscag

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You're probably going to wind up doing it manually anyway, but you might try exporting the contacts from Gmail and Outlook to vCard format and combine that with the vCard output from your old MacBook. And while you're doing all this "modernizing" you might want to start learning about using iCloud. ;D
 
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In System Preferences > Internet Accounts, you can sign into those email accounts, and you will have the option to sync their included address books and their Mail if you want to.
 
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In System Preferences > Internet Accounts, you can sign into those email accounts, and you will have the option to sync their included address books and their Mail if you want to.



Well, that's sure a nice feature Bob, and I didn't realize one could do that from there.





- Patrick
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Yes, I didn't have the ability to use iCloud on my on my last computer as it was too old so I'll have to look into it. I'm not sure what iCloud can do for me. I'm nervous about storing my files on someone else's computer and I'm not sure I'll ever fill up this machine anyway.

Now, having said that, is there some mysterious iCloud feature that can merge contacts files better than other conventional means?

Thanks for your replies and answers,

Bob M.
 

chscag

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Now, having said that, is there some mysterious iCloud feature that can merge contacts files better than other conventional means?

Read what Bob F. wrote in post #4. The syncing he's referring to uses that feature. (iCloud)
 
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I'd like to integrate all my contacts. I have three different sources: 1) Address book from my MacBook which I've already successfully copied to the iMac's contacts, 2) my Gmail account has it's own contacts as well as 3) my Hotmail account (now Outlook) does also. Many of these contacts files have the same or incomplete info.


Do all of these various sources have an option to export the address and data etc.

If so, then use your Contacts.app to import all of them, and then use the Contents.app to search for duplicates and merge the data.

Just a tought to maybe get them all together and sorted that might work...





- Patrick
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