Restoring AddressBook data?

Help!

AddressBook on my iMac has lost all its data (or its ability to see it). I'm desperate. Has anyone any suggestions as to how to get it back? There is a file called 'AddressBook data' in the Application Support folder, but the programme doesn't seem to be able to access it. Many thanks if anyone can help.

Do you have backups? Time Machine?

Hi,

I did find an early backup (alas, from two years ago) on a separate hard drive - when I copied the .data file into the AddressBook folder, all that early information came back. But as that file was 1.3 MB and the remains of the .data file that was in use up to yesterday only contained 24 KB, I think that everything from 2007-2008 has been lost from there.

I don't know Time Machine - it sounds appealing (not just for finding lost computer data!) How does it work? Does it find otherwise hidden caches? And where can I get it if it may be of use?

Many thanks!

Well unless someone else has an idea of how to fix your existing Address Book database, then you are stuck with the old backup you have. And lesson be learned... do regular backups!

This is something that the Time Machine excels at. It's the backup software that is part of Leopard. It keeps hourly backups for a day, daily backups for a week, weeklies for a year, etc etc. I cannot begin to emphasize how useful this backup system is. And it's insanely easy to use.