Contacts/Address Book

[chiss]

I have a ton of contacts on my iPhone and also in the address book on the MacBook Pro. I'd like to remove many of them but not necessarily delete them for good. Is TimeMachine the best course of action for this? Back up and then delete.
Any other ideas? Can I create a file of sorts and store them on iCloud just in case I ever want to contact any of these people? I'm looking for an easy method so I don't have to write all of it out and then save that file.
Thanks,
chris

 

[MacInWin]

You could right click on the names in Contacts and then Export them to a set of vCards and then delete them. You can select one at a time, or bunches to do that.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Are you using iCloud to keep the contacts up to sync? If so, you can export all the contacts directly out of iCloud with these instructions.

 

[Slydude]

I did something similar recently when I wanted to send a series of contacts to my wife's iPhone. The contacts were scattered throughout my address book so it would have been a bit of a pain to select them one by one since very few were contiguous with each other. I'm working on memory here but this should work for you. Do the following with Contacts open:

1. Find a card that you want to export and click Edit.
2. Add a descriptive word or phrase t the Notes field.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each card you need to export.

And then the magic happens (aka Smart Groups)

4. Select New Smart Group from the File menu
5. In the box that appears gee the group a descriptive name
6. Set the drop down to Note contains and enter your keyword or phrase.

From now on that group name shows in Contacts and you can click on it and export as either a PDF or vCard. For your purposes you'll want to use vCard.

Multiple keywords can be in the Notes field of each card as long as the keywords/phrases are separated by commas. This makes it possible for cards to be in multiple groups simultaneously for organizational purposes without having to have multiple cards for one person.

The comments field in iTunes/Music behaves the same way when creating Smart Playlists.

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[pm-r]

... ... ... Multiple keywords can be in the Notes field of each card as long as the keywords/phrases are separated by commas. This makes it possible for cards to be in multiple groups simultaneously for organizational purposes without having to have multiple cards for one person.

The comments field in iTunes/Music behaves the same way when creating Smart Playlists.

Smart solution Sly.





- Patrick
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[MacInWin]

If you want to avoid a step or two, as you go through the contacts, hold down CMD and click on the contacts you want to export. They don't need to be contiguous, so like any selection you can pick the ones you want. You can use the same approach to create a group from some of your contacts.

 

[Slydude]

Good point Jake. I couldn't remember for sure if that works or not. Amazing how often I forget to include shortcuts like that.

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[MacInWin]

Sly, you have to learn to be lazy, like me. My dad always told me to hire a smart, lazy, honest man whenever I could. Honest so that he would do the job, lazy so he would find the easiest way and smart to be able to know when not to take shortcuts. I've followed that advice and it's never led me astray. So, learn to be lazy!

 

[Slydude]

OMG I love that.Definitely got to remember that one.


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[Sawday]

I have a ton of contacts on my iPhone and also in the address book on the MacBook Pro. I'd like to remove many of them but not necessarily delete them for good. Is TimeMachine the best course of action for this? Back up and then delete.
Any other ideas? Can I create a file of sorts and store them on iCloud just in case I ever want to contact any of these people? I'm looking for an easy method so I don't have to write all of it out and then save that file.
Thanks,
chris

To answer your specific question, no, time machine is NOT the best course of action. In time, as you add files, and thus to your TM backup, older TM backups will automatically be deleted to make space for them. Sure they will be there for a week or two, months or even years butas soon as you want to retrieve them they will have gone. Guaranteed.

 

[chiss]

Wow, I'm so appreciative for all the help. Unfortunately I'm a techno-dino so I can only ask questions and can't really offer much knowledge on the forum. Thanks for the replies. I'll put them to good use.
chris

 

[pm-r]

Wow, I'm so appreciative for all the help. Unfortunately I'm a techno-dino so I can only ask questions and can't really offer much knowledge on the forum. Thanks for the replies. I'll put them to good use.chris

This site is such a success because of folks like yourself and the questions that are asked as most of us can gain some knowledge from the answers provided regardless of our Mac experience and knowledge.

So thanks to you and members like yourself, keep asking Mac-related questions.






- Patrick
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