Address Book data disappears -- potential fixes

Some users have reported an issue where data in Apple's Address Book suddenly disappears, usually after an unexpected quit of the application.

MacFixIt reader Steven Quill offers a case example:

"Tonight, while cleaning up my address book to sync to the blackberry, I got the spinning ball of death, which resulted in having to restart the computer. When I did, address book was empty the next time I opened it. Database gone. Backup database gone."

Prevention The first step in preventing this issue from happening is a simple backup of your Address Book data. Manually, or using a backup program, copy the file: AddressBook.data (the database that holds your contacts) located in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook to another area of your startup drive, removable media, or another backup destination. In case of apparent data loss, just copy the backed up file back to this location. Alternatively, you can simply use the "Back up Address Book..." option under the "File" menu in Address Book.

Retrieving In some cases of data loss, Address Book will maintain a copy of the intact data in a file called AddressBook.data.previous also in the directory ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook. If you've lost your data completely and want to try restoring from this file, delete the file AddressBook.data from the same directory, then change the name of AddressBook.data.previous to AddressBook.data, in effect replacing it.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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