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macsfromnowon · Dec 23, 2005, 03:12 PM

So I wake up my PB this morning, go to mail, and find the address I'm typing NOT being auto-completed. I go to check on it in address book (which had still been open from night before), and find it EMPTY!!!

Is there any command I could have hit to zero it out?

There are now NO groups (except ALL, DIRECTORY, and LAST IMPORT) All are empty. I'm on the road and hundreds of miles from last backup?

What can have happened? Is addressbook database that unreliable. I've used it for 3 years with no problems?

HELP?!?!?

philm · Dec 23, 2005, 08:27 PM

You probably know that your Address Book data are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/AddressBook.data so something has happened to that file. The couple of times that this sort of thing has happened to me ever, I had somehow moved this sort of file into a different directory by accident. Not sure how.

Anyway, do a good search for this file and see if it has moved to another location. If so, when Address Book started up, it would not see the required file and make a new, blank one. Check the Trash also.

Oneota · Dec 23, 2005, 10:20 PM

We've seen this at our institution - occasionally people's Address Books will just disappear on them. Of course, we're on Network homes, so that no doubt plays a part in it.

Still, it does demonstrate that Address Book is capable of wiping out your data for no particular reason.

macsfromnowon · Dec 24, 2005, 09:21 AM

Yes, Philm,
I did look at that AddressBook.data...
And was sorry to see that it's now sized only 20KB.

I can add info to it... but at what risk?
I've NOT moved it - or even been in the App Support folder for any reason of late.

Oneota...
So others have had the experience of disappearing data. Sheesh!

Does anyone know if there is something that Address Book does... like when it thinks data is corrupt or something it erases and starts from scratch?

That's not a very user-friendly design... no warning that something went awry, no chance to attempt recovery...

CatOne · Dec 24, 2005, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by macsfromnowon

Yes, Philm,
I did look at that AddressBook.data...
And was sorry to see that it's now sized only 20KB.

I can add info to it... but at what risk?
I've NOT moved it - or even been in the App Support folder for any reason of late.

Oneota...
So others have had the experience of disappearing data. Sheesh!

Does anyone know if there is something that Address Book does... like when it thinks data is corrupt or something it erases and starts from scratch?

That's not a very user-friendly design... no warning that something went awry, no chance to attempt recovery...

Did you do a .Mac sync or something?

I've never had any reliabilty problems -- but I should note (probably too late now), that you can back up the address book database from AB itself -- I'd suggest doing it every month or so, as a best practice.

jasong · Dec 24, 2005, 11:51 PM

In Address Book go to File > Revert to Address Book Backup . . .

I use Address Book pretty extensively and I can't say I have had any issues with data disappearing.

philm · Dec 25, 2005, 04:49 AM

Originally Posted by macsfromnowon

Yes, Philm,
I did look at that AddressBook.data...
And was sorry to see that it's now sized only 20KB.

I can add info to it... but at what risk?
I've NOT moved it - or even been in the App Support folder for any reason of late.

But have you searched your hard drive for this file...anyway? You never know.

macsfromnowon · Dec 25, 2005, 07:16 AM

No, I've not done any .Mac sync. That's the weird thing. I'd entered some data one evening. The next morning the Address Book was blank (the PB had been slept, but the AddressBook app had not even been quit - it was just Hidden... and was revealed BLANK)..

macsfromnowon · Dec 25, 2005, 07:21 AM

PhilM ...
I was going to say that I found only AddressBook.data & AddressBook Previous. But now I see AddressBook.beforesave (from July 20, 2005)
That last one is 4.1MB (where as others are only 32 -42KB).
I may try make a copy of the "beforesave" and see if I can change its name (even tho it's called a "TextEdit Document") and see if AB will open it.

philm · Dec 25, 2005, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by macsfromnowon

PhilM ...
I was going to say that I found only AddressBook.data & AddressBook Previous. But now I see AddressBook.beforesave (from July 20, 2005)
That last one is 4.1MB (where as others are only 32 -42KB).
I may try make a copy of the "beforesave" and see if I can change its name (even tho it's called a "TextEdit Document") and see if AB will open it.

Aha! Well that sounds very promising. Make a couple of copies of the AddressBook.beforesave file as this sounds important. I would then change the name of one of the copies to AddressBook.data and put it in the correct place. Restart Address Book and see if it likes the new file you have just re-named.

Making a few copies of the AddressBook.beforesave is important to give you something to play around with. Save a couple of copies outside of the AddressBook folder - like on the Desktop maybe, just for safe-keeping. Good luck.

brettcamp · Dec 26, 2005, 04:11 AM

Something similar happened to me as happened to philm. In the course of making a backup of important application support files, I inadvertantly moved one of the application folders in there to another folder. then when I opened that application, it created another application folder in the application support folder -- but of course, this folder had no info, so all the files in that app were blank. After taking smelling salts, I figured out what happened, I deleted the new application folder (which of course was very small), and replaced it with the application folder I'd accidentally moved, relaunched the app, and everything came back.

so I'd suggest doing a spotlight search for that addressbook.data file and seeing if you turn up more than the one that's currently residing in your library's application support folder. If so, it's probably the one that got moved somehow. You can find out by doing a command-i get info and seeing when it was last updated. it's a terrifying feeling when this happens -- good luck!

gopikrishna · Dec 26, 2005, 06:35 AM

Interesting, BrettCamp...
But weird. I thought most apps found files NOT on the basis of relative locations to the apps, but on some code within the files.
Does that mean than apps (if moved out of App folder) might go "dumb" about locating files?

brettcamp · Dec 26, 2005, 09:26 PM

I don't really know how the apps locate their support files, but my experience suggests that you're right. In my case, what happened was that the folder for that app within the app support folder got moved into another app's folder within the app support folder. So it was in the right folder all the time (i.e. the app support folder), but hidden in another subfolder -- and the app didn't find it till I'd dragged it out of that subfolder.

Love Calm Quiet · Dec 29, 2005, 07:06 PM

macsfromnowon...
Hope you were able to get your address database backup to the rescue.
This makes me very weird about keeping so much key info (a nonprofit's mail list, etc) in Address Book.
I guess maybe I need to see if that can be sync'd to .mac account. But would that help in this case?
What if it "sync"ed the zeroed db up to .mac before I noticed the problem. Then I'd be everybit as much toasted.
Periodic backups the only defense? Is Apple's backup software adequate to that task for 6-20MB files that get updated frequently?

nerd · Dec 29, 2005, 08:43 PM

I had this happen ones but upon a restart of the computer the data was there. Probably doesn't help you though.

CharlesS · Dec 29, 2005, 11:05 PM

That happened to me once when an iSync session went awry. Fortunately, I dug out that .beforesave file, renamed it, and put it in the proper place, and it did work. I got all my contacts back. Whew!

From now on, backing up ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook seems like a very good idea indeed.

Anyway, you should try the .beforesave file and see if it works. Make sure to make a backup of everything before doing anything.

madmacgames · Dec 30, 2005, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Make sure to make a backup of everything before doing anything.

Seeing as his address book was wiped out, don't really see any point in backing up a blank database

CharlesS · Dec 30, 2005, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by madmacgames

Seeing as his address book was wiped out, don't really see any point in backing up a blank database

One of the files in there, such as the .beforesave file, may still have the addresses... until it's wiped out the next time the AB database is updated.

macsfromnowon · Dec 30, 2005, 08:06 AM

Well, Thanks guys. I appreciate the insights and suggestions.
I *still* have no idea what happened. (I don't iSync).

However, I got home and took the .data file from my backup disk and was able to recover everything but what had been added in last 10 days. Sucky enough. But also, lucky enough.