How to restore your Mac's contacts in macOS

(Image credit- iDownloadBlog) Your complete Contacts database is stored in the AddressBook folder if you aren't syncing your contacts to iCloud. Holding down the Option key while clicking and dragging the AddressBook folder to another storage place in the Finder is one quick approach to back up your Contacts information. You can easily restore your Contacts database to any new macOS installation by dragging and dropping the AddressBook folder into the same spot in the user's Library folder. Simply copy the com. apple.AddressBook.plist file to the same directory on the new Startup Disk if you wish to transfer the settings for the Contact app as well. Every time you are prompted to replace both items, you should click "Replace" in the Finder. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="932"] Image credit- Apple Support[/caption] Restart the Mac after you have copied everything to the new installation. open the Contacts app next. All of your Contacts entries ought to be shown in the app. If you don't, we'll discuss how to restore your previously backed-up Contacts below. However, there is another method available from within the Contacts app to back up your whole Contacts database. To achieve this, first, confirm that "All Contacts" is chosen in the sidebar at the top of the Contacts main window's left side:

Make sure to choose

• Make certain that "All Contacts" is chosen in the sidebar.
• Proceed by selecting "File->Export->Contacts Archive" from the main menu. A typical save panel will show up.
• Click the "Save" button after deciding on a file name and location.

The default name of Contacts archive export files is "Contacts - " followed by the current date, and they are stored with the.abbu (for Address Book Back Up) file extension. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit- iMore[/caption] For instance: If you selected the "All Contacts" option in the sidebar before exporting, the.abbu export file contains an archive of every contact in your Contacts app. It's important to be aware of a long-standing intermittent fault in the Contacts export feature that Apple has yet to fix: if you export the.abbu file to your Mac's Desktop, occasionally an incomplete archive will be saved and some specific contacts may be lost. Also read: Huge Upgrade to the Google Contacts Web Version Although it only sometimes happens, the circumstances under which this problem occurs are still poorly understood. Never, ever save the exported archives to the Mac's Desktop, just to be safe. Always save it to a different folder on your computer. Hopefully, Apple will address this Contacts problem shortly. If you save the full Contacts database to an.abbu file on the Desktop and then save it again to another location on disk, you'll notice a sizable variation in the file sizes between the two files in Finder Get Info windows. This will indicate that the bug has occurred. This indicates that some Contacts were lost in the smaller-sized file. Once the.abbu file has been exported, make a backup copy of it and store it somewhere secure, preferably on a device that isn't typically connected to your Mac.