Restoring Bookmarks and Address Book

G-Spot

May 18, 2010 - 2:55pm

Michael Beggs asks:

Question

The address book and bookmarks from our iMac (Mac OS X 10.4.11) were deleted (young children). I have rescued the folders from the trash, however I cannot get our contacts to repopulate in Address Book or our bookmarks back into Safari. Please help.

Answer

Safari and Address Book have no real magic other than their files being in the right places. You need to quit both apps, then put the data where it belongs, replacing the blank copies that were created, and only relaunch the apps once they’re in place. Safari stores its bookmarks in ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist. Address Book stores in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/.