Is there such a thing as a program to simplify AddressBook cleanups? (I’m using the OS X default). I’ve got over 5000 entries, many automatically inserted, many many duplicates, etc. But it takes forever to delete, merge, correct the entries. I know I could dump it into a spreadsheet and do it that way, but has anyone seen code to do this more intelligently?
-
Archives
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- May 2011
- March 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
-
Meta
I have something in “Palm Desktop” app that sounds like that, but have no experience of OS X. Does either of these help? :
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051217000214536&lsrc=osxh
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060322202753429&lsrc=osxh
What version of OS X do you have? Depending on what version and how you upgraded the answer may be different.
Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger have different address books versions. Certain upgrade paths for Panther to Tiger might result in duplicates that can be easily removed, i.e. it renames the old group to all or default, etc.
You’re best bet to resolve this is to post a detailed description of the problem over on the Apple Discussion Boards under your OS version. Post your version of OS, version of Address Book, and explain how the dups are duped (exact copy or not). Someone will come along and help.
Hi Lawrence,
I had the same issue as you and I used Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) for this task. This is its main use case and people in my network agree with me on the quality of the tool.
Actually, I regret it now that I have switched to Ubuntu.
Do you know about the “Look for Duplicate Entries…” in the Card menu in Tiger?
Plaxo has a very good de-duplicator called “Address Book Optimizer” that’s part of our premium package ($49.95, free 30 day trial). We also have a sync plug-in for MacOS X address book. So you’d install the plugin, sync your contacts up to Plaxo, run the de-duper (it does both automatic merging of duplicates and assisted merging of near dups) and the results would get synced back down into your Mac AB. It’s definitely our most popular premium product, and as far as I can tell, it’s got more smarts built in than any similar product I’ve found. Plus, since it syncs directly with your Mac AB, there’s no need to do import/export separately. Hope this helps! js
Thanks. And I’ll explore the Plaxo option too. Grateful for the help.
Plaxo is probably very good at what it does but make sure that you don’t let it send out constant reminders to your address book to “Update your address book entry!” I have several contacts who use it and I personally find it annoying that I am asked on a regular basis to confirm that I have not changed my address.
Dear Professor Lessig,
Plaxo is your best bet, and is a fantastic service. I have a similar number of contacts and have neither the time nor inclination to manually manage my address book anymore. While I use OS X/AddressBook as a primary, if you occasionally need to venture into Windows/Outlook, it is truly a fabulous cross platform service. I cannot endorse them highly enough, obvious standard disclaimer applies, no stock, no financial incentive. Merely a very satisfied customer.
According to Michael Arrington, earlier this year Plaxo was malignant, but now it’s benign.
I am loathe to trust anyone but me with my own data, and hate the idea that an associate of mine may decide to use Plaxo, and that Plaxo may later decide to use all those contact records for marketing purposes. It really doesn’t matter what they say NOW; it’s only a matter of time until they change their mind, or until someone decides the address lists are incentive enough to crack them.
Ergo: bollox to Plaxo. I’d find a local tool.
I also use Plaxo, and it’s a much improved service from the spammy days of email notifications from all your friends.
That said, you might start by going to the Card menu in your OS X Address Book and selecting the “Look for Duplicate Entries…” item.
Seems like Thunderbird aka Mozilla’s email software has an addin to do such address book “cleanups.”
This also looks interesting (althugh I have not tried them myself)…
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051217000214536&lsrc=osxh