Help! My contacts are gone

[Richard Jeffrey Newman]

I don't know what I did, but somehow I have lost all my contacts, in
Entourage, Apple Contacts, MobileMe and on Gmail (I sync between and among
all these with Apple's Sync Services and Spanning Sync). I think I
accidentally pushed a delete button in MobileMe and that deleted all my
contacts and that deletion just cascaded through everything. I tried
restoring an old Entourage identity--actually the whole Microsoft User Data
folder--from Time Machine, but even when I did that and opened Entourage,
all of my contacts were gone. (I guess I thought that backing up with Time
Machine meant I didn't have to backup/archive my Entourage database
separately, but I guess I was wrong.)

I have vCards for almost all of the contacts I lost and so I can replace
them, but that will take a whole lot of time. I'm just wondering if there's
something I am not getting in terms of restoring from Time Machine or if
there's anything else I am missing that would help me restore the contacts
more quickly.

Thanks,

Rich Newman

 

[Diane Ross]

I don't know what I did, but somehow I have lost all my contacts, in
Entourage, Apple Contacts, MobileMe and on Gmail (I sync between and among
all these with Apple's Sync Services and Spanning Sync).

Sync Services is really broken now. Blame can be placed on both Apple and
Microsoft. Starting in Office 2008, Entourage now uses Apple Sync Services.
Always have a backup if you use Sync Services until the problem is resolved.

I tried
restoring an old Entourage identity--actually the whole Microsoft User Data
folder--from Time Machine, but even when I did that and opened Entourage,
all of my contacts were gone. (I guess I thought that backing up with Time
Machine meant I didn't have to backup/archive my Entourage database
separately, but I guess I was wrong.)

It is NOT recommended to backup your Identity with Time Machine on an hourly
basis. If a copy is made while Entourage is open and the Microsoft Database
daemon is running the copy can be corrupt. See below for alternatives.

I have vCards for almost all of the contacts I lost and so I can replace
them, but that will take a whole lot of time. I'm just wondering if there's
something I am not getting in terms of restoring from Time Machine or if
there's anything else I am missing that would help me restore the contacts
more quickly.

Backing up contacts should be in addition to other full backups. You can
export as a text file or as an Entourage archive (.rge). See more on
import/export:

Import Export <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/import_export/index.html#howto>


========Links to backing up your Entourage Identity ================

Entourage and Time-Machine-like backup (creates chronological backup of
Identity can be used by both Tiger and Leopard allowing you to roll back to
previous dated backups.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/entourage_and_time_machine.html>

Alternative method to use Entourage and Time Machine (does a once a day or
whatever time period you select) This quits Entourage and the Microsoft
Database daemon allowing for once a day backup into Time Machine.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_
and_time_machine.html>