I have a Contacts archive file (.abbu) that I created in 2016 by following the instructions of AppleCare when I had called about some issue with iCloud.
I would like to open the file and look at some of the contacts but don’t want to replace my current Contacts database with it, so I created a Test account (10.13.6).
When I log in to the test account and click Contacts > File > Import > Replace All, no contacts are imported. In the Contacts window it just says, “No Cards.”
I know there is data in the file because I can open it in BBEdit and read some of the information, although most of it is gibberish.
I don’t think the problem is the file itself because I get the same results with Contacts archive files I export from my current setup.
Don’t try to import the .abbu file. Just double click it and contacts will open. It may ask to replace everything already there so be sure to do this on your test account.
Hmm, It worked fine when I did it, so I would suspect that perhaps the file is corrupted. I did see a couple entries on google about various techniques to convert a .abbu file to a .csv file. That’s not what you need but it may tell you what’s in the file.
Did anyone ever figure this out? I’m having the same problem (can’t import a contact archive .abbu file). The file is recently created, I’m running macOS 12.0.1
When I import it to contacts, it just empties the contacts completely and if I have iCloud contact syncing turned on, it will refill contacts with the broken contact list.
If I turn off iCloud contact syncing, nothing happens from the import and it stays empty. I’ve tried replacing `~/Library/Application Support/Addressbook with the contents of the abbu directory and that doesn’t work ether.
There must be a way to import that abbu file. Otherwise why is it still an export option? I see a lot of questions about this over the last several years but no solid answers. Anyone have a known way to import from an abbu contact archive?