transfering address book

[PHSchulman]

I actually posted something similar earlier. I have an old lamp style mac and a new macbook air. I have lots of addresses in the old address book. But the new mac couldn't read the old mac's address book --too old. Can I retrieve this stuff without laborious copying? I was able to transfer lots of other files.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

What OS version is on the G4 (Lamp Shade) & what was the file extension of the exported contacts that couldn't be read on your MB Air?

Have you tried opening Address Book on the G4, and choosing "Select All" from the Edit menu, then exporting as vCard? It will export all cards into one vCard. If you copy that over to the MacBook Air and double-click it, it should be automatically imported into Contacts, otherwise you would use the Import option under File.

 

[PHSchulman]

Thanks for responding. The old computer is Mac OS 10.4.11; The Macbook
air is 10.9. I did not copy the home/library/applicationsupport/addressbook, just files
I thought I needed. I copied the files to an external hard drive and then to
the Macbook Air. I take it, I should copy them from this home/library etc

 

[Kaveman]

Yes, you may be better off dragging all the old Cards to a Folder on the Desktop, copy those across and then drag the vCards back into the new AddressBook.

 

[PHSchulman]

Yes, you may be better off dragging all the old Cards to a Folder on the Desktop, copy those across and then drag the vCards back into the new AddressBook.

I just did this. Tedious but did the trick. thanks. We have a bunch of notes at the bottom of the vCards and the notes didn't copy--so I had to go over them. But it's done. thanks