Are your old contacts lost if you switch to a different Mac or account? Are your old contacts lost if, well, your data is lost to a broken disk?
Of course not; not if you have a backup copy in a safe place. Restoring from that copy, on the same machine or a different, to the same account or a different is easy.
Restore or Import Your Mac OS X Mail Address Book from a Backup Copy
To import or restore your Mac OS X Mail contacts from an exported archive:
- Open Address Book.
- Highlight all contacts you have newly created and want to keep in your address book.
- Drag and drop the highlighted contacts to your Desktop or Downloads stack, for example.
- Select File | Import... from the menu.
- Find and highlight the desired address book archive copy (an .abbu file).
- Click Open.
- Now click Replace All.
- If you have dragged contacts to your Desktop or Downloads stack (for instance) before:
- Drag and drop these contacts back into Address Book.
- Click Add.
