[howto] generic address book recovery (was: Re: [Evolution] lost contacts)

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

> since some day I have a problem with gnome, and today I've decided to
> solve it drastically removing all .gnome .gnome2 .gconf etc directories.

Yes, this is a drastic step...

> Now gnome functions but Evolution has lost all my addresbooks except the
> "Personal" (I have it in italian, I suppose the translation is right,
> but in anycase it is the default addressbook).
> I'm now trying to import the other ones, i've fount that
> in .evolution/addressbook/local are some folders with my contacts. The
> problem is that the import procedure doesn't recognize those files...
> Do you have a suggestion, please?

Luckily you already got your address books back by restoring part of
your GConf settings from backup and kicking gconfd and e-d-s butts.

Anyway, just for the records, as issues like this seem to come up
frequently lately... Here are some generic address book recovery
instructions, which I posted previously and even mentioned the archived
post multiple times.


* How to import old/saved address books into a configured Evo.
  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/evolution-list/2006-January/msg00204.html

Here are the generic recovery steps (Evo 2.4):

a) Have a look at your ~/.evolution/addressbook/local/ dir.
b) Create a new Address Book named "import" using Evo.
   Close Evo.
c) Have a look at that dir again. There now is a new dir.
   We're going to use this new dir.
d) Run this command:
   $ evolution --force-shutdown
e) Now run this command:
   $ ps axw | grep evolution-data
   And use the 'kill' command to kill this process.
f) Inside that new dir, there is an "addressbook.db" file. Copy your old
   (backed up) addressbook.db file there, overwriting the file in the
   new dir.
g) Do steps d) and e) again, as Evo can be respawned by numerous other
   apps.

When starting Evo the next time, you should have your old Contacts back,
stored in the "import" Address Book.


Note: If there are *NO* Contacts in the default "Personal" Address Book,
you can directly use the system/ dir (see step a), rather than a new
one. However, it always is safe to use a new one.

Note: If you are using Evo 2.2, the above steps work as well. You just
don't need the fugly step e) at all.

IIRC using hacks like the steps mentioned successfully recreated
addressbook.db files by Evo versions at least down to Evo 1.4.


Additional note: Do NOT make me explain the use of 'ps | grep' and
'kill' on a *user* mailing list. See bug #323115. [1]

...guenther


[1] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323115


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