Re: [Evolution] reinstalled, where'd my contacts go?

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

> I just did a fresh reinstall of my OS (to upgrade from FC3 to FC4). I
> saved my .evolution folder but neglected to back up gconf folder. My
> mail was still there, my tasks and calendar were not visible, but I was
> able to import them and all is well. My contacts are not there, and I am
> unable to import them.
>
> How do I access the contacts which are in
> ~/.evolution/addressbook/local/system/addressbook.db ?

Hmm, strange...

AFAIK it should be possible to just override the new (empty)
addressbook.db file with an old one, after shutting down e-d-s. [1]

The strange thing here is, that's it still is the same file. We are
talking about the default "Personal" Address Book, right? (FWIW, if it's
another Address Book, the reason simply is a changed uin which is part
of the the path name as well.)

First of all copy the adressbook.db file to some safe place to not harm
it by accident. Then have a look at that file, if it still contains your
old Contacts.

$ cd .evolution/addressbook/local/system/
$ grep guenther addressbook.db
Binary file addressbook.db matches

OK, so mine at least contains the string "guenther", which is in there.
Try this yourself with some strings you remember, which should be in the
old Address Book. Does it look sane?


What was the old Evolution version you where running before? Maybe the
format changed slightly, although I doubt that -- AFAIK it should be the
very same.


Another attempt to at least make the "overwriting" way work I described
above:

Create a new Address Book. You then have a new directory named
"strangely" with a bunch of digits and dots and your hostname at the end
like this:

  .evolution/addressbook/local/1118770197 5093 0 delta/

Close Evolution, close e-d-s [1] and copy the old saved addressbook.db
file in there overwriting the existing one. After starting Evolution
again, do you have your Contacts back in the new Address Book?


Oh, and another one -- try this first:

You don't happen to have a saved search matching no Contacts, do you?
Does it help to click the [Clear] Button of the quick search bar?


Just some background info and stabbing in the dark, though...

...guenther


[1] evolution --force-shutdown


-- 
char *t="\10pse\0r\0dtu\0  ghno\x4e\xc8\x79\xf4\xab\x51\x8a\x10\xf4\xf4\xc4";
main(){ char h,m=h=*t++,*x=t+2*h,c,i,l=*x,s=0; for (i=0;i<l;i++){ i%8? c<<=1:
(c=*++x); c&128 && (s+=h); if (!(h>>=1)||!t[s+h]){ putchar(t[s]);h=m;s=0; }}}