Updated December 2020: Updated for macOS Big Sur. Questions about the process to back up Mac contacts? Be sure to check out our latest recommendations before making a decision. Looking for a new Mac?Īs Apple adds new Macs to its lineup, iMore adjusts our yearly recommendations. Let me repeat that for clarity: when importing a dot-abbu package, there is no option to merge with your existing data. If you try to open an '.abbu' package in the OS X Contacts app, it will ask you if you want to replace your current contacts database with contents of '.abbu'. The latter, however, will replace your entire contacts.

Moving forward, the former, when imported, will allow you to merge information with an existing contact. It is flexible and integrates with hundreds of third-party applications including Google Contacts, Zendesk and FreshBooks. The Export vCard choice only includes the selected contacts from the Contacts.app, while selecting Contacts Archive would include an export of all of your contacts. The main points are worth repeating here since the execution remains the same even as OS X became macOS later that year.

In 2016, MacStories did a great job explaining the differences between saving contacts as a vCard or archive and how the choice you select could affect a future import.

Contact database for mac