[jnyb]

I thought this might deserve its own post...along with some other strange behavior that I posted about yesterday ("printer error"), I realized that my Mac address book has been wiped out. I had backed up w/Retrospect Express a few days before so I restored the Address book from that backup, but it was also apparently empty, although the folder size is over 21 Mb-is the application that large, or are my addresses hiding in there somewhere? thanks in advance!

[bastion]

You restored the address book application, not the data. That lives in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/.

[jnyb]

thanks! I will try this as soon as I get home....

[Chris Breen]

Just to toss out a data point with no solution: It's happened a couple of times to me too. It appears that this happens when you Force Quit Address Book after it or the system hangs. A clue that it's happened (other than Address Book being virtually empty) is that when iChat opens, it asks you to configure it.
Knowing the problem exists, I take pains to use Address Book's backup feature whenever I add contacts.

[jnyb]

okay, success!!
thanks to all for your help and input!
now it's on to the other issues...printer and iPhoto