If you are having problems running Address Book, first, determine whether the problem is with Address Book, or if it is caused by something else on your Macintosh. Shut down your computer, disconnect any external SCSI devices, and restart the Mac with extensions off (by holding down the Shift key). Start Address Book. If it runs fine, the problem is caused by a software conflict; restart, adding extensions and devices one at a time, until the problem reappears.
If the problem persists, it may be caused by an older version of Address Book hidden somewhere on your hard drive. Use the Finder's Find command (under the File menu, or Command-F) to find other copies of Address Book on your hard drive(s). Remove all but the one you want to use by dragging their icons to the trash. Restart Address Book.
If you don't have multiple copies of Address Book, try rebuilding your desktop: restart your Mac while holding down the Option and Command keys.
If that doesn't work, you may have a corrupted copy of Address Book. Trash it, then reinstall a fresh copy from your master disk and try again. (Perhaps your system file is corrupted--try reinstalling your System).
If you have recently upgraded your hardware, you may need to update your copy of Address Book to the current version. Address Book versions 1 & 2 do not work on 68040 Macs and PowerMacs. An Address Book list file can be corrupted either by using an old version of Address Book which is not 32 bit clean (pre-version 3) on a Mac with more than 8 meg of RAM, or by a disk directory being damaged.
A damaged disk directory is a relatively rare problem, but if it occurs, Address Book may read blocks of unrelated file data, resulting in a great many records containing garbage. If this happens, quit Address Book immediately. Boot the Mac from another drive or floppy disk containing a disk repair program such as Apple's Disk First Aid, or one of the many other disk utilities designed to fix disk problems. Have your backup Address lists handy.
It is a good practice to run Disk First Aid, Norton Disk Doctor, or Central Point Disk Tools on a hard disk from time to time to fix problems before they cause data loss.
Just before you call. . .
look up:
• the version number of Address Book you are running,
• the version number of Apple's System software you are using, and
• the model number and configuration of your Macintosh.
We've found that it's helpful if you are at your Mac, running Address Book, when you call.
Remember:
Backup your address lists regularly—you can replace your copy of Address Book, but once your data is gone, you may not be able to get it back!
