address book app won't open

[peterr]

hi,

i'm running 10.8 on the last of the g3 powerbooks, and when i try to open address book, either from mail, or in the finder, it crashes without opening. this happenned with 10.6, and updating to 10.8 has made no difference.

does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks

pete

[Arden]

10.6? 10.8? Really?? Do you have a time machine or something?

I know you really mean 10.2.6 and 10.2.8, I'm just teasing you. But seriously, you might need to start over from scratch and do a clean install of OS X, or at least an Archive and Install, and use the combo updater to bring it up to 10.2.8; neither option is desirable (though the Archive and Install option is more doable), but it might be necessary unless someone else has a better suggestion.

[peterr]

hi arden,

thanks for pointing out my temporal distortion, and also for the tip. i'll give it a go.

cheers

pete

[bobw]

Does the addressbook open if you open it on it's own?
Have you tried trashing the plist preference for the addressbook?
Have you run the Disk Utility?
Have you run fsck

Starting from scratch before trying other methods is stupid.

[PoolBum]

I am running OS 10.411 and have kept up on all updates. I am also having a problem opening Address Book, although my system has not crashed. When I double click on the ap icon it does that little graphic blip as any other ap does. But then... nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. In the finder window it tells me the new time that I accessed AB. I have done a few things to no avail. I "verified" my permissions and was informed that there are no problems. I opened "show package contents" for AB. Then I removed one and then the other plist files and then both (bobw's post didn't specify which one). Then I tried to open it from within: Address Book/contents/MacOS and clicking directly on the ap file. I received the following report:

Last login: Sun Nov 9 06:27:27 on ttyp1
/Applications/Address\ Book.app/Contents/MacOS/Address\ Book; exit
Welcome to Darwin!
david-krolicks-powerbook58:~ Poolbum2$ /Applications/Address\ Book.app/Contents/MacOS/Address\ Book; exit
2008-11-09 06:33:18.488 Address Book[552] Can't read (null) error
logout
[Process completed]

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
David (PoolBum)

[Satcomer]

David just go to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the files com.apple.AddressBook.plist & com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist and throw them out. This will reset Address Book to default again. This may help.

[PoolBum]

Thanks for taking the time to offer a possible solution. I trashed the plist files but it made no difference. Could it be a corrupt file or something?

[PoolBum]

Well, after trying a bunch of things I went to the local Apple Store and made an appt with a "Genius Bar" tech. Ultimately, he archived and reinstalled the OS which solved the problem (which was the first thing they concluded upon hearing the problem).