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General discussion

Getting Email Address Contacts From Mail

by 222ridepegasus Mar 5, 2011 8:17PM PST

Hi there,

I wondered if anybody can help me with a question regarding Mail?
I'm currently on 10.6.5 and using Mail as my primary mail client, and I like it...

My Question is, can you export email address? primarily all the email addresses that it auto-prompts me when I started typing in the address field... I know you can right click and "Add to Contacts" but I don't use Contacts - just wondering if theres a quick way I can transfer these address out, rather than going thorugh one at a time...

thanks

Kieran

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2 Posts

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Mail, itself, does not have an Address book

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Mar 5, 2011 10:53PM PST

unlike some other email clients.
Instead it uses the System Wide Address Book along with all the other applications that are capable of dragging contact information into themselves.

The list you are referring to is called the Previous Recipients List and does not appear to have a quick and easy way to export its contents.

I tried Copy and Paste but the Copy function is disabled so the possibility of copying the contents into a spreadsheet is not available.

There is a function that allows you to add all those addresses to the Address Book with does have an export function.

If you do not use the Address Book, where do you keep your contact information? Relying on the Previous Recipients List, which also contains all the incorrect email addresses you have ever used, seems a little risky.

P

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Thanks...

by 222ridepegasus Mar 5, 2011 11:08PM PST

Hi there,

Hmm I suppose it is a bit risky come to think of it... hence partly why I was asking - I actually have a backup of contacts on Google Contacts, but that's only from my Phone when I was using Android...

I do back up with Time Machine Regularly however, but I should probably start archiving the contacts off....

thanks for your help, a bit of a wake up call for me I think!

cheers

kie

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