Contacts disappeared

[jimindt]

I read thru similar posts, and even tried one of the things which was recommended in one of those posts -i.e. find an old backup, rename it to a zip file, extract the ZIP file, see if there were contacts, copy the contact.bin file to the folder where vueminder keeps its backups, close and restart Vueminder. Did all that and the contacts do not show up.

Oddly when I look at the calendar, it displays birthdays of anyone whom I had a birthday for in the contacts. From that I would think that the contacts exist but for some reason only Vueminder is seeing them.

Help

[VueSoft]

Hello, could you clarify? Do you not see any contacts on the "Contacts" tab, even after restoring from a backup? Or did your contacts disappear from something outside of VueMinder (based on the wording of your last sentence, it sounds like that might be the case).

If contacts aren't appearing in VueMinder, try these steps:

1. Use the "File -> Backup Data" menu command to backup your current data.

2. Use the "File -> Restore Data" menu command to restore a backup file that was created before your contacts disappeared. The description of the backup files should indicate how many contacts are in the backup. Look for the most recent backup that has the correct (non-zero) number of contacts.

3. All the data will restore. You should see contacts on the "Contacts" tab. However, restoring the backup could cause the loss of events that you created after the backup was generated. If you just want to restore the contacts and keep your latest events, use the "File -> Export Data -> Export Contacts" menu command after restoring. Export the contacts to a CSV file.

4. Restore from the backup file generated in step 1 by using the "File -> Restore Data" menu command.

5. After restoring, click the "File -> Import Data -> Import Contacts" menu command to import the contacts that were exported in step 3.

If that doesn't fix it, then I'll need more information about what you're seeing, because I have no idea why the contacts wouldn't restore from a backup that contains the contacts.

[jimindt]

I see no contacts on the Contacts tab.
I see no backups from before they disappeared - and my backups go back to the beginning of September. I however found some older backups from last year on an old drive. That's where I extracted the contacts from.

I did NOT try to restore the backup from the old drive because it's a year plus old and I don't want to lose the current events.

I did a backup and restore. Still no contacts.

[VueSoft]

I did NOT try to restore the backup from the old drive because it's a year plus old and I don't want to lose the current events.

Try restoring the old backup by following the steps I provided. After restoring the old backup, export your contacts to a CSV file and then restore your current/latest backup. After restoring your current backup, import the contacts from the CSV file. Sorry if my steps weren't clear. You shouldn't lose your current events when doing it this way.

If this is still unclear, I can restore your contacts from the backup file and send you a CSV file that can be imported. If you want me to do that, you can email your old backup file to support@vueminder.com.

[jimindt]

Sorry. Yes, I did misunderstand what was suggested.

I restored an old backup. Extracted the Contacts to a Google csv (whatever that is. Isn't a csv file a csv file?). Restored the most current backup.

Went to Import the exported Contacts csv file. It is asking me to map the fields it found to Vueminder.

[VueSoft]

Try exporting to the Outlook CSV format instead. You shouldn't need to specify any field mapping when importing from a CSV file that matches the field names used by Outlook.

[jimindt]

Well, that sort of works.
Every, and yes I mean every, birthday is missing.
Some of the addresses have been moved from Home to "Other"
All the notes are now running together when they were on separate lines.

And the format/layout of the Contact seems somewhat different from what I recall - not that that is a deal breaker. Missing birthdays. Now that's a deal breaker.

I use VueMinder Pro

[VueSoft]

It appears there's a bug importing the Birthday field from a CSV file. The field isn't getting properly mapped. This has been fixed for the next release.

In the meantime, there's a workaround. On the Import Contacts window, where the field mapping is specified for the "Birthday" field, click the drop-down and pick a different field, and then set it back to "Birthday". This will force the correct mapping to be applied, and you should see birthdays in your imported contacts.

[jimindt]

Ok, That appears to have worked Thanks

[VueSoft]

It appears there's a bug importing the Birthday field from a CSV file. The field isn't getting properly mapped. This has been fixed for the next release.

Version 2020.01 has been released. This version properly maps the Birthday column when importing from CSV files, so contact birthdays will be imported as expected. To update to version 2020.01, click the "Help -> Check for Updates" menu command.