Backup iCal and Address Book
Mac Tip #238/12-April-2006

Do you use Apple’s iCal to keep your appointments for you? How about Apple’s Address Book for contact details?

If you don’t, then you might like to try them out — both are easy to use and the software comes free on all new Macs.

If you do use them then you might like to know how to back up your information. I haven’t tested this, but you should also be able to use this method to move your data from one computer to another.

First open iCal. Go to the File menu and choose Back up Database…. Save the file in a safe place. I have a backups folder for this. Then do the same for the Address Book, using the command Back up Address Book… in the File menu.

Notice that the iCal File menu also has an item called: Revert to Database Backup…, and the Address Book has Revert to Address Book Backup…. This item will allow you to import a backup file, if you need it, and should allow you to simply import data from one Mac to another.

Update, October 2009: current versions of iCal and Address Book seem to have removed these menu items, but both have Export and Import options.