How to make a backup of your contacts in OS X

Backups on iOS to do is very simple, it is known to many users of the system from Apple. Contacts - one of the most important and valuable things any smartphone. Restore them is always very long and dreary, so have a backup on hand will never be over. Though full backup do not be too hard, there are situations when you want to keep all your contacts separately. And it can be done in several ways.

The first method

It implies a save and send a contact card to another person. The operation will be carried out on the Mac. Make it extremely simple:
1. Open the Contacts app.
2. Select the right person from the list.
3. Click "Send current contact".
4. Select a convenient way of sending.

In more detail the method I described in the article "As forward contact via iMessage"So if you have not read and do not know how to do it - welcome to the acquaintance.

The second way

With it, we will save the card locally only one contact. This data may be the most significant person in your address book, lose information about where it would be extremely disappointing.

1. Open the Contacts app on your Mac and select the person whose contacts you want to export.

2. In the top menu bar, select File - Export... - Export vCard.

3. In the window that opens, you can select / rename the name of the contact to assign the card tag and choose where to save.

4. The contact card is saved, now you are free to do with it what you want. You can send it to anyone else in any convenient way, or to keep as a backup in the cloud Dropbox storage facility.

The third way

This method allows you to save multiple contacts, the backup that you want to do. All the action is almost similar to the previous paragraph:

1. Open the Contacts app on your Mac.
2. Hold down the Command key and select from the list required to export contacts. Each selected contact is in blue color, and in the contact data field will indicate the number selected.

3. In the menu bar on top, by analogy with the previous example, select File - Export... - Export vCard.
4. In the resulting window, enter the name of the contact card, set the desired tags and choose a location to save

The fourth way

In this process, we have been exporting their entire address book with your contacts.

1. Please note that if you have a contact group, highlight the need to select "All contacts", as shown in the screenshot below.
2. Now select any contact from your list, and press the key combination Command + A, to select all the contacts in the list.

3. Do the same effect as in the previous two sections: the top menu bar, select File - Export... - Export vCard.
4. In the resulting dialog box, give the name of all your contacts, on request, assign tags, and choose a location to save it.

The saved file VCF format, you can send to your friends, colleagues or relatives. In 99% of cases they will be able to open a file of this type, because it can be read by virtually any operating system.

The fifth method

He, in fact, does not differ from the fourth, with the only exception that the contacts export manufactured in a proprietary format from Apple - Abbu. This file format can only be read on another computer running the operating system OS X. Therefore, this type of card or send it only if you are sure that your recipient also uses computers Mac.

In order to save the contact card in .abbu format, you need to slightly modify the previous method third action: the top menu bar, select File - Export... - Archive of contacts and then go to step four.

And you make a backup of your contacts? How prefer to keep them and where? Share in the comments!