Gmail Contacts Restore from Sent?
November 4, 2009 12:12 PM Subscribe
I accidentally (long story) deleted all my Google contacts. They are all just sitting there in my Sent and All Mail folders, however. Is there an easy way to re-add them to My Contacts in Gmail. Or do I have to just patiently email everyone over time?
Best answer: The above doesn't work for me because I deleted all the Contacts (long story...still), so there was nothing in "Most Contacted" or "My Contacts" to add.
Here's the slightly strenuous lifting I did:
1. Set up Apple Mail app with Gmail IMAP account
2. Went to "Sent Mail" on server through Apple Mail.app
3. Made sure column view included "To" field
4. Sorted by "To"
5. Opened most recent email from each person I had emailed
6. Added contact to Address Book app by clicking on their name in the header (this took awhile)
7. Once my Address Book app was populated, I exported Address Book data using AtoG app that gives you an import-able csv file.
8. Imported contacts in Gmail.
PHew.
But maybe there was a more elegant way?
posted by moedym at 9:37 PM on November 4, 2009
Here's the slightly strenuous lifting I did:
1. Set up Apple Mail app with Gmail IMAP account
2. Went to "Sent Mail" on server through Apple Mail.app
3. Made sure column view included "To" field
4. Sorted by "To"
5. Opened most recent email from each person I had emailed
6. Added contact to Address Book app by clicking on their name in the header (this took awhile)
7. Once my Address Book app was populated, I exported Address Book data using AtoG app that gives you an import-able csv file.
8. Imported contacts in Gmail.
PHew.
But maybe there was a more elegant way?
posted by moedym at 9:37 PM on November 4, 2009
I just went through this yesterday. Here's what I did:
1. Download and install Thunderbird
2. Download all your email locally
3. Install Thunderbird extension "address context"
4. Highlight email, right click, and then add address to address book
5. Re-import to gmail, or just stick with Thunderbird, and you're done!
Must be an easier way but I couldn't find it!
posted by mtstover at 8:54 AM on November 5, 2009
1. Download and install Thunderbird
2. Download all your email locally
3. Install Thunderbird extension "address context"
4. Highlight email, right click, and then add address to address book
5. Re-import to gmail, or just stick with Thunderbird, and you're done!
Must be an easier way but I couldn't find it!
posted by mtstover at 8:54 AM on November 5, 2009
Claws mail has a feature that scans mails and collects senders and recipients into an address book.
I think thunderbird has the adressContext extension to do the same thing, but I haven't used it recently.
The other steps (imap configuration, import-export) would be the same as you did.
posted by Tobu at 8:58 AM on November 5, 2009
I think thunderbird has the adressContext extension to do the same thing, but I haven't used it recently.
The other steps (imap configuration, import-export) would be the same as you did.
posted by Tobu at 8:58 AM on November 5, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
Alternately, ... -> Contacts -> My contacts -> view suggestions (for who to add)
posted by zippy at 12:18 PM on November 4, 2009