E mail address book

[Dumps92]

In late May, my address book was emptied and my emails were deleted including those in folders. After much badgering, my address book was restored but my emails were lost. I was advised by the technical department that I, the user, had deleted my address book on 17 May. As I was abroad at the time and flew back that day, I don’t  think I did. Since being informed that I had deleted my address book I have asked how do you do that as all I can find is how to delete and individual contact or group. So can anyone suggest how to delete an address book as none of the Talk Talk staff I interacted with could! As  I cannot see how to do it, I wonder how I managed to do it without trying! More importantly how can I copy my address book and store it safely to prevent its loss again.

[Dumps92]

Dear Gondola,

thank you, an explanation I can understand and concur with. I felt that they response I had from Talk Talk didn’t make sense. I was even told to contact Apple to see if they could recover my emails and address book! I understood when using the Apple Mail my ‘ contacts’ are drawn from my Apple contacts list and not my Talk Talk address book. As you say there is no link. After 7 weeks of persistent calling emailing a lady in service management called Becky gripped the problem and , despite their techies saying no they event agreed to restore my address book from a back up. However they said my lost emails were irretrievable😣.
thanks

Dumps 

[Gondola]

In relation to the Address Book deletion this has to be a manual intervention or an unexpected fault condition.

In the current TalkTalk Mail version 7.8.4 there is no CardDAV synchronising of the Address Book data. Only Export and Import functions but no synchronisation. Therefore it's not at all relevant to the use of both a browser sign in and use of mail apps concurrently. Only the webmail sign in to the mailbox can action any address book changes. So, given that deletion of one or more contacts has to be actioned and confirmed this must be an intentioned act or a fault condition. 

[Dumps92]

Thanks for helpful reply. As for deleting my address book, yes see how to do that and I can certainly say I didn’t do that. I will do that export on my PC. Yes I have changed my password. Talk Talk have suggested that it could be that on my IPAD, I use both their Webmail app and Apple Mail, using  third party apps may be a problem. I also have Norton and use VPN do I thought I should be safe from a hack. Still mystified how it happened😣

[Gondola]

I assume you're talking about TalkTalk Mail and the mailbox / apps including the Address Book?

• Select Address Book from the header bar
• Select View menu options
  Folder view
  Checkboxes

Deleting all contacts is just a three click process. Exporting to a backup drive is also a three click process.

To delete all contacts in a selected Address Book:

• Tick the Select All tick box top left of the contacts list
  You'll get an indication of how many contacts are selected
• Select Delete (Delete contact)
• Confirm by selecting the Blue Delete button in the pop-up window
• All contacts will be deleted

To export and save all contacts from a selected Address Book:

• Select the triple line Actions menu
• Select Export
• Select to save the entire folder as a CSV or vCard file
  Include distribution lists if you wish
• Save to your computer or backup drive as required

The key question is who had access to your mailbox to delete the contents?  Did you take the precaution of upgrading your mailbox password?