HT204150: Get help using iCloud Contacts

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Noleigator

Q: Some server contacts could not be copied to this address book.

An alert icon appears next to 'All iCloud' within the Contacts app.  Once clicked, an alert notification appears on the screen that reads, "Some server contacts could not be copied to this address book."  Neither the operating system, nor the web-based help communities provide a means of troubleshooting this problem.  As a result of this problem it seems that my iCloud contacts are never in sync across my Apple devices (i.e. iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro), namely on my MacBook Pro, which is my primary device and should always provide the most complete data bank of contacts.  Contacts on the web-based iCloud interface always matches what is on the iPhone and iPad but rarely the MacBook Pro.  All devices are running the most current updates for the most recent operating system releases as of 12/02/2014.

 

To support community members viewing this post, please offer the best means of troubleshooting this problem without resulting in the deletion of contacts or information within contacts.  I thank you all in advance for your time and attention.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 12:01 PM

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Q: Some server contacts could not be copied to this address book.

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  • by spcurtis81,

    spcurtis81 spcurtis81 Jul 27, 2015 9:12 AM in response to AmeliaKD
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2015 9:12 AM in response to AmeliaKD

    Same question for me. I have a long string for the contact detail but this doesn't help me identify the offending contact entry.

  • by Ahakims.ah,

    Ahakims.ah Ahakims.ah Sep 5, 2015 5:37 AM in response to oljej
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 5, 2015 5:37 AM in response to oljej

    Hi,

     

     

    Could you please help me with this issue...the steps mentioned above i don't understand.

     

    Please help :

    Some server contacts could not be copied to this address book

  • by Ahakims.ah,

    Ahakims.ah Ahakims.ah Sep 5, 2015 7:10 AM in response to Alexander Newman
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 5, 2015 7:10 AM in response to Alexander Newman

    hi,

     

    can u help me how to solve this problem.

     

    i dont understand the steps.

  • by cameron828,

    cameron828 cameron828 Oct 5, 2015 11:40 AM in response to structAnkit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2015 11:40 AM in response to structAnkit

    YES!!  I'm not so tech-savvy, so that /var/log/system.log bit intimidated me at first.

    I was not able to locate using Finder.

    But in attempting to Google that phrase I discovered that entering it into my Chrome search bar sent me to the right place.

    I was again intimidated by the seeming pages and pages of messages. But in doing text search for "Ignored vCard" I discovered that there were only three cards that needed to be deleted.
    Brilliant!!  Thank you.

     

    Only problem about this fix was that many Contacts were sync'ed backwards to older, unedited, versions rather than the updated versions that were on my other machine.   :-(

  • by Warren Heaton,

    Warren Heaton Warren Heaton Nov 5, 2015 9:30 AM in response to structAnkit
    Level 3 (575 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 9:30 AM in response to structAnkit

    Thank you, structAnkit, for listing the step by step instructions!

     

    The steps worked for resolving the error message for my iCloud contacts.  It turned out to be just one of the contact files that needed to be deleted and re-created.

     

    Without your instructions on how to search the log file, I never would have found which contact was the source of the problem!

     

     

     

    -Warren

  • by Ben Thoma,

    Ben Thoma Ben Thoma Jan 13, 2016 3:11 PM in response to AmeliaKD
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Jan 13, 2016 3:11 PM in response to AmeliaKD

    I has a similar issue (viewing the log helped identify where the error occurred, but not with a identifiable name—just a long code that didn't link it to one contact I could see on the user end), and I found the action people suggested in this thread to be useful: Why is Contacts delete greyed out?

  • by Manos Sim,

    Manos Sim Manos Sim Mar 13, 2016 12:43 PM in response to Ahakims.ah
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2016 12:43 PM in response to Ahakims.ah

    Hello,

    1. Go to system preference,

    2. Chose your iCloud account,

    3. Uncheck contacts,

    4. Check it again.

     

    This will solve the problem

  • by Patrick Lafferty,

    Patrick Lafferty Patrick Lafferty Mar 23, 2016 7:07 AM in response to structAnkit
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 23, 2016 7:07 AM in response to structAnkit

    Thank you for your solution, but despite having found a corrupt card in the log, via the IGNORED message you mention, I cannot pull up that corrupt card in the contacts file. So there's no corrupt data to copy over to a new card.

     

    How then can I find this card that keeps firing off an IGNORED message? It's in the log but not, somehow, discoverable in the app.

     

    thanks

  • by momwife,

    momwife momwife Mar 29, 2016 2:32 PM in response to BlitheOptimist
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Mar 29, 2016 2:32 PM in response to BlitheOptimist

    I can't find /private/var/log/system.log' and search for 'vcard' and I can't find  "less /var/log/system.log".

    At one point I did find the system.log, but then I had to repair my disc and now I can' t find the "less /var/log/system.log" file.

    When I had found it earlier I couldn't tell what files were the problem. How do you tell?

    This is what I found before I repaired my disc, but I can't tell what cards are causing the problem.


    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: vCard Syntax Error, character: 51666 : ;

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: X-ABUID:15E0C484-33D8-4C55-AB8B-BCE1BFE7CF5A:ABPersond52dc4d6b499f;X-HASHAL

     

      GORITHM=X-zMD5;ENCODIN

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: vCard Syntax Error, character: 51673 : N

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: :15E0C484-33D8-4C55-AB8B-BCE1BFE7CF5A:ABPersond52dc4d6b499f;X-HASHAL

     

      GORITHM=X-zMD5;ENCODING=B:3wA

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: vCard Syntax Error, character: 51680 : A

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: 84-33D8-4C55-AB8B-BCE1BFE7CF5A:ABPersond52dc4d6b499f;X-HASHAL

     

      GORITHM=X-zMD5;ENCODING=B:3wAAAPsAAA

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: vCard Syntax Error, character: 51687 : A

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: -4C55-AB8B-BCE1BFE7CF5A:ABPersond52dc4d6b499f;X-HASHAL

     

      GORITHM=X-zMD5;ENCODING=B:3wAAAPsAAABMWkZ1g

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: vCard Syntax Error, character: 51694 : g

    Mar 29 09:24:53 Our-MacBook.local com.apple.quicklook.satellite[4788]: B8B-BCE1BFE7CF5A:ABPersond52dc4d6b499f;X-HASHAL

     

    Plus a few more.

  • by sascher18,

    sascher18 sascher18 Sep 12, 2016 11:45 AM in response to structAnkit
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 12, 2016 11:45 AM in response to structAnkit

    When I enter "/var/log/system.log" in Finder, Terminal or TextEditor. Nothing happens. I'm looking for the errors to delete so iCloud contact syncing works properly. Any suggestions?

  • by cwebber1,

    cwebber1 cwebber1 Sep 14, 2016 6:14 PM in response to sascher18
    Level 1 (47 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 6:14 PM in response to sascher18

    PROBLEM:

     

    You MAC (osx)  and your iPHONE (ios) do not support the same standards. (different software coders didn't talk to eachother and never used a common specification).

     

    In the case of .vcf files (a very common type of Contact Card), my MAC and my iPhone cannot share one of my cards.

     

    I looked at my /var/log/system.log file.  Found that it was complaining about one of the 300 or so contacts I have sync'd between my iPhone, iCloud, and Mac.  The error message seem to be related to a particular field in the .VCF.

     

    Here is the offending line (coming from iCloud):

    X-SOCIALPROFILE;type=Yelp;x-displayname="Carlsbad Auto Service:http://yelp.com/ ...

    (note that a matching quote is missing).

     

    Here is what the line looks like on the VCF card on my Mac:

    X-SOCIALPROFILE;type=Yelp;x-displayname="Carlsbad Auto Service, Inc.":http://yelp.com/biz/

     

    Note, it has a pair of quotes.  I believe the quotes are necessary because the string contains a comma.

     

    But IOS doesn't like this.  On my iphone, that contact looks like:

     

                 Yelp:

                 "Carlsbad Auto Service

     

    Note, only one quote.  Definitely not right.

     

    SOLUTION:

    Delete the card and start over.

    Note:  this card came from either Apple Maps, or maybe Google Maps.  The YELP field was not something I put in the card.  I merely asked the Map to "Add to Contacts".

    Apparently, "Add to Contacts" is a bad idea, because the software guys out there can't seem to agree on what field they will accept in the Card and what the syntax (format) for those fields will be.

  • by Blair,

    Blair Blair Sep 20, 2016 6:41 PM in response to cwebber1
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Sep 20, 2016 6:41 PM in response to cwebber1

    I've been looking in the system.log file for a vCard as I'm getting the error in the Contacts app - but it's not returning any errors. I've searched "errors" "vcard" "socialprofile" ... but nothing is coming up. I don't sync via Google, just iCloud. Any thoughts on what I might be missing?

  • by Tiskers,

    Tiskers Tiskers Sep 30, 2016 2:29 PM in response to Noleigator
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 30, 2016 2:29 PM in response to Noleigator

    I am having the exact problem as the OP... and I have carefully read every single reply.

     

    I simply do not understand most of what is explained in the steps mentioned in the answer posts.

     

    I did put "ERROR" in the search field of Finder, and got a long list of items but NONE of them seemed to be a contact entry or card.

     

    Can someone please help me... using Dummy 101 language?!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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