Address book/Mail collecting unwanted email addresses

Mrdrfrank wrote:
I participate in several education listservs via email. The problem is that hundreds of email addresses are showing up in my address book now, very few of which I actually need. Any suggestions on how to get Address Book or Mail to stop automatically putting these addresses in?

Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.

Are those addresses really in your address book, or are they just in Mail's "previous recipients" list (Mail menu Window -> Previous Recipients)? I don't know of any way to prevent addresses from being added to the "Previous Recipients" list, but addresses can be deleted from that list.

Mrdrfrank wrote:
They are appearing in Address Book. I have manually removed them but they soon reappear again.

Are you using the OS X Mail application? I know of no preference setting or mechanism in that, other than via a contextual menu from an address in an e-mail message, that can cause an entry to be created in Address Book, particularly without overt action. So I guess I can't help you.

I am having the same problem. Here's an example:

Alexis Eldridge
bxvo873twgce@aol.com

This address was created without my knowledge or permission. There are hundreds of them.

What gives?

Your responses are still confusing.

Mail has a database of previous recipients. It is not the Address Book.
Address Book is a separate program that you use to store contact information. Mail can use the addresses in Address Book.

So, are the addresses in Address Book or are they just in Previous Recipients (Window menu, Previous Recipients)?

I am having the same issue. It is NOT a Previous Recipients issue. These email addresses appear in my Address Book. It looks like anytime I receive an email, the email address is added to my Address Book. I delete them, but then more appear. Malware?

Please let me know if you find the resolution. I am having the EXACT same issues on the exact same devices. Thanks

I have not found the exact cause . . . I am convinced it is a rogue script that came through Spam of some sort. I'm hunting it down. Not sure if the scans I've done have found it. I need to go through and delete hundreds of email addresses first. I'm on the D's! Quite a ways to go. I'll post if I see I've found the culprit.

I'm also having the exact same thing happen on my computer.

Same for me. I become mad each time it happens as I have to spend hours getting rid of spurious addresses one by one. And it just happened 3 days ago ! 😟

It generally happens once every few month. I have never been able to find out whether it occurs after some particular operation or not. The fact is I do not know how to reproduce it. And I have had the problem for several years on several Mac's and several OSs.

For some addresses, Address Book shows the update date. I have thus been able to see that all junk email addresses (a few hundreds) are generally added on a same day, probably at the same time. No other clue whatsoever.

I have searched various Internet forums for a solution but did not find any. I have carefully looked at the manuals of Mail and Address Book: zilch.

Has anybody a workaround ?
E.g., where is the Address Book data stored (to make it read only) ?
Does anybody know how to interpret the contents of the Address Book plist files ?

I'm been having the same problem for the past few months -- it's incredibly annoying, as my address book now contains nearly 3000 cards, which makes it much more difficult to scroll through on iphone. What gives, Apple?

Yes, exactly the same problem here. It is definitely the application "Address Book" that contains the extra rogue contact information. And it is also definitely triggered by the receipt of an email.

I cleared my Address Book last night. This morning I received a normal weekly email from Misco and, sure enough, Misco's email address suddenly appeared in my Address Book and was subsequently synced via MobileMe to my iPhone. Very, very frustrating.

I'm happy to be a guinea pig if anyone has any ideas to try.

Thanks

Do you have any add-ons that modify Mail?
How about a rule that runs an applescript to import the addresses?

Hi Barney - thanks for your fast response.

I don't know how to check for add-ons. Is that inside Apple Mail?

I only have three rules setup in Apple Mail - one to turn emails from Apple blue, one to turn emails from my wife pink, and the third to move email from one specific recipient to a folder "ON MY MAC". These rules have been working for at least a year.