Thousand of Groups in Contacts

Question

Thousand of Groups in Contacts

Reposted as no solution offered.

For clarity regarding the problem (please read before responding).

1) I have thousands and thousands of duplicate "GROUPS" in my iCloud contacts

2) These have groups have synched across all devices (iPhone, iPad, iMac,MacBookPro)

3) Only the GROUPS not the CONTACTS have duplicated.

4) Only way to delete these is "one at a time" which takes about 30 seconds a piece due to spinning rainbow ball in contacts (and long calculation/wait times in iCloud.com). There are probably 25-30,000 groups and I believe that they regenerate as soon as I delete them.

5) a very helpful script https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/65808/script-to-delete-all-groups-in-contacts was developed - but this doesn't work ( I let it run for days with little impact).

6) I reiterate that this is NOT a duplicate CONTACT issue - it is a duplicate GROUP issue.

7) Apple Stores and Apple Support have been unhelpful, his problem has existed for about 4-5 years now.

Thanks!

unwanted duplicate contact groups in iCloud

I have been trying unsuccessfully to remove the thousands of DUPLICATE CONTACT GROUPS from my

devices. I've turned off CONTACTS ICLOUD on my iPad/iphone and my home mac's (two iMacs, MBP, and Mini); when I log into iCloud with Safari I see the hundreds or thousands of duplicate GROUPS in

Contacts (they were all showing up on my devices until I turned off iCloud for Contacts.

I've read many google searches regarding duplicate contact groups without much inspiration or help.

Today I called Apple suppor and the technical lady ; after trying to share/view failed; basically said I had to delete each duplicate group manually one at a time on iCloud. The web iCloud contacts app only allows one group deletion at at time (10-15 seconds). I do not have enough time left on earth to fix this. I'll just leave iCloud Contacts disable across all my devices and abandon this use of iCloud. Im very disappointed that there apparently is no solution to this (seems there are others with this issue) problem. Usually my experience with Apple support is good; USUALLY.

I'll keep searching periodically for a solution; but in the mean time I'll be keeping my Christmas list, neighborhood list on my windows pc. This contacts GROUP function on iCloud is broken for me.

[Personal Information Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Jul 8, 2021 2:22 PM

Reply

Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

64,998 points

Jul 9, 2021 3:04 AM in response to musicaddicted

A user will never create repeated groups intentionally on a Mac , your address book has been synced with various exchange accounts , consult senior apple care advisors in apple support ( they can only refresh your iCloud account from server ) Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Jake378

Level 4

1,191 points

Jul 8, 2021 2:45 PM in response to musicaddicted

Then try this link for support and getting your issue resolved. Contact - Official Apple Support or Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

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Answer 3

tygb

Level 9

64,998 points

Jul 8, 2021 7:00 PM in response to musicaddicted

Mac address book is corrupted , first create a new admin account in users and groups , if issue persists erase the hard drive and reinstall Mac OS .

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Answer 4

Jul 8, 2021 2:27 PM in response to Jake378

Thanks for your thoughtful comment - however as mentioned above in item #4 - there are 30,000 groups that have been created - which would take approximately an "entire lifetime" to delete them. Also that the regenerate as soon as they are deleted.

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Answer 5

Jake378

Level 4

1,191 points

Jul 8, 2021 2:30 PM in response to musicaddicted

It regenerates and makes more? If you log into iCloud.com you can just select one and hold shift and scroll down to the last one and select it and then it selects all of them, then you can just press the delete key.

But, if your saying that it regenerates which is very odd then your should try contacting Official Apple Support.

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Answer 6

Jul 8, 2021 2:36 PM in response to Jake378

iCloud / Contacts is basically non-functional for me - when I load I get this message.

in addition your advice "select one and hold shift and scroll down to the last one" only works for CONTACTS not for GROUPS

Error Message:

Contacts has stopped responding.

An error has prevented this application from working properly. Help Apple improve its products by sending us diagnostic and usage information about Contacts.

▼︎Details

APP NAME

contacts

HOSTING APP NAME

cloudos2

CLIENT TIME

Thu Jul 08 2021 14:33:01 GMT-0700 (PDT) (1625779981208)

USER AGENT

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/14.1.1 Safari/605.1.15

HOSTNAME

www.icloud.com

BUILD INFO

2112Project34__2112B28__UNKNOWN

ENVIRONMENT INFO

PROD

REPORTED ERROR TITLE

CANNOT_LOAD_STARTUP_DATA

REPORTED ERROR TYPE

CANNOT_LOAD_STARTUP_DATA

LINE NUMBER

11

STACK

exit@https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos2/2112Project32/en-us/main.js:11:667025

https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos2/2112Project32/en-us/main.js:11:906514

https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos2/2112Project32/en-us/main.js:11:185903

[native code]

r@https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos2/2112Project32/en-us/main.js:11:447069

a@https://www.icloud.com/system/cloudos2/2112Project32/en-us/main.js:11:549930

ERROR CONTEXT

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: DEBUG: Creating local CK.User object

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: BEGIN initialize statechart

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: WARN: WARN SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: Can not use groupsViewDisplayMode as initial substate since substates are all concurrent for state loadedState.appState

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: BEGIN gotoState: __ROOT_STATE__

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: starting from current state: ---

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: current states before: ---

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: --> entering state: __ROOT_STATE__

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: --> entering state: loadingMode

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: current states after: loadingMode

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: END gotoState: __ROOT_STATE__

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: END initialize statechart

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: WARN: Cannot bind 'labelIsActive' to property 'isActive' on non-observable 'Contacts.LabelView'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: BEGIN sendEvent: 'childrenLayoutMayNeedComputing'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: No state was able handle event childrenLayoutMayNeedComputing

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: END sendEvent: 'childrenLayoutMayNeedComputing'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: BEGIN sendEvent: 'childrenLayoutMayNeedComputing'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: No state was able handle event childrenLayoutMayNeedComputing

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: END sendEvent: 'childrenLayoutMayNeedComputing'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: BEGIN sendEvent: 'noSelection'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: No state was able handle event noSelection

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:31:58 GMT: INFO: SC.Statechart<contacts-statechart, sc1039>: END sendEvent: 'noSelection'

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:32:31 GMT: DEBUG: Could not decode startup response from CloudOS

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:32:31 GMT: DEBUG: Creating local CK.User object

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:32:31 GMT: DEBUG: There is a problem with the startup request coming from CloudOS, lets send one ourselves...

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:32:31 GMT: DEBUG: Scheduling startup request: /co/startup?dsid=38337935&order=last,first&locale=en_US

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:32:31 GMT: DEBUG: ** Beginning read cycle (CW.ReadCycle:sc3043) (no pending cycles)…

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:32:31 GMT: DEBUG: --> Request 1: GET to https://p101-contactsws.icloud.com:443/co/startup?clientBuildNumber=2112Project34&clientId=2fdd7535-24a6-4467-b8b0-6c38ccabdd0a&clientMasteringNumber=2112B28&clientVersion=2.1&dsid=38337935&locale=en_US&order=last%2Cfirst, headers: Content-Type=text/plain, body: (omitted)

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:33:01 GMT: DEBUG: <-- Response 1: 0 (timed out), headers: body: (empty)

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 21:33:01 GMT: WARN: handleStateError(): Unexpected error status in response (0)

Reply

Answer 7

Jake378

Level 4

1,191 points

Jul 8, 2021 2:25 PM in response to musicaddicted

Login to icloud.com and open contacts for easily being able to delete them.

Reply

Answer 8

Jake378

Level 4

1,191 points

Jul 8, 2021 2:41 PM in response to musicaddicted

Since this has seemed to have gone way beyond this User Support Forum, try contacting Official Apple Support.

Have a nice day!

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Answer 9

Jul 8, 2021 2:42 PM in response to Jake378

The link that you provided just eventually navigates me back to here.

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Answer 10

Jul 8, 2021 8:03 PM in response to tygb

This is the 11th machine to have this issue. All with clean installs. The challenge lays with iCloud.

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Thousand of Groups in Contacts

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