Apple Intelligence now features Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools enhancements, seamless support for ChatGPT, and visual intelligence.

Apple Intelligence has also begun language expansion with localized English support for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. Learn more >

You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Avatar and Information in Contacts App disappear without Reason.

For the past few days, the avatar I used for my account to open my Mac Pro (late 2013, with macOS Monterey v12.5) and MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020, same macOS) disappeared without any reason. For this, I have used a photograph, a static memoji, and, more recently, a memoji that interacts with the cursor movement (varied position and facial expressions). However, it does not matter which one it is; it disappeared after a variable period, usually when the computer is asleep.


I know that the opening avatar in a Mac is the one set for the account's owner's vcard in the contacts app. As I said, I have put one avatar back in the vcard which got reflected on the opening of my user account on my computers, but it disappears when the computers went to sleep.


On occasion, but not always, there are also additional characters (basically gibberish) in some of the entries of my vcard after the avatar disappears. The last few times, I found this addition in the "country" entry of my personal address. Although it is mainly gibberish, on occasion, the word PHOTO can be read in capitals between the rest of the characters.


Once in a while, there are also missing data on my vcard besides the avatar. This happens on all computers, my iPhone and iCloud.com. Email addresses, parents' names, birth day, and my addresses have also disappeared. The contacts app on my computers, iPhone (12 Pro Max with iOS v15.6), and iCloud.com account are all synced with my computers, so all of them lose the avatar and data correspondingly.

I also lost some avatars assigned to other entries in my contacts app and probably some data.


I also have had two crashes of the contacts app in my MBP in the past week, and the crash information was sent to your company's attention.


Additionally, this "Jabber" option constantly appears under the "instant messaging" entry of my vcard. I understand this "jabber" is a Google IM option, BUT I never requested to use it. A few days back, I noticed I had the word "jabber" on the left bottom corner of the messages app; taking me a long while to make it disappear. I got a google account probably before 2015 and use it for two days, never use it again, and canceled it. I never even set up the email feature either. Because of this, I thought my Google account is non-existent, so I found rather strange the presence of "jabber" and its persistence on my computers.


I do not know if the disappearing issue has to do with the "jabber" issue, but I thought it was worth mentioning both here.


I hope you can help me with these issues,

Thanks in advance

Fernando

Posted on Aug 7, 2022 9:19 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 7, 2022 10:16 AM

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?


Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 7, 2022 10:16 AM in response to FernandoAM

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?


Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


Avatar and Information in Contacts App disappear without Reason.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.