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What is AddressBookSourceSync?

I know it is controlled by a LaunchAgent, and I'm told its plist shows that it supports push, which must be why its running, and syncs with MobileMe (or something called 'dot-mac'), Exchange, and some other things.


My worry is I don't have a MobileMe account, nor a dot-mac whatever. I have not yet logged into Mail, so it should _not_ be looking for Exchange.


And now my question is, why does it pop up, asking for permission to access my Keychain every so often and disrupt my work? It refuses to go away when I press 'cancel' the first time but takes 3 or 4 'cancels'. And then, after a little break, it comes back until I key in my password. Then it appears satisfied. Until the next time!


What is it trying to access from my Keychain? And why has it started happening only within the last few weeks? It never used to happen when I first installed Lion. Nor even the update to OS X 10.7.1.


Thanks for any illuminating replies.


RS

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Sep 30, 2011 8:26 PM

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Posted on Oct 14, 2011 6:00 AM

I observe since a couple of days (perhaps since I upgraded to 1.7.2.?) that "AddressBookSourceSync" eats up my 8 GB iMac memory until the machine comes to a full stop.

Only terminating this in Activity Monitor helps. But a couple of minutes later this devil comes up again.

What is it? Where does it come from? Does it have something to do with iCloud sync?


Thanks a lot.

Best regards

Marian

77 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 14, 2011 6:00 AM in response to rsfromhome

I observe since a couple of days (perhaps since I upgraded to 1.7.2.?) that "AddressBookSourceSync" eats up my 8 GB iMac memory until the machine comes to a full stop.

Only terminating this in Activity Monitor helps. But a couple of minutes later this devil comes up again.

What is it? Where does it come from? Does it have something to do with iCloud sync?


Thanks a lot.

Best regards

Marian

Oct 14, 2011 5:53 PM in response to rsfromhome

Me too. Began when I bought at new MacBookPro 13 inch with Lion and transferred my stuff with Migration Assistant. Addressbooksourcesync pops up from time to time and refuses to go away until I put in my keychain password. Was hoping it would be fixed with the big download a couple nights ago. Not so lucky. Hope they fix it soon, it's annoying.

Oct 15, 2011 5:05 AM in response to JKylander

It is the most irritating app I have seen! It pops up its request to access my login keychain at the most awkward times, especially when I'm replying to a message, or browsing through my social networking sites and I either have to key in my keychain password or click 'cancel'. I've noticed that, if I click 'cancel' I have to do this four times before it goes away (until it returns shortly thereafter!) There seems to be no set time. I wish we could figure out why it pops up; if it is necessary; and thirdly, if it is not necessary, how to stop it!


Glad to know I wasn't the only one with this problem. There's comfort in numbers!


RS

Oct 15, 2011 5:15 AM in response to rsfromhome

I noticed that AddressBookSourceSync starts its memory eating activities in the moment I check Contacts in iCloud Sync. When I uncheck Contacts there, AddressBookSourceSync terminates.


If my observation is right, then Apple does have a serious issue with iCloud Sync of Contacts. With this error it is simply not possible to work with a MAC while iCloud is switched on. Give AddressBookSourceSync some time and it turns your Mac into a crawling turtle and finally freezes completely. Reason is that this task eats up your memory step by step until it occupies it entirely.

Oct 17, 2011 8:56 PM in response to rsfromhome

I migrated from me.com to iCloud four days ago and have the same issues. I can watch the activity monitor - AddressBookSourceSync will go from 15% to 89% to 20% and so on. I have about 1500 contacts (not sure if this is a problem that occurs with users having lots of contacts.) It consumes so much CPU capacity that the entire MacBook chassis heats up until it's almost too hot to rest comfortably on my lap.


I have turned off Address sync and the issue seems to have resolved itself. I am hoping that Apple sends some sort of notification of a fix, so that I'll know to turn it back on at some point in the future.

Oct 18, 2011 5:52 AM in response to jeff58

I observe three obviously related issues which are keeping me away from a proper work on my iMac:


1. Once migrated from MobileMe to iCloud and sync of contacts checked on, the task "AddressBookSourceSync" creeps into the task list and eats up the entire memory of my iMac within a couple of minutes. The only cure is to kill the task in Activity Monitor.


2. Done this, I opened Address Book. This behaves exactly the same. I see the task Address Book in Activitry Monitor but no more AddressBookSourceSync. However, the behavior is the same: Addressbook eats all memory. I have to kill it before the iMac crashes.


3. Now, I want to uncheck contacts sync in System Prefs. Doing so, I get asked if I want to keep a copy of my iCloud contacts on my iMac. If I choose Keep Contacts, System Prefs freezes, cannot be closed anymore; monitoring it shows the exact same memory eating behavior. Only killing the task in Activity Monitor gets you out here.


So, How do I get out here? It seems impossible to switch off contacts sync in iCloud. The only way I found out is, to coose "Delete from Mac" when you get asked in Sys Prefs when you uncheck Contacts. Result is: an empty Address Book - which was not a drama in my case, because I had a backup.


Quintessence: Here is a serious problem and I hope more voices raise here so that Apple is hearing us.

What is AddressBookSourceSync?

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