Address Book: Can't Edit or Delete iCloud Contacts (10.7)

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Level 1

20 points

Address Book: Can't Edit or Delete iCloud Contacts (10.7)

I have no idea why but I can't delete or edit Address Book entries in Lion. It works fine on the web-based client and from my iPad 2 and iPhone 4 (CDMA). But my Address Book.app in Lion only can view them. I've tried turning off the Address Book function and re-adding it. I made sure all permissions are correct for the address book prefs etc are correct.

I am stumped! I am also irritated. I do Tech Support for a living and am pretty good at figuring this stuff out for other people. I am cluelss when it comes to myself!

MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 8, 2012 4:24 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 9, 2012 2:00 AM in response to MikeyPD

I have the same exact problem and feel like an idiot. There seems to be no way to do it in the address book.

Any ideas out there?

BF

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Answer 2

Jun 9, 2012 3:16 AM in response to brifast99

To edit an entry, you must click the "edit" button in the lower left corner of the right-hand address bookpage. In other words, in the new address book, when you open an entry, you see a "book," with a left and right page. The edit button in on the right page, lower left corner, next to the share button.

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Answer 3

MikeyPD Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 9, 2012 7:59 AM in response to bythecshore

bythecshore, Thank's but I assure you it isn't a user error. The options to delete and edit are NOT there. At first I thought it was an iCloud issue but then realized that if I Create a new address card "on my mac" I can't edit or delete it either.

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Answer 4

MikeyPD Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 9, 2012 8:00 AM in response to brifast99

You aren't an idiot, Brifast99.

This is a serious problem. I went and gave myself read/write permissions in Library and it didn't help. Ugh so irritating.

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Answer 5

MikeyPD Author

Level 1

20 points

Jun 9, 2012 9:05 AM in response to MikeyPD

I used Pacifist to REINSTALL Address Book from the Lion installer and IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! I can't edit or delete anything. This is irritating.

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jun 9, 2012 9:20 AM in response to MikeyPD

MikeyPD wrote:

I used Pacifist to REINSTALL Address Book from the Lion installer and IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! I can't edit or delete anything. This is irritating.

This is a test:

Make a new user account with Admin privileges, login to it and check whether you can edit AB in the new user account.

Post Back

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Answer 7

Jun 22, 2012 12:33 PM in response to MikeyPD

I found a solution in an earlier thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3499679?start=0&tstart=0

It worked for me!

Regards, Jim

Message was edited by: jamesk8752 to correct typos.

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Answer 8

MikeyPD Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 11, 2012 3:07 PM in response to MikeyPD

Thanks to jamesk8752's link...I fixed it!!! :-) That link he posted brought me to the fix. I wrote it out easier to follow. I want to mention that when I upgraded to Mountain Lion the issue continued. This fix did the trick

1. Make a Backup Archive of your AddressBook.app (or Contacts.app)

2. Shut off iCloud Syncing (choose the option to delete the contacts).

3. Now with NO contacts in AddressBook (Contacts) quit the application.

4. Click on "go" and choose "go to folder" & navigate to [username]/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (even in Mountain Lion this is still accurate)

5. DELETE the addressbook-v22.abcddb file. Empty trash (just because I have OCD).

6. Reopen AddressBook/Contacts & create a new address card. You should now be able to edit it! Then delete it.

7. Go back into System Prefrences and turn on iCloud Contacts.

Your iCloud contacts will then appear and you'll be able to edit, delete, add, etc! Everything will be right as rain!

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Answer 9

Aug 24, 2012 4:11 PM in response to MikeyPD

I'm having the same problem with the latest version of Mountain Lion (10.8.1) installed. My contacts are in the Cloud, so they sync with my iPhone. However, I cannot edit them from my Macbook.

I tried the instructions above, but there is no addressbook-v22.abcddb file on my computer at all. In fact, there are no files named *.abcddb on my systelm.

Any other ideas, folks?

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Answer 10

JoelCapo

Level 1

0 points

Aug 31, 2012 1:46 PM in response to GongShowNB

Use the same steps above, but the file is in a different spot (at least for me; running 10.8.1). Try clicking on "Go" and choose "go to folder" and navigate to /users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/AddressBook, and see if the file is there.

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Answer 11

hllmlcf

Level 1

0 points

Sep 1, 2012 5:45 PM in response to MikeyPD

Does this work to get rid of the On My Mac address book and just have the iCloud address book? I was perfectly happy with my MobileMe and since Apple made me switch, I have 2 different address books on my iMac, but my iPhone and MacBook only have the iCloud address book. Annoyed that Apple couldn't just leave it the way it was!

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Answer 12

Davejh

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2012 7:06 AM in response to MikeyPD

Thankyou MikeyPD, have been battling this for ages.. am running 10.7.3 and had to use the path from JoelCapo and life is good .. well nearly 😟

Still cannot add addresses straight from Mac Mail using the 'add to address book' option,

which does not actually work 😟 but I do then get an option to show contact card but this

shows a string of characters that do not link to the address book contact...

So close to heaven .. or 10.6.x .. thats progress !

Any ideas ?

Dave

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Answer 13

CT-JFK

Level 1

0 points

Nov 17, 2012 11:02 AM in response to MikeyPD

I can add that the solution worked for me too. After upgrading to Mountain Lion, anything to do with contacts was not working. It would not resolve names, it would not allow me to see "cards," and I kept getting the dreaded beach ball. This seems to have cleared things up.

- Jim

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Answer 14

Apr 24, 2013 5:30 AM in response to MikeyPD

I had this same issue and finally resolved it by the solution outlined above by jamesk8752

Now I just have to figuer out why my Mail keeps crashing on my iMac...

The joys of Applehood. I sometimes feel like I've stepped back in time to being a Windows user :-(

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Answer 15

Apr 24, 2013 9:29 AM in response to dingsquidge

Well here's the thing - since resolving this Address book issue, Mail is no longer crashing on my iMac. (She says, tentatively...).

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