Can't edit or delete mac contacts

I know you posted this ages ago but thank you so much!! Have been frustrated for months that my iCloud contacts weren't showing up on my Mac and so I wouldn't receive any forwarded SMS messages from my phone because of that. Step one immediately fixed it!

jgoshawk wrote:

I suspect this has some connection with iCloud, but I can't figure it out.

I'm guessing you intend to have your contacts reside in your iCloud account. I will assume that going forward.

In Contacts, check Preferences (under Contacts in the menu bar), and choose "Accounts" from the top. Is you iCloud account shown there? Is the "Enable this account" box checked? Is your Apple ID shown correctly?

Problems such as yours are sometimes caused by files that should belong to you but are locked or have wrong permissions. This procedure will check for such files. It makes no changes and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.

First, empty the Trash.

Triple-click the line below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 -o -acl \) 2> /dev/null | wc -l

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

The output of this command, on a line directly below what you entered, will be a number such as "41." Please post it in a reply.

Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.

This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.

Step 1

If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.

Triple-click the following line to select it. Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.

Step 2 (optional)

Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.

Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.

When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

Utilities ▹ Terminal

from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.

In the Terminal window, type this:

res

Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword

Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.

Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

Select

 ▹ Restart

from the menu bar.

That rocks, Linc. Step 1 worked for me, too. Thank you! 🙂

I attempted to edit the "note" section at the bottom of a Contacts card, but the edit disappears after it is typed.

I tried both Linc's step 1 command and step 2 reset, but the failure to retain edits remains.

Thanks for any help.

PS. The checking command returned "25". I am not using iCloud for Contacts, but I am using iCloud for Calendar only.

My problem is different. I can create and delete cards normally. I can even sucessfully edit other fields in the same card in which I am unable to retain changes to the "note" section. I am also able to retain edits the "note" section of other cards. The problem is confined to the "note section" of one card.

I worked-around this by creating a new card, with the note section correct, then merged it with the old card.

Linc: step 1 worked for me, thanks

couldn't remove contacts from group or add new contacts to group.

pete

terriffic! thanks, worked perfectly for me.

Step 1 is the poo... worked perfect 😍

Linc, your Step 1 Terminal command line worked a treat for my identical Contacts "Edit, Delete" problem. You're a Level 11 man on my book.

Cheers! 🙂

jgoshawk: Thanks for that solution. I did exactly as you said, I did not need to do step 2. This did not work even after I rebooted. Are there any other options or do I simply have to live with this **** issue?

Aloha Linc! I have a macbook pro mid 2010, running 10.9.4 Mavericks. I am the only admin. and user. I can't delete the contacts or groups after trying your suggestions as per Mountain Lion. I would actually like to reset my home permissions to default, as well as the system permissions. My trusted mac has given me no grief until I loaded the accursed Mavricks. Now everything is buggered, trouble everywhere, and I even think I have 'malwear' which I never thought a mac could get.

1. Trying the terminal paste solution I got this.

Last login: Mon Sep 15 20:56:54 on console

[The-Fatmans-Laptop:~] rick% { sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null

Bad substitute.

[The-Fatmans-Laptop:~] rick%

2. Trying the reboot to recovery, utilities, well when I got there I could find no 'terminal' in the menu bar to get there.

You look like the 'go to' guy for all things mac. Can you give me a hand reseting all the permissions to default? If not, I'm more than ready to go back to Mountain Lion, and give Mavericks a miss till they get it out of 'beta' testing 😉 with all the bugs out.

Thanks mate.