remove duplicate email addresses from "To" bar?

Question

remove duplicate email addresses from "To" bar?

Fellow Mac-users,

I am experiencing an annoying issue with my standard mail client and contacts. Though I have extensively searched the net for an answer, I still have been unsuccessful in solving it. I have a MacBook Air that runs on OSX 10.9.1.

I have my contacts stored on the iCloud which is a good thing. Everytime when I compose an email message that I'd like to send I experience the following issue: When I use the auto-fill feature to fill in the recepients ("To"), the contact automatically duplicates itself. So this is how it looks like: "To: john@doe.com john@doe.com instead of just once".

I have already deleted my complete previous recepients list via the mail preferences. When I disable syncing of contacts on the iCloud, I get the mail addies just once, however my contacts are empty since they are stored on the iCloud.

I have read discussions where it was indicated that the problem might be that the details were stored both on the iCloud accound and on the "On my Mac" account locally and that I should make sure that the latter was both empty and set NOT being the default acount. I expecience issues with both items as firstly it appears that the "on my mac' account is empty (though it does not vanish, as it should); I cannot delete the account and I cannot set my iCloud account as default since that option is not present in the generals tab of my contacts preferences.

I am at a loss here. I would welcome any suggestion that might lead to solving this nasty little problem.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

Dan.

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Jan 21, 2014 2:33 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jan 21, 2014 6:56 AM in response to danielwestdijk

Please test after taking each of the following steps.

Step 1

Back up all data.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.AddressBookSourceSync

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash.

Log out, log back in, and test. If there's no change, go to the next step.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Step 2

If you use iCloud, uncheck the box marked Contacts in the iCloud preference pane. Press return to confirm, or click Keep on Mac in the dialog that opens.

Step 3

From the list of groups on the left side of the Contacts window, select All On My Mac. If that group doesn't exist or is empty, skip this step. Otherwise, from the menu bar, select

File ▹ Export ▹ Export vCard

Save the exported contacts to the Desktop.

Step 4

Quit Contacts. Reveal the following item in the Finder as you did in Step 1:

~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

Move the selected folder to the Desktop, leaving the window open for now.

Step 5

Launch Contacts. Your contacts will be gone. If you took Step 3, then double-click the file you created in that step and confirm that you want to import from it. Your contacts will reappear.

Step 6

If you took Step 2, reverse it. Test. If the issue is resolved, delete the AddressBook folder and the vCard file on the Desktop and close the open folder window.

Otherwise, quit Contacts again and put the AddressBook folder back where it was, overwriting the newer one that will have been created in its place. Post your results.

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