Tuco09
Level 1 (5 points)
Mac OS X

Q: How do you delete a phone number for a contact in messages recent list

In messages OSX the recent drop down menus shows phone numbers and email addresses no longer used by some of my contacts.  How do I delete the contact info no longer used by my contacts?  These contact numbers have been removed from the Contacts app but still show up in OSX Messages.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), iMac 3.5 intel Core i7 / 16GB

Posted on Sep 4, 2016 8:52 AM

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Tuco09

Q: How do you delete a phone number for a contact in messages recent list

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  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Sep 4, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Tuco09
    Level 9 (72,957 points)
    Applications
    Sep 4, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Tuco09

    Hi,

     

    As you may know in Mail there is a  Recent Recipient option that shows you a list of emails address the App has dealt with.

     

    Messages dose not have this despite doing things the same way when showing you current Contacts, Buddy Names  and,as you say, recent people even if you have deleted them from everywhere else.

     

    There is a .plist in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/Data/Library/Preferences

    In this folders most are Alias items pointing to ~/Library/Preferences but there are some "Helper" ones that are actual .plists.

     

    com.apple.messageshelper.AccountInfoController.plist holds all the Buddy Lists by Account and Screen Name if AIM and Jabber or Yahoo IDs in others.

    It will also list some iMessage "Handles" and some FaceTime ones as well but for some reason not all of the recent chats be they Contacts already in your Contacts app or random contacts you have had.

     

    There used to be a file called com.apple.ichat.LSSharedFileList.plist in ~/Library/Preferences that actually held the Recent Chats List

    This file is no longer accessed if it is still in the Preferences Folder and the item in the File Menu to access it has gone from Messages.

    com.apple.ichat.plist itself now seems to hold the Recent Chat list but again it never seems to be complete.

     

    I have found no complete way to remove old numbers and emails address/Apple IDs

     

     

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    8:00 pm      Sunday; September 4, 2016

     

    ​  iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     iPhone and an iPad (2)