Level 1

28 points

Apple Script to Delete specific date from Contacts

Imported some contacts from Outlook. Microsoft got revenge by exporting 11/30/1999 for birthdays and anniversaries that were blank. Every 11/30 my birthday calendar fills up completely. One at at time deletion is too slow. I'd like to do an Apple script that finds all contacts with 11/30/1999 as birthday or anniversary and deletes it.

Running MacOS 10.12.2 Beta on an Mid2014 15 inch Retina with 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16 gig ram.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12.1), Actually, it's 10.12.2

Posted on Nov 27, 2016 11:37 AM

26 replies

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 5, 2016 6:57 PM in response to Barney-15E

I cut and pasted the script and ran it. This this error instantly?

error "Contacts got an error: Can’t make birthdate of person id \"A71D9E96-9948-4CA5-8E2E-37F176E31422:ABPerson\" into type specifier." number -1700 from birthdate of person id "A71D9E96-9948-4CA5-8E2E-37F176E31422:ABPerson" to specifier

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,318 points

Dec 5, 2016 7:05 PM in response to Van-D

Is the lack of space in birth date in your post a transcription error or the site removing it, because it should be there. I don't think it would cause that error.

I'm not sure why you would get that error. It runs for me just fine.

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 6, 2016 6:57 AM in response to Barney-15E

I'm so glad you like puzzles!

Instant error:

error "Contacts got an error: Can’t make birthdate of person id \"7CA9D357-C10D-4427-9986-6F40FAE3C3C3:ABPerson\" into type specifier." number -1700 from birthdate of person id "7CA9D357-C10D-4427-9986-6F40FAE3C3C3:ABPerson" to specifier

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 6, 2016 8:53 AM in response to Barney-15E

As soon as I invoked the new script I go this error:

error "Contacts got an error: Can’t make birthdate of person id \"7CA9D357-C10D-4427-9986-6F40FAE3C3C3:ABPerson\" into type specifier." number -1700 from birthdate of person id "7CA9D357-C10D-4427-9986-6F40FAE3C3C3:ABPerson" to specifier

I see in the script that birth date was changed in color from blue to magenta?

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 6, 2016 8:56 AM in response to Barney-15E

I invoked the new script and got this error:

I note that the the line "set birthday to (birth date of thePerson)" changed the color of birth date from blue to magenta.

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,318 points

Dec 6, 2016 4:59 PM in response to Van-D

Ok, I need to know if the script you are trying to run has birthdate or birth date--they are entirely different. What you post, birthdate, is wrong. If that is what your script says, you need to change every instance to birth date.

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 8, 2016 6:53 AM in response to Barney-15E

tell application "Contacts"

set thePeople to people

repeat with i from 1 to number of items in thePeople

set thePerson to (item i of thePeople)

set birthday to (birth date of thePerson)

if birthday is greater than or equal to date "Tuesday, November 30, 1999 at 12:00:00" and birthday is less than date "Wednesday, December 1, 1999 at 12:00:00" then

set the birth date of thePerson to missing value

end if

set theDates to (custom dates of thePerson)

if theDates is not {} then

repeat with j from (count of items in theDates) to 1 by -1

set dateValue to value of (item j of theDates)

set theLabel to label of (item j of theDates)

if dateValue is greater than or equal to date "Tuesday, November 30, 1999 at 12:00:00" and dateValue is less than date "Wednesday, December 1, 1999 at 12:00:00" and theLabel = "anniversary" then

set the value of (item j of theDates) to missing value

end if

end repeat

end if

end repeat

save

end tell

--ok, i popped a space into birthdate to make it birth date and ran it again. I got this error:

Result:

missing value

Did I misunderstand?

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,318 points

Dec 10, 2016 5:36 AM in response to Van-D

Again, that is just the normal output of the log. They aren't errors.

It is showing you each line of code as it runs for each person and date.

As you can see towards the end of the the listing you posted, it found a person with an anniversary date on 11/30/1999 so it set that to nothing.

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 10, 2016 3:46 PM in response to Barney-15E

It stopped with that reply. But I re-ran it and I THINK IT DID IT!

Bless you for your persistence, skill and knowledge. Now all I need to do is figure how to make Calendar forget those birthdays, etc. that aren't there anymore!

Van-D Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 6, 2016 8:58 AM in response to Van-D

sorry for the dupes. It went to page two and I thought it got lost. 🙂

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,318 points

Dec 8, 2016 3:14 PM in response to Van-D

There is nothing wrong with that result.

It's just posting the last setting made by the script.

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Apple Script to Delete specific date from Contacts