High Sierra contacts not working

Another interesting fact. If I logout, and then login as a different user that is setup with my appleid, the errors go away and the contacts.app works perfectly. It must be some problem in my usernames config-files. There is a ******** of stuff in my original accounts ~/Library/Application Support directory compared to the simple test login I set up.

So, somewhere in our configs we have a file -- probably just one -- that isn't quite what High Sierra's suggestd finds acceptable.

Unfortunately, the suggestd plist calls a bunch of other things, and because the error message is so poor, it's impossible to know where the root of the problem might be.

Now would be an ideal time for an Apple dev to jump in.

The Issue:

On initial setup MacBook Pro with High Sierra downloads contacts from icloud.com

However subsequent entries and/or edits made on iPhone are not replicated to MacBook Pro address book. These changes are instantly visible on iCloud.com

Changes made to contacts on MacBook Pro are NOT visible in iCloud.com

Proposed Fixes (didn't work):

Spent about 2 hours with 4 different Apple advisors, who were no help. Last chap who was a supervisor (Jeremy) just d/c me.

I was even advised to re-install macOS which I did, but made no difference.

I also deleted the com.apple.addressbook in ~/Library/Containers. restarted etc...

This took me back to stage one, where contacts are pulled down fine but no subsequent changes are reflected in address book.

The Fix that DID work:

1. Log into iCloud.com > Contacts.

2. Make sure ALL your contacts are up to date on ICLOUD.com then Export ALL contacts to vCard which will then be downloaded to Mac nice and safe!

3. DELETE all contacts from iCloud.com

4. wait a few minutes for contacts to disappear from your iPhone etc...

5. IMPORT the contacts which were downloaded to your Mac, BACK into iCloud.com

6. MacBook Pro address book will now populate, along with your iPhone, iPad etc.

ALL FIXED! 🙂

REMINDER: MAKE SURE ALL YOUR CONTACTS ARE UPTO DATE ON ICLOUD.COM before DELETING them!

So I tried this...

At first I lost all the pictures of my contacts.

And now I am in a strange position.

Whenever I edit a contact on the Mac it seems like I loose the sync to iCloud. Changes don't get through. What I can do is manually do the same edits in iCloud.com and once Mac and iCloud (+ iOS) are back in Sync, everything is fine again. Editing contacts in iOS or iCloud.com works and these changes are instantly synced to the mac. Just editing contacts on the Mac doesn't work.

This is an improvement, but still not what I was hoping for..

Anyway Apple has to adress this in an update, there's no other (permanent) solution.

You can have a strange combination of log ins and log outs, export and import and all these things may be a solution in the first moment, because the set the Mac contacts back to where they should be. But that's only temporary.

Long time solution still needed.

Howdy. I tried your procedure, although my "contacts" problem is a bit different in that I can NOT get the contacts.app to run with out crashing after 2-4 seconds.

I turned off iCloud and booted into safe mode. The first thing I checked in safe mode was if the "suggested" process was working or failing. It was still failing. I then started the contacts.app and in a few seconds it crashed and the process reported "not responding".

I then booted normally, but still the "suggested" process is failing as well as the contacts.app.

Good idea, just did not work for me.

I put in a bug report a month ago and never received any response. Has anyone else had better luck reporting this problem?

See your previous posts....am I supposed to search discussions for your previous posts? There is only one previous posts in this discussion.

CREATE A NEW USER

Go to System Preferences --> Create a New User in Users & Groups.

Switch to the New User by logging out under the Apple in the Menu Bar.

Log into the new User.

Login with your Apple ID but only check contacts.

Do you still see the issue?

If no, then the problem is in your User's folder.

Thanks for your suggestion again. When I create a new user with my existing iCloud id, the new user can run the Contacts.app correctly.

Yes, it is something in my user folder. THAT IS WHAT I AM TRYING TO FIX. If you have any constructive suggestion in that regard I would love to hear them.

Thanks for your response. I have already tried your solution, and it does not work for me. I have posted on this forum that I have tried your solution, and that it did not work for me. You keep offering the same suggestion that does not work for me. Take a breath.

Removing everything should work since it's the same as testing in a new User. If you followed the steps exactly you should have working contacts. If you can't get this to work, consider moving to the new User.

See this link for help moving to a new User. Basics are the same. Be very careful with what you bring over from your User's Library. Best to sync as much as you can via iCloud and let it download into new User.

Move your data to a new User or a new Mavericks partition

(Fair disclosure: Needhelp4Mac is my site. I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from links on my site.)

Hi there - just wanted to say thank you.

I followed your instructions and voila - I have our Contacts back!! A couple of differences though - first I archived our Contacts directly from iCloud and hit restore.

Secondly I dragged all those files you listed to the Desktop. I did not uncheck the iCloud in System Preferences. Then just reopened Contacts and they all started to repopulate - HUGE sigh of relief.

ALWAYS back up anything you can't afford to lose in multiple places is the lesson.

Hello,

So I tried once more the solution offered by Diane, because, hey, nobody's perfect.

Alas, it did not work.

I also noticed that, if I try to launch Address Book before regenerating the library files by checking the iCloud box in the system preferences, the app hangs just the same.

So, I suspect that the bug is indeed user related, but actually related to other files than the library addressbook files.

This makes sense since another user reported that the assistand deamon was causing the hanging, and this daemon is, I believe, a Siri feature, and Siri is typically a thing which grabs information from multiple sources in the system.