Contacts Notes missing in High Sierra

Question

vintage42 Author

Level 1

23 points

Contacts Notes missing in High Sierra

I think this started after High Sierra.

The Notes in Contacts are truncated, cut off, missing.

Updating Notes in Contacts is not working right.

I carry a LOT of notes in Contacts.

Now there are only a dozen or so lines.

Sometimes I see all the Notes, but mostly I don't.

The problem looks the same on both my iMac and MacBook Air, which are synched on iCloud.

I can't figure out how to control or fix this.

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1), 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD

Posted on Dec 1, 2017 9:34 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 12, 2018 9:18 AM in response to vintage42

I just spoke with Apple Support UK on the phone and they acknowledge "the engineers are aware of the problem and there's no fix available. It may be fixed in the next release". I can live with this for a few weeks relying on my ipad to access full notes, but it is very surprising that Apple can release code without robust regression testing.

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Answer 2

vintage42 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jan 12, 2018 6:01 AM in response to davidfromwadhurst

Similarly, I have 2500 contacts going back 20 years, with extensive notes in some of them. And I first noticed the problem of cutting off the notes in the middle of a line after upgrading to High Sierra a few months ago.

It does not affect all contacts, and I cannot tell why. And when it happens, the cut-off notes appear if I put the curser anywhere in the note field and hit Return.

It seems like a bug that should be easy to fix in an update.

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Answer 3

Feb 25, 2018 6:48 PM in response to vintage42

Me too, my workaround if you need to access the notes is to view contacts in icloud using web browser.

Luckily the notes are still there in sync with icloud so just appears to a Apple Contacts rendering issue.

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Answer 4

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Dec 4, 2017 3:33 PM in response to vintage42

Hello vintage42.
If I understand your post correctly, the notes you've made in Contacts are not all appearing. I'd like to help.
Follow the steps in this article:
Get help using iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders
Let us know if that resolves this issue for you.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Take care.

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Answer 5

Senlac

Level 1

13 points

Jan 30, 2018 3:39 AM in response to vintage42

Yes, very irritating. Also recently the mouse pointer points clicks on a line or two below where it's pointing! Sorta basic 1980s problem? A bit like Ford bringing out a new car with the steering wheel missing....

Workaround on the truncation problem: click on any line that shows - and add a character or even a blank space. Bingo, all the text then appears (though you then have to delete the character you added...)

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Answer 6

vintage42 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jan 12, 2018 9:20 AM in response to davidfromwadhurst

Can you make the lost (cut off) notes re-appear by putting the cursor anywhere in the notes and pressing Return?

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Answer 7

amandal80

Community Specialist

Dec 5, 2017 9:49 AM in response to vintage42

Hello vintage42.

Thanks for that additional information and clarification. Given the nature of the issues you are describing, we'd recommend contacting Apple Support directly. You can do that here:

Contact Support

Cheers.

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Answer 8

Jan 25, 2018 5:35 AM in response to cpnp

You should probably use feedback to report this problem to Apple. This is a user forum, so Apple does not actively monitor these threads.

http://www.apple.com/feedback

This thread is the first time I have heard of the issue, so it is very likely that this happens in specific circumstances, and is not an obvious bug that is easy to fix. I suspect there may be a software conflict of some sort.

If this were happening to thousands of users I guess we'd have heard about it in sites like macintouch or macrumors.

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Answer 9

Mar 18, 2018 3:14 PM in response to vintage42

It's no longer happening on my phone, but still on my iMac.

WORKAROUND: Enter a space anywhere in the notes field. But it's a temporary fix.

In researching the problem I discovered it happened in 2015 as well - so you'd think they'd know how to fix it.

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Answer 10

roadside

Level 1

23 points

Jan 28, 2018 9:58 AM in response to vintage42

I've collected some workarounds in this thread, hope it helps:

High Sierra Contacts Truncation Problem Workaround

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Answer 11

roadside

Level 1

23 points

Jan 30, 2018 7:30 PM in response to vintage42

There are a few other workarounds available besides the 'edit-trick'; there's the 'list-trick' and the 'no-address-no-phone' trick. See:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8257091

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Answer 12

Jan 25, 2018 3:19 AM in response to vintage42

I am having the same problem with the Notes field being truncated so that you cannot see the bottom most lines in the Notes field. I use this Notes field to keep track of all sorts of information and this has been quite problematic since High Sierra launched. Several other issues with Contacts is that when you create a new contact the contact closes automatically as you are typing in your new contact information as if you het the "Done," but you didn't. Additionally the cursor is about three lines off when you try to edit the text in the Notes field. I actually have to manually place my cursor using the arrow keys. Please fix this SOON because it is driving me crazy!!!

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Answer 13

Feb 6, 2018 12:51 PM in response to lloyola

Will let you know if I learn anything. Would also recommend backing up your contacts daily!

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Answer 14

vintage42 Author

Level 1

23 points

Dec 5, 2017 4:11 AM in response to vintage42

The notes in Contacts are not missing. They are all there. And iCloud is working OK.

The notes are cut off right across a line, so that the bottom half of the letters are missing.

Cutting the letters of a line in half is not something a person can do to text.

Sometimes it looks that way as soon as a contact is opened, and sometimes it happens when a contact's window is resized vertically.

Some contacts have it, and some don't.

Even stranger, when such a window is resized horizontally, the notes are all driven downward so they disappear -- as if Return was being hit repeatedly to insert blank lines -- and then hidden notes rise back up when the window is increased horizontally

Changing back and forth from Done to Edit does not bring back the invisible hidden truncated notes.

Yet he information is not gone, not missing. It's still there, as I can see the hidden notes on other devices.

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Answer 15

Dec 16, 2017 8:55 AM in response to vintage42

I am also having this problem with the notes just being cut off. i have to synch with my iphone and read the notes there instead of on my MacBook Pro. Very annoying, APPLE! Come on people, can't you write better code than this? There's a growing sentiment that Apple is putting out sloppy code and I have to agree. Two of my friends who have been lifetime, loyal Apple customers have ditched Apple products for other brands. I am thinking similarly as this is the 2nd time that the iContacts are not working in 2017. I discovered a bug earlier that made the notes unreadable on the iPhone but they were readable on the MacBook Pro. They released a fix for that bug and even called me to thank me...um...how about a credit? But then they messed up the Contacts on the laptop with some recent system upgrade. Geez Louise, people, de-bug these things before you put them out to the world...don't make us do your job for you.

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