Contacts & iCloud

TidBITS Talk
21

If you’re making the changes on the Mac, you need to clear out the version of Contacts on the iCloud site before reconnecting the Mac to iCloud, otherwise you end up w/a scrambled combination of the Mac version & the iCloud version along w/duplicates & triplicates. (Also temporarily disconnect all other devices w/Contacts from iCloud until Contacts on the Mac & on the iCloud site are perfectly synced.)

Yes, you’re correct. It’s scary to do it but you have to empty iCloud contacts before loading your backup.

  1. I just did a fresh test vCard export w/the current Contacts data & it does show the Notes info. This leads me to think there was some corruption in my original Contacts file or some other Contacts/iCloud/data problem that has now been “fixed.” :raised_hands:t2:

See the post from 23 Paddies Argyles above. I’ll bet that preference wasn’t turned-on in your earlier exports.

  1. Based on your insights, I tried to export a Contacts Archive file (.abbu). But I don’t see a way to see the data in the file w/o importing it into the Contacts app & I’m not interested in creating further problems so I’m not going to worry about that for now.

You can’t see a way because they don’t want you poking around in there. It’s a wildly complex file format (because it’s duplicating the entire environment) that is intended solely for use with restoring all of the Contacts data from the .abbu archive.

I found that it did import names, addresses, phone #s, & emails into Numbers, but it did not import the Notes field. I even tried adding several additional columns to the spreadsheet to make certain there was room for the Notes, but they did not show up in Numbers.

By gosh, you’re right! That’s an odd omission! It’s probably a bug or it may be a policy choice. Developers who want access to the Contacts DB have to request permission to access it but they also have to request a separate permission for notes.

I will also make a list of all the lists I have in Contacts so that I have a reference in case I ever need to recreate them again. And I’ll go thru each Contact & add in the Note field which list(s) that contact is in.

It’s tedious but adding the list name to the Note field is definitely the way to go. If you restore from your .vcf you can then do a find for the list name and create a list from the selected contacts. Tedious but straight-forward.

I know this seems like a lot of work but once your Contacts file gets corrupted, you worry about it happening again & it’s a lot of work to recreate.

Yes.

Makes me wish for the old days when I just had a small paper address book that I kept at my desk & could slip into my purse when I needed it.

:smiley: :smiley:

Too true! What I do every year or two is print out the contacts in a small format. Should be good for a hundred years or so. . . . :sunglasses: :cowboy_hat_face:

Dave

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" 3. I just did a fresh test vCard export w/the current Contacts data & it does show the Notes info. This leads me to think there was some corruption in my original Contacts file or some other Contacts/iCloud/data problem that has now been “fixed.”

See the post from 23 Paddies Argyles above. I’ll bet that preference wasn’t turned-on in your earlier exports."

You might have already seen my response regarding that. I did have that preference turned on, there must have been some quirk going on in the background that prevented the Notes from being included in the export. I’ve tested it & everything seems to work for now.

If I can get Contacts to work for another 20 yrs w/o further trouble, I’ll be in good shape. :face_with_hand_over_mouth: It’s funny, for so many years I enjoyed & appreciated the impact technology had on our lives. Now that I’m much older, I’m starting to miss a lot about the good old days when things were simpler.

Very much appreciate all your help and advice.

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23

Another option to back up Contacts is to drag it all to Numbers as described in:

Some years ago I gave up on keeping digital Contacts as even then it was too messy for my needs, so I did the Numbers thing, saved in various formats, opened in Filemaker Pro and printed my address book on paper, which luckily does not yet rely on iCloud.
My contacts are so few these days and change so rarely that this works fine. Your mileage may vary!

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This was mentioned yesterday so I tried a test w/a few contacts. I did double check in Contacts/Settings on my MacBook to be certain I had included Notes as a field to copy/transfer.
Opened a blank Numbers spreadsheet & added lots of columns to be certain all the Contacts data could fit. Went back to Contacts, highlighted a few entrees, & dragged them to a new Numbers spreadsheet.
The only data that appeared in the Numbers spreadsheet: name, phone #s, fax #s (if included) addresses, & email addresses; not a single entry included the notes data.
I know this is contrary to what the Apple support site states but that’s how it worked for me. Don’t understand why, all I can guess is ghosts in the machine.
Exporting as a PDF worked correctly, though. Obviously you can’t manage or move around the data in a pdf as you can in a spreadsheet but it’s another way to keep all the data, particularly if you’d like to keep a print version on hand.
I appreciate the suggestion. Unfortunately, it’s one I’ve already tried & it didn’t work for me. :woman_shrugging:t3:

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Sad to hear that Sheri! I did my drag n drop back almost 7 years ago amazingly enough. Numbers has all the Contacts and all the fields including Notes. I vaguely recall some frustration at exactly what one was to click and before dragging and where exactly to drop it, ie in the groups column or contacts column then where in a new table etc. but was glad I was able to help all Contacts escape to other formats where they are living peacefully.
I would try it again to clarify that for you but I cleared out all the contacts so have no data in the App to work with.
I re-did my Contacts entries so many times over the previous years after updates, syncing, an so on got them so fouled up I decided paper and pen was better for me.
I’ve liberated data from other apps via pdf too before it was too late (removed export/print to pdf options, went to subscription-cloud-only-model etc) and yes had to spend time cleaning up the results and using the data is a bit more work but in one case exporting to pdf then selecting all and copy-pasting to TextEdit made the data accessible again and I am much happier for it.

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I appreciate your reply & I completely understand the idea of liberating the data from the apps. For many years multiple apps seemed to help simplify life in general but I’m finding the pendulum has swung in the other direction. I’m beginning to miss my small paper address book and my paper calendar. It seemed very care-free for several years to toss my phone into a pocket or my purse & have everything w/me at all times but now things are so intertwined that if there’s a glitch in one app, many things get messed up. And, as happened w/me & Contacts, it might not be until a major problem occurs that you realize something’s been “wrong” for quite awhile. I do find myself doing a lot of Print to PDF these days to save an additional copy of data that’s not in an app-dependent format. Yes, it’s still dependent on a PDF app but it can easily be printed or viewed. Guess I’m getting old. :upside_down_face:

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This only addresses one facet of your problem, but Contacts does have a “search for duplicates” function under the Card menu, and you can choose to merge duplicate cards.

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Sheri;
I was about to remind David TBTdn about “Print to PDF” when I saw you beat me to it. Then I read that your use of that made you “dependent on a PDF app”. Does Sequoia not include Preview? That’s the only “PDF app” I’ve ever used. :+1: Although I once installed (and deleted) Acrobat Reader decades ago). :-1: It can also Copy selected text to Paste into TextEdit.

I do hope you find a suitable resolution to your Contacts problems! Maybe you should ask “Santa”! :crazy_face:

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At the time, I did use the search for duplicates function; had to run thru it many times as for some reason it does not pick up all the duplicates in a single pass. Apple confirmed this & advised multiple run throughs of search duplicates.
Each time I reconnected Contacts on my Mac w/iCloud, the duplicates (& triplicates) would reappear. Didn’t matter whether I searched for duplicates on iCloud or on my Mac; each time the two were connected the dupes would reappear. It was a never ending do-loop that I couldn’t stop.
After a week of trying everything, I finally got everything back in shape. Just holding my breath that things will continue to function properly.
Thanks, Colleen.

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I’m not surprised that if you’re doing a V card export, you lose the lists (formally groups). But as other people have noted, you should not be losing your notes. I think the first thing to figure out is why your notes aren’t getting backed up.

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I used to use Preview for PDFs but at the time, it was far less functional than a stand alone PDF app. It’s very possible that has changed over the years. Currently I use PDF Expert. Yes, I need to pay an annual fee but it’s not outrageously expensive & it works well. My PDF needs are fairly simple but used to extend beyond Preview’s capabilities. Maybe Preview has improved, I don’t know.
Thanks for your input!

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It appears there was a temporary glitch (for an unknown length of time) in the system; don’t know whether it was an iCloud glitch or a MacBook glitch. The settings were correct for backing up the Notes but turns out they were never in my previous Contacts backups.
Now that everything appears to be working, I’ve done a new back up & have looked at it; the Notes are now part of the back up. So hopefully all’s well that ends well. :crossed_fingers:t2:

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33

Complex is right. I took a look inside the package of the .abbu file. On mine, it includes lots of stuff, including migration .zip files going back to 2012. Heaven knows where the actual data is stored. I don’t have time to poke around in the embedded folders.

As an experiment, I exported a Contacts Archive file to the Shared folder, and then transferred that to a freshly created user. When I import that into the empty Contacts file, I get…absolutely nothing. Tried several times. I know it’s doing something because one time I created a dummy card first, and then imported the archive, and the dummy card disappeared. But Contacts was still empty.

Because of this, for someone trying to restore their Contacts, I would recommend disconnecting from iCloud, importing the archive into Contacts, and making sure that worked before you empty out the iCloud data. Then re-connect to iCloud.

Edit to add: this is on Ventura.

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Here’s how I finally restored everything; it was scary but it worked. I’m on Sequoia on my MacBook.

  1. I disconnected Contacts on my MacBook from iCloud. Also disconnected Contacts on my iPad & iPhone from iCloud.
  2. I deleted everything in Contacts on my MacBook, everything in Contacts on the iCloud website, & everything in Contacts on my iPhone & iPad. Left no Contacts data in any location. That was the scary part.
  3. I uploaded a Contacts backup file (in Finder) from my MacBook to the Contacts iCloud website.
  4. Scanned thru the Contacts on the iCloud site to be certain it uploaded correctly. Too many Contacts to check every one but did several spot checks.
  5. Reconnected Contacts on my MacBook to iCloud.

At that point, both my MacBook & iCloud seemed to have identical files so I reconnected Contacts on my iPhone & iPad to iCloud. Everything appeared to sync correctly.

Hopefully this nightmare is over. No idea what caused it but almost positive I didn’t do anything to start it. One day when looking for a phone # on my iPhone, I noticed discrepancies between Contacts on my iPhone & Contacts on my MacBook; that’s what started the investigation.

Appreciate everyone’s input on this.

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35

Thanks for this fascinating (and alarming) thread and I’m glad you are sorted now. Just one little observation that has always nagged me:

Why can you enter notes for a contact, without entering edit mode? This has always suggested that they must be saved in a separate file somewhere?..

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36

I am stunned by this information.

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So was I. For years I assumed a Time Machine backup included almost everything on my MacBook, including Contacts, Calendar, & possibly Apple Mail. I had a minor problem w/Mail a few years ago & contacted Apple to understand how to fix the problem using a Time Machine backup, I didn’t know which files to restore from a Time Machine backup.
That’s when I was told that iCloud files really “live” in iCloud, not on the Mac so they aren’t part of a Time Machine backup.
I’ve always hoped that would be changed & maybe it has but I’ve never heard or read anything about it. :woman_shrugging:t3:

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38

TM backs up about the last 2 days of contracts. But you do have a backup of the address book in the library. I’ll send the URL for backup choices when I’m on my Mac.
David

.

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Thank you, I have a backup of Contacts; I regularly save a backup. I was merely making the point that Contacts & Calendar were not backed up by Time Machine. Very sorry if I caused any confusion.

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I have not used any of these methods so can’t vouch for them. My TM backs up about 2 days worth of “contacts” - but the address book file for all contacts is backed up with each back up and can be found in the library:
"/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/“ folder
The process for restoring from that may be found at:
(again, I haven’t done this)

[

Restore macOS Contacts from Time Machine backup
tinyapps.org

apple-touch-icon.png
](https://tinyapps.org/blog/202205190700_restore_contacts_from_time_machine.html)

I’ve been working my contacts files in order to share:

What I’ve come down to do is the following:

  1. Export all contact files from online accounts for each person who will share the final contacts list.
  2. Turn off “contacts” for all online accounts on all devices that will share the final contacts list.
  3. Import contact files to the “on my mac” contacts file from all the exported files (V-card works fine - includes “notes” and allows you to add to the file instead of replacing (archived replaces all)
  4. Scrub the “on my mac” contacts file for duplicates. Merge contact cards where applicable. Remove unwanted contacts from the “on my mac”
  5. Remove all contacts from the shared online iCloud account
  6. Export the “all my mac” contacts to your Mac.
  7. Turn on contacts for the shared iCloud account on the Mac used for developing the “on my mac” contacts list.
  8. Import the “on my mac” contacts from your Mac to the shared iCloud account listed on your Mac in Contacts.
  9. Turn on “contacts” for the shared online account on all devices.

The online account should populate all the other devices. Your Mac is already populated - it was use to populate the online shared iCloud account.
Now, any changes made by any person sharing the online iCloud account will populate on everyone’s contact list who is sharing the account.
You can turn on the contacts for any of your online accounts not being shared and they won’t be affected by others.

w/r,
David