In case it matters, I just installed 11.7.4 on my MBA M1. I don’t know if the problem with Contacts started earlier or at the same time (or in the few days since); I rarely add a contact. My contacts are in my iCloud account only.
It used to be that I could select a group, then click the ‘plus sign’ in the contact pane, and a new contact would be added to the group and I could edit the information in the new contact. Today, after I click the plus sign, I get a new contact and somewhere between about 0.5 and 4 seconds (it varies) to edit it before it vanishes and I’m dropped into a contact in the group I had selected. The new contact, with whatever information I was able to enter before it vanished, is available in All Contacts, but cannot be moved (dragged and dropped) into a group. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Edited to add: I quit Contacts, restarted Contacts, and was able to drag the new contact into the appropriate group. I’m still interested in what went wrong, but since I have a sample size of one and the problem is gone, I don’t expect anything. Adam, feel free to delete this post.
$h|+ happens! I remember in grad school (early '80’s), another student was explaining computers to his girlfriend (or woman acquaintance) and saying they do the same thing each time. Then to his despise it didn’t right in front of her. I couldn’t help snickering to myself, probably way too loudly.
I was going to start a new topic, but I’m going to piggyback here since I found this. I know I have had this issue for a long time. In the past restarting Contacts allowed it to work; neither that nor a full reboot fixes this now.
To be clear: I cannot add or remove Contacts from Lists nor can I delete a List within Contacts. Most relevant options are grayed out:
Strangely, I can CREATE a list on Mac. And it starts me with an option to RENAME that list. But the name I submit doesn’t stick, and it stays “untitled”. And vexingly, the list then becomes effectively locked, preventing all the changes that I mentioned above.
Some Apple Discussions group thread is inconclusive and useless.
I have, however, at least found a workaround I couldn’t find anywhere else: everything works at Contacts - Apple iCloud. Lists can be created, deleted or have Contacts added or removed. And it syncs back to the Mac and iPhone.
This is miserable and inexcusable, especially for Apple to leave people so crippled for so many years. But having a workaround may help you.
I will add one note about that “Edit Distribution List” feature (which is NOT grayed out, as you can see above).
That brings up a bizarre window that you can see here (it would be too much work to redact my own for privacy):
It doesn’t appear to provide a solution to any of the editing handcuffs I’m facing. But it does appear to have one function: for people with multiple email addresses on file, it allows you to select (in bold) the one you want to use when emailing the group as a distribution list.
