Unable to figure out Contacts Address card corruption on Mac mini and iPhone

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Level 1

88 points

Unable to figure out Contacts Address card corruption on Mac mini and iPhone

I'll try to explain but it's a little weird. Somehow ALL my contacts have been put onto ONE contact card. They all exist separately. But, there is a card that has 230 phone numbers, addresses on it. It is in all Contacts, and All iCloud. I'm up to date on OS, Sequoia 15.1.1 and iphone 18.1.1 PS And keeping my photo on the iphone AND the macmini is a battle. Just went to settings on the iphone to see what version of 18 and watched my photo vanish again ... so, that's a different issue. Here's what I've tried:

I tried to simply delete the card. Automatically comes back.
I went into the card and deleted manually all the phone numbers and addresses. Comes back.
I created a smart list, put the card in there and tried to delete the smart list. Now I have a smart list AND this card with all the names and addresses.
I went to Settings>Accounts and disabled the email accounts with addresses. I then went back into Contacts and deleted the card. It comes back.
In Contacts>Accounts I have any email accounts that I don't use for contacts turned off. Makes no difference here.
I renamed the card. And tried to delete it. I now have two cards that have this list of addresses and phone
Exporting the address book doesn't help because I can't get rid of this "card" with 230+names and addresses on it.

I'm mystified. In the midst of all this my contact card vanished. It was on the phone, but not on the macmini. I got it back, then had to put my photo back in, but it's now in the iCloud along with the other addresses. All this started because I wanted to "just simply" remove some old cards and found I had many dating back years - some of people who have died - which I am sure I'd deleted in the past.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.1

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 01:40 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 9, 2024 02:15 PM in response to TuckerdogAVL

This is a longshot. What happens if you go all the way to the bottom of that contact card. do ou see a section that says "Linked Contacts?" If you see all the contacts listed, tap the "Edit" button at the top right then tap the red minus next to all the contacts. That should unlink them, not delete them.

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Answer 2

TuckerdogAVL Author

Level 1

88 points

Dec 10, 2024 12:20 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Good idea but no "linked contacts." However, what I discovered as I assumed you were probably talking about the iPhone vs the Contacts on the MacMini, the ALL contacts list on the phone isn't the same as the ALL contacts on the mac mini. This is also after numerous times syncing the phone with the mac and the iCloud contacts. The contact lists for "Icloud contacts" match on the iphone, the mini and the icloud, so that's fine.

I think the issue is "On My Mac" or the Google addresses for the gmail account. This massive "list card" is in the "All on My Mac." I have the gmail account as separate to On My Mac. However, there is an All Gmail account in the On My Mac. And, it's empty. But if I attempt to delete it, it comes back.

And the Gmail address book stand alone that is on the mac mini does not match the Gmail address book on the iphone.

I've tried the merge and duplicates and that just messes things up even more.

Most of the addresses in the iCloud are fine. There are 221 addresses total. The only thing I think I can do is go through and drag addresses from the other contact lists into iCloud, and then just turn off these on the phone and ignore in Contacts. Because I can't delete them. They always come back. On My Mac is most annoying.

I'm going to do the deep dive on the gmail next.

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Answer 3

TuckerdogAVL Author

Level 1

88 points

Dec 11, 2024 07:47 AM in response to TuckerdogAVL

Now, when I attempt to edit a contact, and click done, everything just comes back. So, I can duplicate contacts that I don't want and I can't edit contacts at all. I cannot delete contacts in the icloud, the On my Mac or the gmail. The gmail does not sync with the phone regardless of what I do.

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Unable to figure out Contacts Address card corruption on Mac mini and iPhone

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