Call 1300 885 420
iTandCoffee | Patient help with your personal and business technology
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Classes
  • Appointments
  • Guides | Videos | Tips
    • Guides
    • Videos
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • Tips Library
  • Gift Vouchers
  • iTandCoffee Club
    • About the Club
    • Membership Options
    • Members Area
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Classes
  • Appointments
  • Guides | Videos | Tips
    • Guides
    • Videos
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • Tips Library
  • Gift Vouchers
  • iTandCoffee Club
    • About the Club
    • Membership Options
    • Members Area
  • Store
  • Contact
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Tips, Tricks and News 
about all sorts of technology in your life!

18/2/2018 103 Comments

​I can’t create new Contacts on my Mac

Picture
(Contributed by Jim Coulston)

After upgrading to Mac OS High Sierra, I noticed that I became unable to create new Contact records on my Mac.

I’d be part way through creating a new Contact in the Contacts app, and the screen would suddenly refresh to an existing Contact - and the one I was creating just vanished!  If I did get to finish entry (for example, if I just entered a first and last name and the Done), the new Contact would appear in the list briefly, but disappear again after a few seconds.

At first, I thought I was hitting some strange key combination, or that I was doing something else wrong.  However, nothing I tried seemed to work.

The problem persists today.  I can edit existing Contact records, but I just cannot create them on my Mac.
 
We use a Gmail account for our shared business contacts and the issue seems to be related to Gmail accounts.

It seems I’m not alone in having this problem. I checked the Apple support forums and there’s lots of reports of the same issue.  Here are some suggested work-arounds.

  • Create new Contacts using your iPad or iPhone and these then sync back to the Mac, where you can then edit the Contact Card to your heart’s content.  (Maybe not the most elegant solution, but this is the option I have been using - and it saved my sanity when I discovered the problem.)
  • Create the Contact first as an iCloud contact on the Mac, copy that new Contact card to the Gmail account, then delete it from iCloud contacts
  • Disconnect from the internet temporarily, add the Contact, then reconnect.  This seems to avoid the problem, as it seems that sync'ing wipes out what have created.

None of these options are ideal, but at least I have a work-around until Apple and/or Google get around to fixing this annoying problem!

Leave a comment if you too have been suffering this problem.  And, if you have a solution, please let us know.
103 Comments
David France
3/4/2018 09:42:35 pm

I thought I was going mad when this started happening. I shall try your workarounds but isn't it time Apple got across these infuriating clashes with external software programs?

Reply
Sue B
20/9/2020 11:48:24 am

I finally solved this issue! Disable Google DAV cards in Contacts preferences when you need to add new contacts. You can turn it back on so that you can see all of the Google Contacts. This was odd in my case because I had the problem on my MacBook Pro (circa 2018) but not the MacBook 12" that I've had since about 2016. Same MacOS on both and same Apple ID etc. Anyway, I'm glad to have figured it out from hints I got in this thread. I spent about an hour on the phone with Apple support about this once and it got me nowhere. Problem is really something related to the Google contacts and not strictly with Apple or its Contacts app. (ok that as sort of an opinion wasn't it).

Reply
Lynette link
21/9/2020 07:36:18 am

Yes Sue, this has always been a way around the problem since it is the Google Contacts that are causing the issue. But most of us who are having the problem want to add contacts directly to our Google Contacts instead of using round-about methods of achieving this. Here's hoping there is a solution at some point soon. I simply don't add new Google contacts via the Mac Contacts app any more.

Sue B
21/9/2020 08:07:12 am

Well, believe it or not after I entered several contacts with Google disabled, I reenabled it and set it to Fetch every hour. I did the latter because it did feel as if the Contacts app was trying to grab info and I have an exceedingly long list of contacts. Anyway, I can now continue entering contacts and set the cards to be either iCloud or Google or both. Seriously the only reason I posted this at all was because I hadn't seen it identified anywhere as the root of the issue. I realize that work arounds aren't always optimal, but they can lead one to consider other reasons for the root of the problem.

Donna
24/11/2020 03:14:49 am

That worked! Thank you so much!

Joseph S
24/12/2020 06:15:30 am

I have this same problem just within the Apple contact app without and connection to Google

Gina
24/12/2020 08:18:27 am

Thanks Sue! I had the same problem with contacts. I'm running Big Sur on a new MacBook Air M1. Disabling Google DAV cards did the trick. Although, don't really know why I need the Google Dav cards as I always enter contacts directly on my Mac... Need to learn more about this.

Marilyn S
9/1/2021 10:20:01 am

This is incredibly helpful. I hadn't realized that my Google DAV could have any relationship with my Apple Contacts. Ugh.

Ruth K
10/2/2021 07:13:34 am

Thank you for taking the time to spell out your problem and solutions! The Sept 9, 2020 tip solved the problem for me. It saves me from not wasting more time trying to figure this out myself.

LenirD
12/2/2021 05:24:36 pm

Thank you, Sue B, you saved my day. So many issues after I upgraded to Big Sur... It has been one frustration after the other, Thanks to you, this one has been solved.

Rebecah
22/2/2021 04:55:36 am

I tried this and now the new contact is the only contact in my address book. I am literally starting to hate Macs

Denise A
3/3/2021 04:41:32 am

Thank you Sue! That worked! I also have a MacBook Pro (circa 2018). I opened Contacts, clicked on Preferences and disabled Google DAV cards. I was able to add contacts and then enabled the Google DAV cards again. I really appreciate you posting that solution!

Scott G
11/3/2021 05:11:05 am

Sue B, you are a GENIUS!!!! Thank you so much. You savd what is left of my sanity.

Andrew Kawasaki
19/4/2021 02:49:22 am

Sue B: Thank you so much! This issue has been annoying for some time! Please let us know if a direct fix is made. Thank you!

Prosie
19/4/2021 07:35:27 pm

THANK YOU! I don't use Google contacts so don't know why it should affect me, but disabling Google DAV cards solved this. Why on earth Apple hasn't addressed it after complaints going back years is a mystery.

David Chester
30/5/2021 02:24:08 pm

Hi. I don't even known what Google DAV cards are, but in Contacts/Preferences, I could see my two gmail accounts. I unchecked them, and, I was finally able to add my contact. How bizarre that this should have effected it. Thank you!

Deborah
8/6/2021 03:03:25 am

Thank you Sue that worked for me!

Anna
5/7/2021 04:24:56 pm

Thank you Sue - very very helpful! Sorted.
Anna

Jack Ross
5/8/2021 01:27:25 am

Tx Sue. But I don't and have never used Google contacts. And can't find out where DAV cards are let alone disable them. Any ideas?

Michelle Sullivan
22/9/2021 04:29:05 am

Great Job! Thanks for sharing this information. I'm going to try it now. :)

K Carter
22/10/2021 06:13:48 am

Thank you so much. This has been driving me nuts and I hadn't been able to find a solution on the web!

Allen
29/10/2021 08:09:33 am

Thanks Sue! That did the trick. Was soon tossing the computer out the window. lol.

ed
17/11/2021 05:12:21 am

Thanks so much for the info. It finally worked for me Not sure if it will sync with my iPhone but that's ok Ill work it out. But really thanks again. It was driving me crazy.

Lynn L
17/4/2022 03:37:35 am

Wow, Sue. I thought I was going crazy. It's a problem that just started fairly recently on my 2021 MacBook Pro with Big Sur. I never in a million years would have thought to--or even known how to--disable Google DAV cards. Thank you so much.

Gigi
5/6/2021 02:03:34 pm

I know it sounds crazy simple, but try adding 1 to the phone number. That suddenly worked for me. I was shocked.

Reply
Lynette link
5/6/2021 04:08:21 pm

Hi Gigi. Made not difference for me. Problem still occurs. Lynette

Greg Johnson
21/4/2018 10:16:54 am

Wow, I thought it was just me having this problem. My solution has been to create a new card with just the last name and save it quickly, then return and edit it to add further information.

Reply
Michael Rawson
20/8/2020 04:51:20 am

Thank you. That trick worked for me

Reply
Steve Walters
12/1/2021 04:28:37 am

I have experienced the same problem, albeit just recently and will try your solution on the weekend. Thanks - I thought I was cracking up.

Reply
Doug
27/1/2021 03:19:03 am

Thanks. This worked for me too!

Reply
Karen Curtis
24/10/2021 08:35:02 pm

That little trick worked for me Greg Johnson. Thank you so much.

Reply
Karl
3/11/2021 02:16:56 pm

I discovered Greg's work around for myself - wish I had checked this forum first! The other work around of turning google CardDAV off is no good if one is using google contacts like me!

Reply
AppleSupport link
2/8/2018 08:58:47 pm

Thanks, above steps really worked.

Reply
greg
21/11/2018 03:05:01 am

solution 3 does not work. disconnecting from the web, adding user in contacts, saving the contact, and reconnecting to the web, deletes the newly created contact.

Reply
Tara
9/7/2021 01:59:25 am

This worked for me!

Reply
johan
5/2/2019 01:46:11 am

during entry on my mac, the partially entered name zaps and can often NOT be found by 'Menu > Find' . But when i quit the contacts app, and restart it, THEN the partially entered name CAN be found. It's like Contacts.app does a refresh of it's table of contents only when starting up.

Reply
Danny Harris (WD)
21/1/2020 04:02:19 am

I have a similar problem....when entering notes in CONTACTS....The typing just aborts in the middle of what I'm typing. Happens again and again with no apparent timing. I'm on Mojave OS 10.14.5

Reply
Brad
19/4/2020 01:23:59 am

I recently started having the same problem. I can sometimes add 1-2 fields of data but when I tab to the next field, the contact just disappears in front of my eyes, and defaults back to an existing contact. It is happening on my 2019-era MacBook Pro but never happens on my 2015-era iMac. Bot are running the latest version of Mac OS (Catalina). HELP!

Reply
Lynette Coulston link
21/4/2020 08:01:17 am

No good news for you on this Brad - I still suffer the same problem every time I add a Contact to Gmail. So I still have to use the workaround of adding the Contact to iCloud then moving it (on the rare occasions I add a contact from the Contact app on the Mac).

Reply
Christophe Birkeland
7/5/2020 06:12:34 pm

I'm sorry to confirm that this is a persistent problem on OSX. Suprised this has not been fixed long time ago!

Reply
Philip
23/6/2020 02:10:36 am

And this problem still exists as of June 2020!

Reply
James Smith
23/6/2020 11:50:39 pm

I have forced myself into Apple products after using MS for 25 years. Three years later i still hate MAC. MS not perfect, but MAC is not intuitive and very buggy. Never used to be that way in the 80s gone downhill over the years.

Reply
Maureen Biggers
2/7/2020 09:25:48 am

I too thought I was hitting something on the computer to make it abort while I was trying to add a new contact. Hope they fix this bug soon. Thanks for the help.

Reply
Malcolm
22/7/2020 04:36:21 am

I have just upgraded to Catalina and now have the exact same problem when trying to enter a new contact. This is terribly frustrating. Even my computer consultant says he hasn't experienced anything like this before. Surely it should be sorted by now?

Reply
George
14/8/2020 10:41:26 pm

It's August 14, 2020 ... I'm on 10.15.5 ... this is STILL happening. Wow! Just. Wow!!

Reply
Emma
15/8/2020 12:44:07 am

I've been infuriated by this for a while, I thought it was user error! Glad to see that it isn't. I've just checked on another website, it says if you're having trouble to scroll down past the Z's and there will be (however many times you've tried) 'no name' entries - go into one and edit it to what you want, then save. I've just tried it and it works!!

Reply
Annette
23/8/2020 04:06:31 pm

Thank you Emma, your solution worked ! I updated to Catalina and found that problem.

Reply
Lindy
22/9/2020 06:15:10 am

Emily: Editing the No Names past Z in Contacts works for me, too. I'm using Catalina. Sept 2020. Thanks!

Reply
Chris
30/3/2021 01:14:35 am

Thank you, Emma for the simplest solution. I am such a klutz with the computer that I never would have been able ti figure out how to disable Google DAV cards ( whatever that is) or any other work around.

Reply
S A GOULD
30/5/2021 07:49:41 am

THAT WORKED! And I have dozens of them! F! With every never software release, I think Apple would have fixed the problem, but NO. This is the simplest fix ever. (I had been able to kinda sorta add three in the last months by being utra quick— typing the info in TextEdit, and pasting in a Name and hitting done *quickly.* And cursing Apple with every attempt!) THANK YOU!!

Reply
Martha Marton
13/9/2020 01:01:20 am

Yes, I have been having the same problem. Very annoying- in real estate and constantly adding new contacts

Reply
Edmond
26/9/2020 05:48:47 am

I have the exact issue. It is very frustrating as this is a basic feature and has existed for YEARS while Apple pushes on with unwanted useless new features. The irritating thing is 10.15.3 does not have this issue, but the problem came back with 10.15.4 to 10.15.7.

Reply
John Cangemi
22/10/2020 02:37:05 am

Where is Apples response to all of this. It's obviously not our issue, but theirs.

Reply
Mary Louise Knutson
30/11/2020 01:20:35 pm

It's November 22, 2020 ... I'm on a Macbook Air 2020 Catalina 10.15.7 ... this is STILL happening. Very frustrated! I've been on the phone (for 12-15 hours over the past two weeks - 5 appointments) with a senior technician who is in touch with the developers and still no solution. Prior to that it was the Genius Bar and a few calls to basic tech support. And I've spent countless hours trying to troubleshoot this myself. I must say it's a relief to know I'm not the only one. But disappointing to know how many people are stuck with this problem on such a seemingly basic app. I will try some of the suggestions above. Thanks everyone! I'll keep you posted if I get a solution from the developers.

Reply
Sue B
30/11/2020 01:36:11 pm

Just wondering if you tried what I posted back in Sept. 2020. I not only suggested a work around, but also indicated that after implementing that "solution" I was able to return things to the non-work around state and all is still well. I suppose I should phone Apple Support and tell them what I did so they can work from that point of view to see if a real solution can be achieved. I also wonder if the size of ones contact list matters. Mine is huge. I've been in business for years and years and I keep everyone I've ever encountered in there.

Reply
Tiffany Fox ?
1/12/2020 03:50:29 pm

I was going through creating all my needed contacts for cards and such in a new group. Then all of a sudden one card would not copy to the group. Then another the. When I went to just add an entire new card for the person to this group it was like I started doing things wrong. My husband thought I was loosing it. I didn’t know how to explain this mysterious happening. Please let me know if you fix it. I am also on a new Mac air only a few months old. Everything is updated.

Reply
Mary Louise Knutson
30/11/2020 02:43:00 pm

I'm trying what worked for you back in September. I went to Contacts>Preferences>Accounts, then highlighted the Google email account CardDAV and unselected the box next to "Enable this account." Is that right? I'm working with importing a large contact list - I imported a file of over 3000 contacts (I know it's not the same as what most people are trying to do here (enter one contact at a time), but the issue of disappearing contacts is the same.) Over a time period of about 20 minutes, (oddly) about 4000 "No Name" cards showed up and then the actual names of my contacts started coming in, but only about 250 of them. I then deleted all the No Names, thinking that would leave room for more of my contacts to load, but nothing more happened. Yes, there are limits to how much data iCloud will allow for contacts (even if you have more space available in your iCloud account). See here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202158 But I culled my list down to within the limits and am still having trouble.

Reply
Sue B
30/11/2020 11:25:31 pm

You probably have narrowed the problem down to something related to the size of the list. Mine is about 2000 names. I'd reasoned out what to do when I realized that many of the names were assigned to both iCloud and Google. I recall that I'd moved all of the ones that were assigned to both to only iCloud before I disabled the CardDAV. So it seems that Apple needs to resolve some issue with Google Contacts to fix this. It is obvious that the number of contacts is an issue connected. I have plenty of iCloud space as I pay for it so that I can store files there. I don't use Google for anything except spare email addresses. The odd thing that happens is that the names in Contacts that were assigned to both iCloud and Google got that way seemingly without my declaration of which should work. Your problem is clearly more complex as you rely on Google for managing info. I won't suggest you don't do that of course, but I do wonder what you would accomplish by loading a third party email app like Thunderbird on your Mac and then setting up your Gmail account there. Then the Google Contacts will populate and would be able to be moved to iCloud Contacts. I haven't worked with Thunderbird since abandoning my PC a few years ago, so I don't have those steps in my head right now. Ask me after I've had a few more sips of my morning coffee.

Sorry this message is a bit scattered, but I think you've wrestled with the problems you are having enough to see my points and possibly find them useful. I hope you will keep sharing your progress and challenges with this.

Reply
Mary Louise Knutson
1/12/2020 07:18:50 am

Thanks for your thoughts, Sue. Actually I don't rely on Google at all for contacts. For some reason though, because I have a gmail account (which I hardly use) about 500 addresses have accumulated there. So when I disabled it, it probably made some difference in how things acted when I imported my contacts archive into my Contacts app (Backstory: I had a related Contacts app issue that required me to make an archive of my contacts and then re-import them. That's when the problem started. I'm just trying to get my original contacts from my Contacts app back into my Contacts app.). I did try paring down my list and got it within the data limits, but it still doesn't work.

Cordelia link
2/12/2020 06:50:36 am

It seems this problem hasn't been fixed so far, I just updated to the latest system Big Sur and this problem with creating a new contact still occurs :-( Very annoying!

Reply
MaryLouise Knutson
9/12/2020 03:35:41 pm

An update: worked with a senior technician today at Apple for 3.5 hours. Tried a ton of different experiments. It seemed the .abbu file I had saved (the "Contacts Archive" file, not the "vCard" file) is somehow corrupt. Just days ago I was able to import that .abbu file, but then a chunk of my contacts would disappear. Today it wouldn't even import at all. Luckily, I also have a partial list of contacts on a .vcf file ("vCard" file) and that imported just fine without contacts disappearing. I hope I can get my full list of contacts off the .abbu file and convert somehow to a .vcf file. Argh! Good luck everyone. I'm waiting for feedback from the mac developers, will keep you posted after my next appointment.

Reply
Tom McIntosh
12/12/2020 10:48:10 am

Having the vanishing contact problem. Used the z trick to add a name but then could not move that name to one of my groups. Had to quit - restart Contacts to get that part to work. Come on Apple. You can easily do better.

Reply
G. Larson
14/12/2020 10:32:48 am

Is Apple not going to be fixing this issue? Customers have been having this problem for months.

Reply
Lynette Coulston (iTandCoffee) link
14/12/2020 10:55:22 am

G. Larson - it has been nearly 3 years since I wrote this article, and still no sign of a fix from Apple!

With the arrival of Big Sur, I tried everything to get Contacts to work properly - even setting up my new Mac from scratch instead of restoring from backup.

Alas, I still constantly get the spinning beachball of death and cannot add contacts. When I add a group, I have to do it multiple times as first time never works. It continues to be the most 'glitchy' app of all of Apple's apps.

I must say, I do have a very large set of Contacts. Does everyone else who is encountering this problem also have a large list of Contacts? Or is it happening for smaller lists to?

What I find really strange is that, if you try to leave feedback about the Contacts app issues at https://www.apple.com/feedback/, the app is not even listed - either in the set of apps for iPad/iPhone or the set of apps for Mac!

I just never add contacts using the Contacts app on my Mac any more. No point.

Reply
Eric Oxenberg
6/2/2021 08:29:39 am

I have under 500 contacts and it happens to me constantly, so it isn't directly related to the database size.

Mary Louise Knutson
14/12/2020 03:36:25 pm

An update: The final word, from the senior tech I've been working with, after his discussion with the developers is that my .abbu file is corrupt. They've settled on that. I thought I could maybe use a 3rd party app to get the addresses off that file, but they recommended not doing that as somehow the corruption messes up other things in the process. I was lucky enough to have a partial list (3/4) of contacts saved as a .csv (VCard) file, which works - the contacts do not disappear from the app, for me, when using a VCard file. So that's the best I can hope for. Plus I lost many of my groups. I will never export my contacts again as an .abbu file. Only .csv (VCard) from now on.

One other thing to note: Once I imported that VCard file into my Contacts app, I culled and cleaned all of my contacts, then exported a VCard file to my desktop to save the new list. I noticed that the title on the file lists the number of contacts in the file. It wasn't correct!! Argh. So I remembered what the senior tech had done once - he had me go to my iCloud account and export my contact list as a VCard file from there. This time the number count was correct. Good luck everyone. This is an extremely frustrating problem. It might help if we all wrote a note to Apple. I wrote one the other day on this subject and another one on the subject of iCloud Drive - Desktop & Documents. DO NOT get me started on that!

Reply
Graham Oliver
16/12/2020 09:01:12 am

We are experiencing this problem with a brand-new iMac which we have immediately updated with Big Sur and linked to an iCloud account which has about 2500 contact cards. Trying to add another contact or group gives very odd results as described above, e.g. cards that instantly disappear. This is very bad.

Reply
Lynette from iTandCoffee link
16/12/2020 12:55:09 pm

Thanks to everyone for sharing your ongoing problems with the Contacts app on the Mac.

I have today lodged a Case with Apple. We captured a screen recording that clearly showed the problems that occur with new Contacts and Groups. Diagnostics were also captured and will be analysed by Apple. I also showed the technician this blog article and the comments you have left, to show that I am not the only one with this problem.

I'll let you all know if anything new comes of this!

Lynette from iTandCoffee

Reply
Sheets
17/12/2020 04:01:05 am

I found an easy work around. Click + to add new contact. Then click SAVE. A new contact will be saved as NO NAME. Then go back and edit NO NAME. It works.

Reply
Carol Sorensen
20/1/2021 05:21:11 am

Thanks for this suggestion. Great work around. Stupid that we are all having to do it.

Reply
Lynette from iTandCoffee link
24/12/2020 08:25:18 am

I contacted Apple Support about this last week. I re-produced the issues for them and we captured diagnostics for them to analyse.

I received a call back yesterday to say that the engineers are aware of the issue and that I should just keep an eye out for future updates that may include the fix. No guarantees on when but at least there was the acknowledgement that they know about the problem.

Given the number of recent comments on this blog article, I suspect more and more people are now encountering the same issue that I have had for nearly 3 years - so hopefully it will be given a higher priority that it has previously had.

Lynette from iTandCoffee

Reply
Keryn
29/12/2020 07:16:17 am

I am having the same problem, running Big Spurr - thanks guys I thought it was me ahahah off to find another contacts app I think

Reply
Mickey
3/1/2021 05:34:00 am

Glad to find this thread. Like others, I thought it was only something I was doing. I did find NO NAME at one point. Had a bunch of them, but search doesn't help me find them. It's making me regret switching back to a Mac after a long hiatus on a PC.

Apple - you need to fix this, because some new contact information comes via paper or a phone call.

Reply
Cristina Acosta link
30/1/2021 05:12:40 pm

yes! same thing has been happening since I purchased my new laptop. VERY frustrating.

Reply
Ginger Larson
22/2/2021 09:00:38 am

Thank you for your help! Your suggestion for going offline in order to add a new contact worked!

Reply
Traci
5/3/2021 09:40:21 am

This was happening to me but I cannot wait for an update I have to add hundreds of contacts or my business will suffer. I spent an hour on chat and https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac-download/ This is the software apple recommends to check for the recent malware issues. It was a vidx file, malware. Installed ran it and quarantined the malware, and now my contacts are working. And yes, it was happening exactly as the OP described. So maybe run this before you try the work arounds. Make sure you force quit contacts and re-open them when you are done. Good luck, my issues were solved with this simple step so I am sharing!

Reply
Lynette link
5/3/2021 12:44:21 pm

Definitely not a malware issue for me, as I run Malwarebytes regularly and there is no such file/malware. Glad if it fixed your issue though Traci. I am still waiting on that long-promised fix from Apple. Lynette from iTandCoffee

Reply
Auke
10/3/2021 05:13:37 am

Yes! Disabling Google CardDAV in Contacts > Settings > Accounts did the trick for me as well!!

I first, after reading this, tried if setting sync from auto to 'every hour', but that didn't fix it.
Totally disabling it did...

Thanks so much!!

Reply
Richard Watson
18/3/2021 05:01:39 am

I must chime in to note that I have had this inability to create a new contact on the Mac (Catalina on a 2020 MacBook Air in my case) in the Contacts app. I too have found that I have to enter the contact on an iPad or iPhone (gee, I really prefer to use the keyboard on my Mac). Also I as well don't seem to have ability to sync the Mac on demand. Contacts on the Mac used to work better - perhaps when I was still using Mojave on my old MacBook Air. I did remove my Google account from Contacts - hopefully that will help (I haven't tested it yet).

Reply
tomasio link
20/3/2021 04:00:33 am

Using MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 this issue still appears (I have to say that I am beginning to be sorry that I have upgraded from High Sierra at all, as the MacOSs seem to contain more bugs after each major update. Will try to keep away from Big Sur as loooong as possible).

A big ”ThankYou“ to Sue B (3rd post from beginning/above) for the tip with turning off the Google DAV account in Contacts.app temporarily. Just want to add the following steps, otherwise Contacts.app won't sync the local Contact to your other devices using Google DAV contacts:
1) Disable your Google DAV account from syncing (do so in Contacts Preferences like Sue B already described)
2) Create your new Contact locally on your Mac
3) Enable checkbox next to the Account settings of your Google DAV and
4) ... drag the local Contact to Google Contacts in the Account listing (left column of the Contacts.app, if not visible use the shortcut [ CMD + 1 ] to show it.
5) Contact will be synced to Google Contacts.
I am not sure if deleting the Local Contact now is safe, or if it is then deleted from Google Contacts as well (and thus from all connected devices), but I will try this with a dummy contact.
I’ll post my findings later.

Reply
tomasio link
30/5/2021 08:31:50 am

it works, you are safe to delete the local account.

Reply
Helen English
25/3/2021 07:06:54 pm

I have exactly the same problem - it is very comforting to know I'm not going mad! Thank you. My workaround is to save the name only (when I remember) then to add the rest of the details once the contact definitely exists.

Reply
Ian C
27/4/2021 09:19:53 am

As usual, if you have a problem, you type it into Google etc., and you'll find either a solution, or a work-a-round... had been experiencing this problem for awhile now... after reading all the various solutions, I tried the "unplug from the internet" method - and that worked! This seems to be the easiest solution for now... until the problem gets resolved.. c'mon APPLE, do the right thing by your ardent supporters!

Reply
Gary Tebo
28/4/2021 09:29:15 am

I have been having the same problem. I will try your advice.
Thanks for your help.

Reply
ApsyLone
7/5/2021 07:54:48 am

Same problem, keep updated on the thread.

Reply
Lenir
11/5/2021 06:31:43 am

I worked with an Apple technician over the phone and he gave me the following solution that solved my problem. The issue was Google taking over Contacts as the default application. To correct it we did the following:
On the Mac: System preferences> internet accounts> Gmail> deselect contacts;

Go to contacts app> select contacts at the top of the page> preferences> Default> make sure to select iCloud;

Go back to system preferences>internet accounts>select gmail> enable contacts> once enabled verify though the contacts app to make sure the default has not switched.

On the IPHONE: Settings » contacts » default » make sure iCloud is selected.

All my contacts on the Mac and iPhone are now on iCloud. They are syncing well and I can create new contacts both on the iPhone and Mac without any difficulty. Note: In the process of creating the contacts that "disappeared" many "no name" cards were created on my Mac. After fixing the problem I deleted them all.

Reply
Lynette link
11/5/2021 08:04:21 am

Hi Lenir.

Thanks for that.

Trouble is that for many of the people who have commented on this article, we actually DO deliberately have Google as our default (for various reasons), and don't want to make iCloud the default - on either the Mac or the iPhone/iPad.

So, unfortunately, this does not offer a solution for us.

Glad that it does solve your issue though. And thanks for posting.

Lynette from iTandCoffee

Reply
Florin link
27/5/2021 06:11:16 pm

I have the same problem. I hope they will make an update to solve.

Reply
Brett Humphreys
1/6/2021 03:14:51 am

Hello!

I had the same problems as others. I tried Sue B's solution. however it kept not working. However I found an article that suggested that there might be a poisoned contact that is causing problems. Which would explain why this happens for both iCloud and Google DAV accounts. It occurred to me that if I remove all my contacts and then re-add them it might import them correctly thus fixing the problem.

So here's what I did (all on Big Sur on an MBP)

1. Went to contacts.google.com and exported a Google CSV as a backup (just in case this whole thing went south)
2. Selected all my gmail contacts and copied them to "On My Mac"
3. I then went into contacts.google.com and deleted all my contacts.
4. I then emptied the trash on contacts.google.com
5. I didn't wait for Apple's contacts to catch up and deleted all the "gmail" contacts from there.
6. I then copied all the contacts from "On My Mac" into "Gmail" through Apple's Contacts App.
7. I then waited for about 15 minutes to make sure the syncing worked (refreshing contacts.google.com)
8. Finally, deleted all those extra contacts "On My Mac".

This solved my problem and didn't create duplicate entries anywhere and allows me to now add contacts to my Gmail DAV.

Reply
Lynette Coulston link
1/6/2021 07:56:43 am

Thanks so much for that Brett. I will definitely give that a go and see if it helps. Let us all know in a couple of weeks if your problem remains solved.

Lynette from iTandCoffee

Reply
Brett Humphreys
2/6/2021 12:15:36 am

Turns out, I was wrong, it worked a little bit but I think I ended up quitting the contacts app and re-opened it and it popped back up :(

Reply
Lynette Coulston link
2/6/2021 07:51:41 am

Oh Drat! Thanks for trying out that potential solution though.

Lynette from iTandCoffee

Kathy
4/6/2021 03:37:12 am

Thank you so much for this work around. It's been driving me crazy!

Reply
Marc van Loo link
22/7/2021 02:31:43 pm

Hi all,
This issue of not being able to enter new contacts started today on Big Sur, out of the blue. I could add one item and then the cursor would jump to a new random contact.
i'm not sure what all this stuff about Google contact means, but this simple tip (based on what I read above) worked for me:

Open contacts, go to preferences, click accounts, make sure that iCloud is enabled and I disabled my GMail accounts

Reply
Lynette link
22/7/2021 03:26:15 pm

Thanks for the comment Mark.

Yes, that is definitely the solution for those people who don't need to use Gmail for storing their Contacts and can just use iCloud.

Unfortunately, we need to use Gmail for our Contacts so don't have the option of just using iCloud - and the problem persists after many years.

Lynette

Reply
Mazzy
23/7/2021 07:28:41 pm

I"m having problems with Contacts too, despite not using icloud or google (our broadband is too poor).
Is there a better Address Book that works on MacBook Air?

Reply
Tom K
8/9/2021 05:16:18 pm

09/2021: I also have this problem using Catalina 10.15.7 with iCloud sync only (no Google sync).

In testing this issue I noticed that when you create a new contact card, it will disappear in ten seconds only if when you create the card you are currently viewing a user-created contacts group (selected in the side bar). If instead you make sure you have “All Contacts” selected at the top when the card is created, the contact will not disappear at the ten second mark.You will notice the “no name” contact moving down to the bottom, but the main entry window remains visible so that you can complete your data entry. Then, find the new entry and manually drag it over to the desired group in the side bar.

Shocking really that this bug has not been fixed by Apple after all these years.

Reply
Ferdinard Orumgbe link
12/9/2021 12:20:21 am

Thanks for the <a href="https://www.techfiver.com/toxicwap-movie-download/">amazing information</a>. Good infos are hard to come by. Things like this are <a href="https://www.techfiver.com/toxicwap-movie-download/">helpful information</a> for a lot of people. I can simply say what a comfort to discover a person that really knows what they’re talking about <a href="https://www.techfiver.com/tvshows4mobile/">online</a>. You certainly know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More and more people should <a href="https://www.techfiver.com/tvshows4mobile/">read and understand this</a>.

Reply
C Wilson
6/10/2021 05:36:15 am

I just started having the same issue. Big Sur. Turning off WiFi allowed me to add the contact, after a full dozen failed attempts.

Reply
John Tapsell
7/11/2021 09:06:50 am

Contacts Not Working Correctly. I found that going to the All Contacts list, then all the way down to a list preceded by the hash sign #, allowed me to see what was in this zone. Check out the details there. Contacts there I think should start with a number. Look for rogue names and check them out removing any obviously wrong contacts. Removing them seemed to allow Contacts to run correctly on starting to produce a new contact.
I hope this works for you.

Reply
Lynette from iTandCoffee link
8/11/2021 05:56:31 pm

Nope. Makes no difference to the problem for me, unfortunately. Lynette

Reply
martin
11/12/2021 07:23:56 pm

Problem still persists at the end of 2021. M1 MacBook Pro with Big Sur. Editing a No Name contact (beyond Z...) works for me, too.

Reply
liana link
4/7/2022 07:33:00 pm

thanks for info

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Receive great articles like this 
    fortnightly to your Inbox

    Picture

    Follow us on Facebook

    iTandCoffee

    Picture

    Join the iTandCoffee Club

    ​for free content, tutorials, videos, classes, offers, discounts and more

    Join our growing community of local and online members who love learning about their technology - through FREE club sessions, remote/phone support, online tips, tricks and tutorials, special members-only offers and discounts, and more. Membership starts at only $49/year.
    Find out more about The iTandCoffee Club

    What's on at iTandCoffee ?

    Join us for a short, fun 'topic of the day' classes known as PTT sessions (Personal Training for your Technology fitness!) - these are run on a regular basis. Or join any of our other classes shown below to learn so much about your technology.
    If you have questions, why not join our The iTandCoffee Club to attend fun and informative 'user group' meetings.
    All classes are run as online classes (using Zoom) which means you can attend from anywhere.

    Archives

    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All 1800-number Accessibility Accessories Activity Monitor Adware Airdrop Airplay Airpods Alarms Alerts Android Apple Id Apple-id Appleid.apple.com Apple Music Apple News Apple-pencil Apple Tv Apple Watch Apps App Store App Windows Apss Audio Autolock Automatic-downloadsupdates Automator Backup Backups Battery Be-connected Be-connected Bigpond Big Sur Bitcoin Blockchain Bluetooth Books Boot Camp Business Buying Guide Calendar Camera Catalina Cellular Data Centrelink Channel 9 Charging Christmas Chrome Classes Client Stories Cloud Cloud-storage Cloud-storage Club Club News Colours Com Contacts Continuity Control-center Control Centre Convert Cookies COVID COVID 19 COVID-19 Cybersafety Datad777f385d3 Data Usage Delete Desktop Dictation Dock Do Not Disturb Downloads Dropbox Education El-capitan Email Emergency Emojii Entertainment Ethernet Evernote Excel Facebook Family Family History Files Finance Finder Find My Find My Car Find-my-iDevice Fingerprint Sensor Fonts Force Reboot Forgetting Curve Fraud Free Friday Gift Ideas Gmail Google Google Flights Google Photos Guides Handoff Handy Hints Hard-drive-crash Health High Sierra Home Button Homepod Home Screen Hotmail Housekeeping Humour ICloud ICloud Backup ICloud Drive ICloud Family ICloud Photo Library Identity Theft Images Image-to-text IMAP IMessage Imovie Instagram Internet Internet Issues Internet-options Ios Ios-11 Ios-11 Ios-12 IOS 13 IOS 14 IOS 15 Ios Photos Ipad IPad Tips Iphone IPhone 12 IPhone 13 Iphone8 Iphone-8 Iphone Basics Iphone-calendar Iphone-settings Iphonex Iphone-x Ipod Itandcoffee Itandcoffee Club Itandcoffee News Itandcoffee Services Itandcoffee-swap-shop Itandwine Itunes Junk Keyboard Keychain Kidsandtechnology Kids And Technology Lifestyle Mac Mac-basics Mackeeper Mac Mail Mac-mail Mac-monday Macos Mac Photos Mac-photos Mac Tutorials Mac-videos Magnifier Magsafe Mail Malware Maps Measure Media Medical-id Messages Microphone Microsoft Microsoft 365 Mobile Banking Mobile Data Mobile-data Mobile Porting Mojave Monterey Movies Multitasking Music My-health-record NBN Netflix Notes Notifications Number Porting Office 365 Onedrive Onenote Online-safety Online-safety Optusnet Os-x Outlook Pages Parental Controls Passwords Paypal PDF Personal-hotspot Phishing Phone Photo Book Photo-books Photos Photos On Mac Podcasts Popups Powerpoint Preview Printing Privacy Productivity Product Launch Publicity Publicityads57a389ac69 Purchasing-an-idevice Qa QR Code Quicktime Raise-to-wake Ransomware Reachability Reboot Recommendations Recovery Relay Reminders Remotewipe Repairs Restore Restrictions Rings Rotation-lock Router Safari Safari-favourites Samsung Santa Scam Scam Email Scams Scan Scannable Scanning School-ipad Scoopit Screen Screen-brightness Screensaver Screenshots Screen Time Scrolling Secondhand-devices Security Sell Seniors Seo Services Sessions Settings Share Shared-calendar Shop Shopping Shortcuts Sierra Signature Silent-auction Sim Siri Skype Slideover Slides Slideshow Slideshows Slow-device Slow-mac Smart-tv Sms Snapfish Socialmedia Social Media Softwareupdate Software Update Software Updates Sounds Spam Spinning-beachball Split Screen Split View Spotlightsearch Startup Storage Storage Space Subscriptions Sunrise Switch Symbols System Preferences Task Manager Tasks Taskswitcher Task-switcher Technology Technologyarticles Technologydependency Technology-lifestyle Technology-solutions Technologytips Techsupport Telco Telcos Telstra Telstracomplaint Text Text Replacements Theft The-katering-show Thermomix Thesenior Timemachine Time-to-leave Tio Toys Trackpad Training Videos Transcribe Translate Travel Travel-sim Tripadvisor Troubleshooting Tutorial Tutorials Two Factor Authentication Twofactor-authentication Two-step-verification Typing Typing Shortcuts Undo Unlock Update Updates Upgrade Uppercase Usage User Group Utilities Video Video-blog Videos Virus Voice-and-data Voicemail Voice-memos Volume Vpn Wallet Wallpaper Warnings Weather Web Browser Website Weebly Whatsapp Widgets Wifi Wi Fi Wi-Fi Wifi084d04ddac Wifi-calling Windows Windows10 Windows 10 Windows 11 Word Wordpress World-clock Yosemite YouTube Zoom

27 Sycamore St, Camberwell, Victoria Australia

​​Call 1300 885 420

​to book an appointment or class, or to enquire about our services and products


Seniors Card Welcome
SENIORS CARD WELCOME HERE:
Seniors Card holders qualify for a 10% discount on all classes booked and paid for online (excludes PTT sessions and classes already discounted during COVID-19 crisis). 
To activate the discount at the time of booking, select Redeem Coupon or Gift Certificate and enter 10OFFSEN before selecting Pay Now.

Services
Classes
Event Calendar
Private Appointments
Gift Vouchers
Remote support
​Business Services
​Help for families

Online Content
​Newsletter
User Guides
Video tutorials/classes
Tips and Hints
​Blog
iTandCoffee Club
About the Club
Free Club Sessions
Sign In/View Account
Members Area
Prices/Policies
Prices
Privacy
Cancellations, Refunds, Returns
About iTandCoffee
Home
About

​Contact us
Testimonials
In the press

Picture
​© 2012-2021 iTandCoffee Pty Ltd. All rights reserved  ACN: 606 340 434