Contacts app spinning beachball on macOS 27 due to SwiftUI layout bug

That seems to do the trick! I hadn't thought of un-sync'ing my iMac with Contacts in iCloud, but it's restored normal functionality when disconnecting/re-connecting with iCloud. I was prompted to "merge" my contacts when reconnecting to the cloud, and so far, so good. Thanks for the tip @farbjorn!

I started removing longer notes within contacts on my iPhone, which is one of the suspected issues. After a couple of hours I am only at "D" in the alphabet and contacts is no longer freezing! This is the first time I am able to use contacts on my desktop since installing Golden Gate. I have about 900 contacts for reference.

Same problem here (MacOS Golden Gate 27.0) I was able to delete the suspect record—the one displayed when the app hangs—via Contacts on iCloud. You might try that. When I re-added the record (via iCloud), the app hangs again. Something clearly is wrong with the one contact which is just text, and doesn't have a contact photo or other binary data stored with it. I'm going to update to MacOS 27.0.1 to see if it catches and corrects the problem.

I also had this problem, I even restarted my desktop to see if that fixed it with no luck. I went into preferences and disconnected my contacts from my iCloud and I can now use my Contacts without the beach ball. I have an iPhone and iPad that have their contacts in iCloud and they work fine.

An update: I went back to my system settings on my desktop and reconnected my contacts to the iCloud, then checked my contacts again and no spinning ball. Why that worked I don't know.

That also worked for me, finally! Here's how I did it:

1. In Finder, click the Go menu
2. Hold down the Option key and Library should show up
3. Choose Library from the Go menu
4. Open the Preferences folder
5. Delete: com.apple.AddressBook.plist
6. Restart the computer

Did this fix in this thread and (knock on wood) seems to be working! Contacts app hangs after macOS 27 update … - Apple Community

Yes, same issue: spinning wheel when Contacts launches on MacOS 27.0.1. I even relocated the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist file — recommended elsewhere to resolve the problem — and it had zero impact. Contacts works fine via iCloud and iOS on the phone.

the problem still exists with macOS 27.0.1 Apple has not fixed the problem. How do you know which of my 4,000 contacts is the problem? How does one know which one to delete? The values of data attributes should not yield the spinning beach ball of death. *** II Email: ***

[Edited by Moderator]

Mitch, You refer to the relevant attribute of the contacts entity (or record) is causing the issue as potentially the Notes field. You make the observation that it may be unusually large. Wouldn't the app be able to handle whatever the size of the attribute be...? ... unless, the Contact app for 26.6 handled notes attributes of 200 (whatever) characters and now 27.0 & 27.0.1 only handle 180 (newer shorter limit from whatever) characters so the layout work logic can't handle it and spins.

I'd also like to note that it may not be a corrupt contacts database in the cloud; I have multiple Apple devices (including a work-issued M4 MacBook Pro, personal MacBook Neo and iPad M4, iPhone, and Apple Watch) and Contacts works fine across them without an issue. It seems to be localized to my one workstation, an M4 iMac.

Yes my initial thought went to notes field but the more I thought about this end users behaviors with the Contacts app, I suspect it is in one of the name fields. He has a terrible habit of loading lines of info in those fields.

Your thoughts about the notes field sound valid, but from reading these other responses I think something in the macOS app has certainly changed.

Bjorn, Thank you sound advice. I tried your recommendation. On my iMac with Contacts in iCloud, I open System Settings on my iMac, clicked my name at the top, then I choose iCloud, selected show all apps and turned off Contacts. You are correct, I can use my Contacts on the iMac (no spinning beach ball), but only 60% of the contacts are there. 😢. When I reconnect Contacts... beach ball is back. I've been working to remove some notes from some contact entities in the database, but it is SOOO... slow. Apple doesn't allow select all from the Notes attribute. As a result it is a tedious cut and paste to another app 🤨. We probably, will not see a fix anytime soon.

This appears to be an app problem caused while reading some unique data that it did not have trouble reading before when we were all running macOS Tahoe. Until each of us finds the offending record or records, OR Apple changes the code, this problem is going to continue I am afraid. This is not a problem that has anything to do with iCloud, syncing, etc. but I appreciate everyone trying. I wish I knew more sqlite programming tricks so I could find the 'offending" data, but like someone else said, it is a needle amongst 4000 records AND we don't know what the needle looks like.

Mitch, If I were a wagering man (which I'm not), I would bet the new Contacts app code has a note attribute size restriction less than the Tahoe version. Then the extra character string writes over the new app instruction code when it moves from the cloud to Golden Gate and it abends. I've seen that before. ***

[Edited by Moderator]

I had the same issue after the Golden Gate update. Tried "solutions" from Chat and Claude that flopped, but finally Gemini got me over the finish line. Too many steps to cogently share here, but hoping AI is helpful for others too

Sorry to update with some bad news - back to the ball of death on Contacts. I think the Gemini solution had Contacts pointing to my Mac rather than iCloud - great the ball went away, but not great if you actually need your Contacts to synch and update across devices

Having exactly the same problem and tried multiple fixes including setting up a test user, signing into iCloud, and turning on Contacts syncing, but the problem persists. Hope everyone is submitting this to apple.com/feedback or using the Feedback Assistant.app

I really believe there is “offending” data in each of our contacts db that causes this error. It has nothing to do with syncing or iCloud in my opinion. When we find and remove the offending data or Apple changes the code that causes new “feature,” we will be rid of this issue.

I've had this happen with multiple contacts - the only common denominator is they all have notes. Which most of my contacts do. And for every other OS version Contacts worked just fine for me. The offending element here was the Golden Gate update.

This is so frustrating.

Works fine on my iPhone, but that's not particularly convenient ...

What a great question and yes. I cleared A-C names and the app still froze. Then I cleared D, where my doctors are listed, and those notes had more $ signs and maybe other unique characters. Some were maybe a paragraph longer but nothing too absurd. Is this what you mean?

It was only resolved for an hour or so, and will resolve again after some deleting but only for a few minutes. Apologies as my update didn't post initially. I am going to use iCloud and wait for a fix.

My calendar is also buggy. I can no longer edit entries or create multi-day events.

Same issue here. Contacted Apple Support. They indicated this was a "Known Error" that is being worked on. No further information available (i.e. - when this will be fixed, what is causing it, work-arounds, etc.).

Fortunately, I can access Contacts on my iPhone and iPad, as well as iCloud. But it certainly causes productivity issues on my MacBook. Do better, Apple.

Unfortunately the problem still persists after the update to MacOS 27.0.1.

My contact app fails to open after install of 27.0 + 27.1 (although my entire contacts are still on my iPhone and iCloud).

Are you having this issue?

Yes, on the spinning beach ball

Lucky. The app crashes before it displays a record.

I tried that before the OP. No change for me

I am at 27.0.1. It is still a problem. It's almost like Apple doesn't care about us 😢

🤔 I have done this as well, but when I reconnect... I don't get a "merge" prompt. I simply get the spinning beachball of death and having to force the quit. Interesting.

Thanks for the heads up. Mind sharing the prompt you used?

Update: The fix only lasted a couple of days and now it's back to the spinning beachball. Apple really needs to fix this!

Thank you. Very helpful JY444!

Did any of the notes field you reviewed seem much larger than any other notes field OR did any of them have unique characters?

So glad you got it working again!

Update - beachball is back

Yes exactly. That’s helpful….I think.

Oh no. I thought you had it solved.

Unfortunately, it was temporary, and it's back to the spinning beachball of death.

This worked for me

That’s terrific. But let us know in a couple hours to make sure it’s not temporary.