Contacts app hangs after macOS 27 update (Beach Ball issue)

With help from Apple Support this issue has been resolved, this was the solution ...

Following confirmation the Contacts data was also stored on iCloud, the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file had to on my MBP was deleted 

The system was then shutdown and restarted 

This implemented a new "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file to be installed on my MBP resolving the issue of the Contact application hanging

Dear OfficerWes,

Concerning the whereabouts of your "com.apple.AddressBook.plist"

**This is a reiteration of the instructions I received from Apple Support.**

Confirm you've a copy of your Contact [AddressBook] in your iCloud account.

Assuming you have confirmed the iCloud version is existent, proceed as follows ...

1. Open Finder, and select "Go" ... from the Menu Bar, choose "Go to Folder".
2. Enter ~/Library/Preferences, and press "Return"
3. Locate the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file in the list, and move it to "Trash/Bin"

Having completed this task, ... Restart your Mac, Open "Contacts" ... doing so, will automatically load an iCloud uncorrupted copy of the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file, to your Mac.

Trusting this will prove successful?

Also, wherever you are, in whatever Time Zone on this Planet, that this Rely, coming for the the Land Down-Under [The Great Southern Land ... TERRA-AUSTRALIS] finds you well and in good spirit?

Have you rebooted your Mac? If not, that's the first step. If that does not help, then see if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode. That process performs some system cleanup and clears caches, and also disables 3rd party extensions that may cause problems.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

If that does not correct the issue, test in a new user account. A newly-created user account will have all settings at default, and if the issue does not occur in that new account then it provides guidance on what may need to be changed to correct the issue.

Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support

Once the testing is complete, the new account can easily be deleted.

Delete a user or group on Mac – Apple Support

Those steps will help to isolate the problem.

It might help to download and run EtreCheck, written by a long-time forum member. The free version is fine. Post the full report using the Additional Text button. No personal information is revealed. 

Personally, the Contacts app is working normally for me on macOS 27 Golden Gate.

I did the delete of the plist, and reboot a few times with no success.

The contact that was on my screen had a comment with a bunch of JSON in it, and the search bar had a key from the json in it. I couldn't clear the search since contacts immediately locked up. And what eventually fixed my problem was going to another MacBook on my account deleting the JSON from the contact, removing those plists again, rebooting the computer and when it opened up again, I was able to use Contacts and it wasn't locking up.

In a database design... when describing a "contact", the word contact is the entity. An entity is something you can hug (in general... you can't hug a company, but it's often an entity). Each entity has a number of attributes. Attributes for contacts (in the Apple world) are defined as... First (name), Last (name), Company, Phone, Email, Street and so on. The last Attribute on a Contact instance (card) is "note". The note attribute is a freeform character string of variable length. It allows all of us to put in values that are words and numbers that can be searched when trying to find a contact card. I personally, was guilty of using the note attribute to store some historic data of a contact (not what it was designed for) that had gotten out of hand. I kept adding history because it was working and allowed me to find this contact from the search bar. Prior to version macOS Golden Gate 27.0.0 everything worked fine. I knew which contact had the super long "note" attribute. So I exported all my contacts for back up. Went to the Contacts app in iCloud. Deleted the note attribute data from the contact that had 2,000+ characters in it. Deleted "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" and then had the contact app rebuild the database on the MacBook. We should not have to do this. Again, values or variable sizes of attributes should not send software into a loop, but that is what I think is going on. Entity Attribute Relationship Database design 101

Concerning the "Contacts" issue ;

**This is a reiteration of the instructions I received from Apple Support.**

1. Start up your Mac with Apple Silicon [ARM86] in “Safe Mode” to clear the caches
2. Shut Down your Mac
3. Press and Hold the Start Dutton, until “Loading Start Options” appears
4. Select a Volume
5. Press and Hold the Shift Key, then click “Continue  in Safe Mode”
6. The computer will restart automatically.

When the Login window  appears, you should se“Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Then proceed with:-

Confirm you've a copy of your Contact [AddressBook] in your iCloud account.

Assuming you have confirmed the iCloud version is existent, proceed as follows ...

1. Open Finder, and select "Go" ... from the Menu Bar, choose "Go to Folder".
2. Enter ~/Library/Preferences, and press "Return"
3. Locate the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file in the list, and move it to "Trash/Bin"
4. Having completed this task, ... Restart your Mac, Open "Contacts" ... doing so, will automatically load an iCloud uncorrupted copy of the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file, to your Mac. 

BobCassidy wrote:

I tried that and it worked for a couple of days and now it's back to the spinning beachball. Apple really needs to fix this!

Try deleting that file again. And then immediately reboot into Safe Mode. Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support Some have suggested leaving the Mac in Safe Mode for about 30 minutes as it can take a little time for it to clear out old cache files.

Why might this work? Because booting into Safe Mode deletes some caches while also doing some minor disk repairs if any are needed. The removal of caches may help your Mac to "forget" about that corrupted file you deleted, which could have been retained in a cache and reaccessed causing the problem to reappear.

Doing this might not resolve your version of this problem, but it might, and it certainly does no harm, Safe Mode is an Apple supported and recommended procedure for anomalies like this.

I had the same issue with Contacts hanging after migrating to refurbished MacBook Air M1.

I performed all the tests, to no avail.

Then I removed both the 'com.apple.AddressBook.plist' and 'com.apple.AddressBook.abd.plist' from the Library, by dragging them to the desktop.

Then I restarted, and Contacts opened right up, and was 100% synched correctly.

Hope this helps someone else!

Yes, pretty sure the issue is the updated Contacts software can not handle an individual contact (sometimes Apple calls them "cards" sometimes they are called "records") with a Notes attribute length of more than 1,000 (not sure what this number actually is, could be 2,000... but you know which contact has this one note). Yes, software should not be caught in an endless loop because of the value of a data attribute or because past versions supported higher variable-length attributes, but that is the issue. You have to shorten this one contact "card" (or multiple cards), then scratch the files to be recreated. Hopefully, it may be resolved in future updates, but it is such a key app for everyday use it is hard to wait. Not everyone has this issue because not every individual has leveraged Note attribute length in the past. Good luck.

Bob, pretty sure the issue is the updated Contacts software can not handle an individual contact (sometimes Apple calls them "cards" sometimes they are called "records") with a Notes attribute length of more than 1,000 (not sure what this number actually is, could be 2,000... but you know which contact has this one note). Yes, software should not be caught in an endless loop because of the value of a data attribute or because past versions supported higher variable-length attributes, but that is the issue. You have to shorten this one contact "card" (or multiple cards), then scratch the files to be recreated. Hopefully, it may be resolved in future updates, but it is such a key app for everyday use it is hard to wait. Not everyone has this issue because not every individual has leveraged Note attribute length in the past. Good luck.

macOS 27.2 seems to have resolved this problem.

I just installed 27.2 and no spinning beachball ... yet. Keeping my fingers crossed! For all of you still having this problem, please update and let us know if it's solved.

Dear neuroanatomist

Thank you for your interest and suggestions.

However, after trying, the Contacts Hanging Issue persists.

Each time this occurs I've sent a report with comments.

I'm about to head off to the local Apple Store for assistance?

Regards

plmipta

Thank you John,

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help please: I cannot locate the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file on my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) M1 chip.

So far I've been down this rabbit hole:

"To delete a .plist file on a Mac, you must navigate to the Library folder, open the Preferences directory, locate the specific .plist file associated with your app, and move it to the Trash."

I did this even with the Option key held down and didn't see a com.apple.AddressBook.plist file.

Ideas?

Thanks!

Got fed up with the hanging Contacts App on GG, tried all the suggestions to no avail.

Have managed to revert to Tahoe on my MBA and all is well.

Shame I cannot revert my iPhone 13 and iPad A16 to versions 26.

BobCassidy wrote:

That pretty much confirms that the problem is macOS 27. Apple needs to fix this! It's a HUGE bug!

So HUGE that I haven't seen it. The fact that reverting to a prior version of macOS corrects the problem that a user is having does not mean the problem was with macOS 27.

Interesting. Not sure what you mean by ‘with a Notes attribute length of more than 1,000 (not sure what this number actually is, could be 2,000... but you know which contact has this one note)’. Could you expand please.

Thank you. My only Contact card with a lengthy Note has 64 characters - way short of your 2000.

It seems there is an issue with GoldenGate and, in this instance, with the Contacts App.

I'm not going to reinstall GG again to see if the fault is fixed. If anything, I will wait until a couple more updates are released. Or try to install Sequoia as a 'safe' option.

I was having the same issue so tried to follow these steps, but after confirming that my Contacts are in indeed accessible on my iCloud account, I discovered there is no "com.apple.AddressBook.plist" file in my ~/Library/Preferences on my MacBook Air. Not sure how that could even be, but I did the restart anyway, and am still experiencing the same issue when I try to open Contacts. Beachball hang up. What else can I try please?

Thank you for the update. That was a good one.

Thank you!

ps: The MacBook Pro is running Golden Gate 27.0.1 (26A434)

Woot woot! How deliciously satisfying it is to follow those instructions and have Contacts open and work again!

Your note *does* find me well in good spirit, thank you.

All the best to you,

thank you very much! I had tried a (very long) list of things from AI and none of them worked. fingers crossed this fix holds! appreciate you sharing the instructions

Yes, this worked for me as well.

I ended up moving all of these to a temp file and Contacts recreated them at start up.

I tried that and it worked for a couple of days and now it's back to the spinning beachball. Apple really needs to fix this!

I have no "com.apple.AddressBook.plist. Nothing with the word address at all in that list. :-(

That pretty much confirms that the problem is macOS 27. Apple needs to fix this! It's a HUGE bug!

I do not have any p.list file. That’s why I can’t seem to figure out how to fix this.

Thanks for this, I could try GG again and see if Contacts is OK. To be honest I don’t want/need the AI forced upon me by Apple. Tahoe seems OK, but am considering going back to Sequoia!!!

Thanks, I had the same problem too!

Cheers, but I’m waiting a while longer.

🥲 I'm starting to tear-up a little bit.