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Address Book strips contact info
#10020 05/20/10 10:59 AM
Joined: May 2010
chrisy Offline OP
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Address Book is deleting some of the contact info for some of my contacts. It then syncs these changes with Mobilme, and it spreads from there. Apple has no idea how this could happen, but I've now seen it twice. Anyone seen this? Know of a cause/fix? (BTW-I can't tell where it is originating-on the iMac, the iPhone, or Mobilme.)

Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10024 05/20/10 04:17 PM
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From time to time I have encountered various synch problems between my various Macs, iPhone, and iPod Touch, but I have never had any problem with data being stripped from an AddressBook entry. Can you be more specific about what is happening:
  1. Is the data being stripped found in custom fields, standard AddressBook dat fields, or both?
  2. By any chance is this data in the Notes: field?
  3. Where are you first noticing the missing data is it..
    1. On your Mac
    2. On your iPhone
    3. on the MobileMe contacts list
  4. When you notice missing data on one device, do you ever immediately check the other two devices to see if the data is missing on either or both of them?
Obviously this is preliminary troubleshooting and at this point, I am looking for clues. I have more questions, but which questions would be based on your answer to these.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10044 05/21/10 08:36 PM
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You are probably going to have to figure out where it's disappearing from first before you approach a solution.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10063 05/22/10 11:50 AM
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chrisy Offline OP
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Mostly what disappears is telephone numbers. But for at least one contact an address in the Notes field disappeared. I've not seen any email addressed deleted.

Sorry to be so vague about this. One of the problems here is how to compare the two datasets so I can tell how many contacts got changed? Address Book only opens one at at time, and I can't find a text editor that can open AB's database so I can put it in an adjacent window to compare them. (Unfortunately, my mind isn't sharp enough to remember it all-I need it on screen or on paper...)

I haven't been able to tell where the problem originates because the sync system is so fast-any change appears on the other device almost instantly, but I don't have any way of catching it unless I look up that specific contact and happen to notice the change. (For example, I might look someone up to call him, but not think to scroll down to see if the note is still there.)

Last edited by chrisy; 05/22/10 11:51 AM.
Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10064 05/22/10 01:25 PM
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As a troubleshooting technique only -- go to System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync and set the sync interval to 1 hour, or more. Then when you notice the deletion you should have plenty of time to go back and check the other sources.

Later on, after resolving the problem, you can go back and reset the sync interval to "automatic".


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Address Book strips contact info
joemikeb #10206 05/28/10 12:23 PM
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chrisy Offline OP
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An update, a week later: Syncing is turned off, and I'm starting to see corrupted and deleted entries on the iMac, but I'm also seeing multiple copies of some contacts on the iPhone. Weird.
Mail also listed an email from my brother as being from a friend of my wife's, who had no email address in the file. It seems the links are somehow botched up.
I'm thinking maybe I should ditch the Mail/Address Book package and go with something else. What else do folks recommend that will sync to the iphone?

Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10208 05/28/10 01:15 PM
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chrisy Offline OP
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Some more details: contacts on the iMac seem to be randomly corrupted. some were merged, resulting in mixes of names, notes, etc. , and not adjacent contacts either-one from "A", one from "H" and one from "T" . Two now have five duplicates. Also, some contacts that had disappeared last night have reappeared this morning.

Last edited by chrisy; 05/28/10 01:17 PM.
Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10239 05/30/10 04:41 AM
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If things are sufficiently getting shuffled, you may just need to export all your contacts in a single large vcard, zap your entire mobileme addressbook, and then import.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Address Book strips contact info
chrisy #10257 05/30/10 09:51 PM
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When you say syncing is turned off, is that syncing in the MobileMe preference pane or on your iPhone did you go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, & Calendars and turn off Contacts? Those are not exactly the same thing.

New but still related questions.
  1. How long has it been since you completely powered your iPhone down and restarted?
    1. Press and hold the power button at the top right of the iPhone until the Shutdown slider appears
    2. slide the slider all the way to the right and wait until your iPhone completely shuts down
    3. After the iPhone completely shuts down press and hold the power button until the Apple logo appears on the screen
  2. How long has it been since you connected you iPhone to your Mac then in iTunes selected the iPhone and "Reset to factory default"?
    1. With your iphone connected to your Mac click on your iPhone in iTunes
    2. On the information screen that appears in iTunes click on the "Reset to Factory Specs" button
These are standard first line problem solving steps any time an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad is eve peripherally involved. The best part is the reset process will first back up your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad and after resetting will reload all the data so you don't lose anything.

If neither of these steps appear to resolve the problem, you may need to completely reset all the sync data on MobileMe. To do that...
  1. On your iPhone Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars: turn off all the sync items
  2. On your Mac:
    1. System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync Uncheck the item to Synchronize with MobileMe
    2. click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the preference pane
    3. Select your Mac and click on Stop Syncing Computer
    4. When prompted click on Unregister this computer
    5. Close System Preferences
  3. In the /Applications folder on your Mac launch iSync
    1. If any devices are listed select them and remove them from the sync list.
  4. Open AddressBook and be sure all the entries are correct.
  5. In System Preferences > MobileMe > Sync
    1. Set the sync interval to Manually
    2. Check the items you want to sync
    3. Click on the Advanced Button
    4. Click on Reset Sync Data...
    5. Select the icon representing your computer or the arrow that points from your computer to MobileMe
    6. Click on Sync
    7. Replace data on MobileMe
    8. When the sync completes change the sync interval to Automatically
  6. On your iPhone Setttings > Mail, Contacts, & Calendars turn everything ON
After this you are certain to get messages on you Mac warning of synchronization conflicts. Always choose to replace the data on MobileMe with the data from your computer. This will cease after a few days and hopefully you will be back to normal.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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