new contact failing

[brianmowrey]

One more thought. Would there be any chance it has anything to do with a non-Mac mail reader (postbox) accessing contacts?

Possibly. In 2010 MobileMe contact and calendar syncing was rendered nonfunctional for 1000's of users based on "fb:" hyperlinks inserted into contacts and events by facebook. Though, the bug was on server side, not in the users' apps. Still, if some of your existing contacts have any xml-ish bits of text, they could be relevant to the issue.

I've had a bug in Notes app, which I have hooked up to Google (Exchange) sync, for a few months where backspacing a line indent within an open note deletes the entire paragraph above that indent. Haven't been interested enough to troubleshoot it.

There are 3rd party apps for everything Contacts does, and that can scan your contacts for duplication / formatting problems. Personally, I would just try one of those out. Troubleshooting sync in Contacts to isolate between app / account / data as the culprit is nightmarish.

 

[ignatius345]

Well, 3. was easy as I have a couple of generic gmail accounts.... Works!
So, I'll see if I can do some clean up as suggested.

One more thought. Would there be any chance it has anything to do with a non-Mac mail reader (postbox) accessing contacts?

Don't bother doing any cleanup. If you look at my earlier post above, I was able to easily reproduce the issue with my own setup (syncing contacts with Google) and no other apps accessing my contacts.

 

[icanhazmac]

Another option... (using Apple contacts on my MBP connecting to Google for work)

When creating a new contact and the window disappears you should find a contact at the bottom of your list called "No Name" if you edit that contact you can add as normal. As a work around I always have 2 or 3 of these "No Name" entries so I can add contacts. Again, not ideal but its a workaround.

PS - I do not have this issue with my iOS devices only my MBP.

 

[gvmelbrty]

I posted this on another forum…

I have the same Contacts app vanishing contact issue on Catalina 10.15.7 (using iCloud sync - so this isn't a Google sync issue). The easiest work-around I found is to make sure you have “All Contacts” selected at the top of the side bar when you create the new contact, instead of some other user-created contact group. In my testing, the contact will remain visible so you can complete your data entry. Then, find the new entry and manually drag it over to the desired group in the side bar.

This issue began in High Sierra and I can’t believe Big Sur still has this problem too.

 

[thedrub]

I use Google to sync my contacts as well, for the same reasons as the OP, and just tried this. Got the same result (card disappared as I was creating it and before I had a chance to hit "save").

I found a workaround, which is to quickly enter the first and last name (though either would probably suffice alone), hit "save" and then scroll up, click on the the card I just saved and finish editing it. Once initially saved, I can leave it open mid-edit for as long as I want and it doesn't disappear or anything. Seems like the sync service doesn't like an "empty" card. I don't think this is something unique to the OP's setup.

This was also my workaround. Clumsy, at best. Didn't like it.

A better workaround was to

1. Open the contacts settings
2. For the 2 gmail accounts
3. Change the "fetch" setting from "automatic" to "Every 5 minutes"

This seems to have resolved the issue.

 

[icanhazmac]

This was also my workaround. Clumsy, at best. Didn't like it.

A better workaround was to

1. Open the contacts settings
2. For the 2 gmail accounts
3. Change the "fetch" setting from "automatic" to "Every 5 minutes"

This seems to have resolved the issue.

This is the way my Mac is setup and I still have the issue. The only workarounds I have found are:

1) Disconnect from the internet, add contacts, reconnect.

2) Create a new contact, wait until the windows disappears (about 5 seconds or so), scroll to the bottom and edit a "No Name" contact.

 

[thedrub]

This is the way my Mac is setup and I still have the issue. The only workarounds I have found are:

1) Disconnect from the internet, add contacts, reconnect.

2) Create a new contact, wait until the windows disappears (about 5 seconds or so), scroll to the bottom and edit a "No Name" contact.

Interesting. There must be other factors in play.

At least, this conversation offers some suggestions for others to try using. Difficult to predict what will supply improved results. Experiment and discover what works in your setting.

Good luck!

 

[milleron]

This workaround doesn't really work for me the same way. I have to click "Done" after each field I type in. Otherwise, the edit is lost as soon as I go on to a second field. What does work is to save after each field is entered, followed by another edit, followed by another save, ad nauseum. This is 16 months after the last post on this thread, and I've STILL not found anything that makes adding a new contact revert to normal. It's almost unbelievable that a common dogging so many users remains unresolved by updates for two years.