Possible solution to Duplicate issue (only partly for pictures)
As Address Book kept duplicating
all my contacts (even nearly empty test entries), I was looking for a more permanent solution.
After I performed the following steps, duplication stopped except for contacts with pictures:
- Make sure the Account is working and syncing, then quit Address Book.
- Edit the Accounts 'Configuration.plist" once more to delete either the entire 'addressBookName' key or just change its value 'card' to being empty (both worked).
- Prevent further changes to Configuration.plist by locking it in the Finder's Info panel.
Maybe that works for others, too. To get rid of duplicates that were already created before, I suggest joining them instead of deleting, so to avoid deleting the "master" on iCloud.
Some background observations
Address Book.app adds the key 'addressBookName' with the string value 'card' to Configuration.plist on exit. (By the way, also the keys 'haveWriteAccess' and 'serverSupportsSearch' seem to be managed by the app, so don't bother changing those.) Changes that are made in a Session that started without that key don't trigger duplication. By locking Configuration.plist, every session will be safe.
Contacts with pictures
I saw two different cases for contacts with pictures:
- The picture shows both in Address Book and in iCloud
- The picture does not show in Address Book
For the
first case, I found no way to avoid at least 1 duplicate being created. That duplicate would show no picture. If edited, it would convert to an independent "real" duplicate (visible in iCloud) that can be safely deleted. But another duplicate would soon replace it. I had success joining all the pictureless duplicates into one contact and deleting that. Afterwards only one duplicate would be created, until the contact is changed, starting the game all over again.
For the
second case, where no picture shows in Address Book,
never edit the contact in Address Book or you will lose the picture! I had succes removing all duplicates by waiting until their number settled, then I edited the notes-field in iCloud to mark the "master". Selecting all the duplicates
except the master, I joined them into one contact, that would be an independent "real" duplicate (visible in iCloud) and can be safely deleted. After that no more duplicates were created. When editing the contact in iCloud, I briefly saw a temporary duplicate, that vanished by itself.
If anybody could confirm or extend my observations, that would be very helpful.
