svenmany
macrumors 68030
I bit the bullet and purchased BusyContacts. I bought the bundle of BusyCal and BusyContacts together. They are expensive but I much prefer them to Apple's apps.
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sgtaylor5
macrumors 6502a
I think the bigger problem with Contacts is that it is a Catalyst app ported from iOS. macOS apps need AppKit.
has anyone thought of using gmail contacts? I used it way back before I went Apple. Now that the Tahoe person needs retraining, I've brought it out again. You can get Mac contacts to sync to google and vice versa; and the UI is sane-- the google guy does not need retraining
I'm on a long journey to de-googlify myself, so no. I have moved all my contacts from GMail. Unfortunately I still need to keep one of my 2 gmail accounts as a backup and for other reasons, otherwise I'd get rid of them.
I have sympathy and understanding regarding d-googlifying and do limit myself to 2 gmail a/cs, google's calendar (which I think is better than the mac calendar), and Chrome. All the rest is Apple...
Hajj.david
macrumors 6502a
My bigger issue is it randomly broke syncing between my phone, ipads, and macs. Wether a contact I added, actually goes through is a coin flip
It's not a Catalyst app. The new detail UI is probably in SwiftUI, everything else is still the same as before. Anyway, the issue is not the UI toolkit, the issue is that someone created such an abomination.
sgtaylor5
macrumors 6502a
Meaning to say that the Contacts app on macOS feels like it was ported from iOS. How does one tell what programming language was used? This is out of curiosity.
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The exposed API is in Swift (and Objective C). Although of course that doesn't mean that the application is actually written in any of those languages (but it's very likely).
Open it in a disassembler like https://www.hopperapp.com/ , or check what UI objects are being used with Accessibility Inspector.
No solution. Still a mess. I'm having small hopes for Golden Gate, but not much.
Apologies for late reply. Chrome seems convenient when Safari or/and Firefox is loaded with tabs. I regret am too often an open tab untidy mess
I am having the exact same problem. Contacts app is currently unusable for my purposes, and I don't like most of the other changes either. How did you go back to Sequoia?? I thought that wasn't possible.
You take what daddy apple gives you and you will like it kitten
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
Boot into restore mode: you'll probably need the key combo to install the original OS that came with your Mac. If you pick the "latest compatible OS", you'll get Tahoe again.
If the original OS is older than Sequoia, you'll need to find and download Sequoia as an upgrade. Do that, and then restore the backup you made and saved before upgrading to Tahoe. Or, if you don't have one, copy your Documents folder (and anything else not in iCloud) onto a USB stick or something, before doing the restore.
It's not going to be fun.
Is it really that bad. I'd rather buy an app than reverting to an OS which a few months will be 2 versions behind.
I would buy an app but they’re all trying to do way more than I need. I really just want a different skin for the Contacts app 😭
allan.nyholm
macrumors 68020
Contacts app on macOS has been “fragile” for a good while. Seems to be have been neglected by Apple.
It’s my least favourite app an macOS to edit in. You quite never know when iCloud takes over and closes a contact edit in progress.. that’s been my observation
It’s my least favourite app an macOS to edit in. You quite never know when iCloud takes over and closes a contact edit in progress.. that’s been my observation
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
Luckily, I've never had issues with the content or iCloud, and everything seems to sync OK.
It's just the GUI which annoys me.
My guess is that Apple developers are so busy finding new ways to shoehorn Apple Intelligence into things that they don't have time to make any friends, so don't use the Contacts app 😁
wedontneed
macrumors newbie
I ran into the same problem, especially with the tiny Notes field. Filtering a large contact list and updating several contacts at once was also much harder than it should be. That’s actually what pushed me to start building a more compact contacts app, with proper filters and bulk editing. Hopefully Apple gives Contacts some attention too.
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Huge fan of BusyCal. I searched far and wide, but couldn’t find anything else that offers as many options for viewing a huge number of days ahead in week view or months ahead in month view. The view settings are also just a massive time saver.
mscuthbert
macrumors member
Anyone on this Contacts forum on macOS 27 Golden Gate beta and can report if any of these bug fixes (minimum) or improvements have been made?
This describes my experience with Apple Contacts and iCloud on Mac as well.
Ironically one of the reasons I like macOS is the overall UI design as compared to Windows or Linux both of which I use daily within the cross platform environment I work in.
It's rather mind boggling that after many years, Apple Contacts continue to be dull, frustrating and inefficient.
adrianlondon
macrumors 604
Most of my friends here in Europe use WhatsApp, even though most of us have iPhones.
I've noticed that WA is now pushing their own contacts list, probably to coincide with moving from phone numbers to nicknames for identification.
If Apple insists on keeping their Contacts app looking crap, and with people not using iMessage and FaceTime so much (especially now that WA texting/calling/video works well on both the phone and laptop) then I can see people not using it.
I've noticed that WA is now pushing their own contacts list, probably to coincide with moving from phone numbers to nicknames for identification.
If Apple insists on keeping their Contacts app looking crap, and with people not using iMessage and FaceTime so much (especially now that WA texting/calling/video works well on both the phone and laptop) then I can see people not using it.