Contacts/Groups not syncing

I thought I'd post this somewhere where people search for info. This problem has driven me nuts for several days, but I figured it out.

I believe there may be a bug in the sync function between QuickBooks 12 and Address Book running under OSX 10.6.8… and perhaps in Lion, too (though I don't have Lion, so I can't be sure).

I have had issues with the Contacts app on my iPhone 3gs unlocked/jailbroken running iOS 4.3.3. I've had the phone over 6 months, and it has had NO other issues. And the Contacts issues started immediately after loading and syncing QuickBooks 12 (though I didn't realize it until today).

Immediately after the QB sync, I was lost caller ID function, and all of the groups I use on my MacBook Pro Address Book (which used to transfer perfectly over to the iPhone via iTunes). I also lost all the groups in Address Book. I suspected fishiness, so I un-synced QuickBooks connection to Address Book, and did another sync to iPhone (through iTunes), and got back my caller ID, but not the groups. I then manually put all the contacts who'd been in groups back on my MBP, then re-synced through iTunes. Still no groups on iPhone… but fully functioning on MBP.

I don't sync all that often because of not making many changes, and really, I didn't notice the group thing on the iPhone until the other day, but suddenly needed to update my Contacts, and thinks just went sideways. All sorts of Contact app issues… no groups, no sorting, no updating NEW entries to Address Book on the MBP.

I had gotten the iPhone caller ID function working again, only after I UNsynced my address book from quickbooks and did another sync through iTunes.

I did all sorts of heroics (which I got on various forums) trying to get these function back on the iPhone. Deleting my contacts and refreshing from a recent archive, hard resetting the iPhone, and a number of other things. What I finally came to realize is that contacts on my iPhone started behaving badly only after syncing to QuickBooks 12. So maybe there is something that Address Book doesn't like about the way QuickBooks massages it's database.

I have a second computer on which I work, and I keep an up-to-date address book there, and QuickBooks has never been installed on that machine. So I made a backup archive of that computer's Address Book (the records and organization of that address are identical to the one on my MacBook Pro). Then I once again deleted all contacts and groups on Address Book on the MBP. Then I imported the archive from the other machine. Then I synced using iTunes… PRESTO! Everything works just fine. All the groups are there, things are in the groups. Caller ID works. Sort once again functions properly.

So, I will never again use the QuickBooks sync function with a Mac using Address Book. Perhaps it works with other contact management apps, but it really messed up Address Book (which by the way is Apple's weak link in pre-loaded utility software… IMHO… iCal and Mail work great). And I don't think it messed up Address Book, just the database. When I had restored from a recent backup, the problem was still there because that backup was AFTER using QuickBooks sync.

Of course I can't be sure about previous versions of QuickBooks… or other versions of the Mac OS. All I'm relating here is my personal experience. I have sent this also to Intuit.

Hope this helps others.

[mrjones19]

This is what we did:
1: In Address Book, Clicked on FILE, EXPORT, EXPORT vCARDS (save it on the desktop when it asks for location). This keeps a record of the important data from your contacts - VERY IMPORTANT.
2: Delete everything, including folders from Address Book
3: Go to FINDER, LIBRARY, CACHES and delete: com.apple.Address Book
4: Go to FINDER, LIBRARY, PREFERENCES and delete: com.apple.AddressBook.plist
5: Go to FINDER, LIBRARY, APPLICATION SUPPORT and delete everything in there (you can drag the IMAGES folder to desktop to save your images if you like).
6: Open iSync and click on FILE, PREFERENCES and RESET the sync history.
7: Almost there, go back to Address Book, click on FILE, IMPORT, vCARDs (locate the saved vCard on desktop). Once it has imported your contacts you'll need to recreate any folders you had.
8: Plug your iPhone into your Mac, Click INFOR tab, and next to CONTACTS click on selected groups - your created groups will show here (make sure all your contacts are in groups). In the 'Put contacts created on this phone . . .' TICK the box and select where you want contacts created on the iPhone to go (I out mine in a folder I created called GENERAL.

That's it - Click on SYNC and it should work.