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gberz3 · Jul 3, 2008, 02:55 AM

Hi All,

I am terribly frustrated by Mail.app's desire to place email addresses in my Address Book. When I go to sync my Contacts to my phone, I end up with a bunch of needless contacts with no phone numbers, etc.

How do I prevent Mail.app from touching Address Book (or at the very least only place it's "contacts" in a specific group)? Is there a plist or pref that I can edit?

I don't want *ANYTHING* from Mail.app affecting my phone contacts. For me Address Book is strictly for my phone contacts.

Best Regards.

- - e r i k - - · Jul 3, 2008, 03:11 AM

Set up a group for your phone contacts and sync ONLY that group to your phone. Problem solved.

Also check the box that says Only sync contacts with phone numbers.

Art Vandelay · Jul 3, 2008, 03:30 AM

I've never seen Mail add anything to Address Book without me explicitly telling it to.

gberz3 · Jul 3, 2008, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Set up a group for your phone contacts and sync ONLY that group to your phone. Problem solved.

Also check the box that says Only sync contacts with phone numbers.

Well, I'm using an ATT Tilt, and as such, I must use a different application to sync -- one which doesn't have that option. So it gets *everything*.

gberz3 · Jul 3, 2008, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

I've never seen Mail add anything to Address Book without me explicitly telling it to.

To my knowledge, and per my experience, Mail.app automatically adds anyone to whom you've sent mail to the Address Book. I want that "feature" disabled. Although I may be forced to use a "workaround", I'd prefer that Mail.app be one of those applications that *never* touches my Address Book.

Regards.

zro · Jul 3, 2008, 10:22 AM

That has never happened to me or anyone else because Mail does not do that. Could you imagine if it did? All the spam messages that get through would have an entry in Address Book. All the order confirmations. Nothing like that here.

If this really is happening, it's something else doing it, like your sync app.

gberz3 · Jul 3, 2008, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by zro

That has never happened to me or anyone else because Mail does not do that. Could you imagine if it did? All the spam messages that get through would have an entry in Address Book. All the order confirmations. Nothing like that here.

If this really is happening, it's something else doing it, like your sync app.

No, I said it adds anyone to whom you've ever sent mail. I'm not sure about you, but I normally don't reply to spam.

64stang06 · Jul 3, 2008, 10:33 AM

It's possible it's syncing previous recipients in Mail as well. My address book has never had a contact added from Mail unless I did it.

TETENAL · Jul 3, 2008, 10:37 AM

Mail does not touch the Address Book¹. Anyone you have sent mail to will be added to the list of previous recipients (Window->Previous Recipients in Mail). And the entries there are not synched with a phone. Only when you select a recipient in that window and click the "Add to Address Book" button, will this recipient added to your Address Book. If that happens automatically for you, I would suspect some haxie for Address Book or Mail that messes things up for you.

¹ Since the previous recipients are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr I guess that technically the Address Book framework handles those. But they definitely do not appear in the Address Book application.

gberz3 · Jul 3, 2008, 11:54 AM

Ok, well, I mean, I doubt it's a virus causing it. Perhaps there's a bit of EBKAC going on, but I'm not using anything out of the ordinary that would do that. Mail.app is the only thing that would have added these particular addresses. They are from mailing lists I reply to, etc. And it occurs independently of any syncing software.

I'm very perplexed atm.

skybolt · Jul 3, 2008, 03:11 PM

you are sure they are being added to your address book? and not just auto-filling from the mail app? You have looked in your address book and these addresses are there? Does it fill in a recipient's name as well? Or only the email address? As tentnal said, addresses can be removed from the autofill (I clear mine totally every so often to prevent auto-filling some name that I do not want to send to). Like the others, I have never seen mail automatically add to address book without my telling it to.

analogika · Jul 3, 2008, 03:11 PM

I have *never* had Mail.app add anything to the Address Book that I didn't *explicitly* tell it to ("Add Sender to Address Book").

Never; not in almost 8 years on OS X.

- - e r i k - - · Jul 3, 2008, 06:44 PM

It doesn't add it to the address book per se, but as Tetenal explained it adds it to a list. The syncing program for the ATT Tilt must read this entire list instead of going to your Address Book.

As I said, iSync does this as expected. The problem lies in the non-standard sync software.

Oh, and you mean PEBCAC gberz3

gberz3 · Jul 3, 2008, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Oh, and you mean PEBCAC gberz3

Haha! No, it's all legit: PEBCAK Definition

gberz3 · Feb 11, 2009, 12:43 PM

Ok not to beat a dead, then buried, then exhumed horse, but this is still happening. It appears that Mail.app is providing Address Book with addresses. I have people in my Address Book for which I have no affiliation other than reply-to mailing lists in Mail.app. I have *never* manually added them to anything, yet they are present in my Address Book.app -- hundreds of them. This is severely frustrating. I am nearing 99.99999999999% sure it is no longer PEBCAK.

I tested by creating a backup a short while ago, then deleting everything in my Address Book. I then proceeded to use Mail regularly, even joining a few new mailing lists in the interim. Over time my Address Book ranks grew without so much as it being opened by me (other than to check the size intermittently). Mail *is* doing something -- I'm just not sure what, or how to stop it.

Any thoughts?

OreoCookie · Feb 11, 2009, 12:59 PM

Mail does not add anything to Address Book, unless you tell it to. Never.
Mail does have its own `previous mail addresses' list, but that is kept separate from Address Book.

gberz3 · Feb 11, 2009, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Mail does not add anything to Address Book, unless you tell it to. Never.
Mail does have its own `previous mail addresses' list, but that is kept separate from Address Book.

And does it add this "Previous Addresses" as a group in Address Book? My issue isn't with it auto-completing addresses. My issue -- which is 100% reproducible -- is that I can delete all of my Address Book contacts, use mail over several days, and suddenly have an Address Book full of people. This makes no sense, but it's happening.

slugslugslug · Feb 11, 2009, 01:11 PM

Hey gberz3, are you syncing Address Book with gmail? If so, I think that's your problem. I did that for about a day when I first got my iPhone and then realized that gmail decided that any recent contact belongs in my Address Book.

So the problem may in fact be with Google's Address Book syncing and not Mail at all. Try turning it off, if you use it.

gberz3 · Feb 11, 2009, 01:18 PM

No, i'm not using Google, but thanks for the post. I'm not sure what to think. I mean, I believe the masses telling me that Mail.app isn't supposed to be doing anything like this, but I do have to consider the results I'm seeing. Thanks again.

...*buries the horse once again*...

TETENAL · Feb 11, 2009, 01:23 PM

Mail is not doing that. You might have some other software installed that does.

slugslugslug · Feb 11, 2009, 01:31 PM

Oops, I just rediscovered that Gmail-Address Book syncing is only enabled if you have an iPhone, which you don't. So that's weird.

Are you syncing Address Book with anything else, i.e. Exchange or Yahoo!? Have you checked Apple's support forums for anyone with similar stories? It seems like nobody around here has experienced your problem, but there are some other places around the web where folks discuss their Mac problems. If you find anything out, bring it back here. I'd be curious to learn what's up.

JLL · Feb 12, 2009, 04:48 AM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Mail does not add anything to Address Book, unless you tell it to. Never.
Mail does have its own `previous mail addresses' list, but that is kept separate from Address Book.

Actually this has happened for me too two or three times.

Certain mail addresses appear in Address Book without me doing anything.

JKT · 06:12 AM

Are you sure you aren't just accidentally pressing command-shift-Y which adds the Sender to the Address Book (look at the Messages menu in Mail)?

Edit: In case you were wondering, there is no feedback at all when you do this (which is absolutely terrible UI from Apple, fwiw).

CharlesS · Feb 12, 2009, 06:04 AM

Originally Posted by gberz3

Ok not to beat a dead, then buried, then exhumed horse, but this is still happening. It appears that Mail.app is providing Address Book with addresses. I have people in my Address Book for which I have no affiliation other than reply-to mailing lists in Mail.app. I have *never* manually added them to anything, yet they are present in my Address Book.app -- hundreds of them. This is severely frustrating. I am nearing 99.99999999999% sure it is no longer PEBCAK.

It doesn't sound like the problem exists between your chair and keyboard, but it may exist between the ATT Tilt developer's chair and keyboard. Do you still get this behavior if you temporarily stop using that program?

gberz3 · 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by JKT

Are you sure you aren't just accidentally pressing command-shift-Y which adds the Sender to the Address Book (look at the Messages menu in Mail)?

Edit: In case you were wondering, there is no feedback at all when you do this (which is absolutely terrible UI from Apple, fwiw).

OMG!!! This is absolutely it! Being part of multiple mailing lists, there are certain threads that I don't care to follow. And, being one of those freaks that hates tons of "UNREAD" markings everywhere, I always clean up. I often press CMD-SHIFT-U to "Mark As Read", but I suppose sometimes I slip and press "Y"! With the lack of feedback I never know when I miss the "U" other than "Mark As Read" not occurring. I simply think it's Mail not responding so I do it again.

Thank you JKT!!! That was driving me crazy!!! Thank you everyone else as well for your suggestions.

Best!

JKT · Feb 12, 2009, 01:15 PM

Glad to have been of help. Apple needs a good kicking up the backside for this - stongly recommend submitting feedback at apple.com!

CharlesS · Feb 12, 2009, 01:21 PM

Huh, I wouldn't have thought of that. Kudos.

If your hitting that keystroke by accident is happening often enough that it's causing a problem, you could remap the "Add Sender to Address Book" menu item to a different shortcut in the Keyboard and Mouse System Preferences pane. Set it to something like ⌘-Opt-Ctrl-Shift-Y, and then you shouldn't be able to hit it by accident anymore.

gberz3 · Feb 12, 2009, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

If your hitting that keystroke by accident is happening often enough that it's causing a problem, you could remap the "Add Sender to Address Book" menu item to a different shortcut in the Keyboard and Mouse System Preferences pane. Set it to something like ⌘-Opt-Ctrl-Shift-Y, and then you shouldn't be able to hit it by accident anymore.

Haha, waaaaay ahead of ya. Thanks again all!

JLL · Feb 16, 2009, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by JKT

Are you sure you aren't just accidentally pressing command-shift-Y which adds the Sender to the Address Book (look at the Messages menu in Mail)?

Edit: In case you were wondering, there is no feedback at all when you do this (which is absolutely terrible UI from Apple, fwiw).

Now that you mention it, I usually select a lot of e-mails from the mail lists I subscribe to and press cmd-shift-U to mark them read.

Cmd-shift-Y is pretty close to Cmd-shift-U.