How do I configure Contacts to only use one card for "My Card"?

Question

How do I configure Contacts to only use one card for "My Card"?

I use two iCloud accounts for my Contacts app; one for just my personal family members and one for a shared set of contacts. (I'm using the advice found in this link: https://lenashore.com/2017/12/create-a-shared-family-address-book-with-contacts-and-icloud-2/)

The problem is that under "My Card", I now have TWO My Cards.

I have done a number of things to try to mitigate this:

Disabled one account and then re-enabled.
Signed out of one account and then re-sign in.
Restarted and updated the software (I am running the macOS 12.7.4; I can't move off of Monterey because I need a piece of software that won't run on something higher).
Checked to see if this is replicated on iOS or iPadOS (it's not).
Used the "Make This My Card" menu item.

None of these things changes this problem. Is there something I can do about it?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Aug 31, 2024 8:39 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 1, 2024 2:05 AM in response to Meester-Apple

Hello, and welcome to the forums.

The source for this configuration may have led you down a dark path. While the artist whose advice you found may be an excellent graphic designer you’d have to ask if the ideas about the Contacts app in the webpage are good database management, just as I would not ask my electrician to undertake some plumbing.

Sharing a group Contacts is trying to shape the application to do something it is not designed to handle and will end up, as you have discovered, messing up the identity of your devices. Moreover, it does not “solve” a “problem”. Typically in an office or corporate environment with a server will you find a shared contact list, but not in a domestic use for Apple’s Contacts app.

My household is a multi-person Mac and iPhone using network with some overlap of contacts yet we function perfectly well not having to sync contacts. Indeed, even if we have some of the same we don’t necessarily use them the same way; I might call a person’s fixed phone, my wife might text their mobile, my children might FaceTime, and so on. The point is that each owner will shape their contacts the way they wish to use them. Contacts is designed to be a personal data base, and the data in it affects others in macOS, chiefly Messages and Calendar.

But to answer your question about why you have two My Card entries - it’s because you have two Apple IDs and each of these Apple IDs has a My Card.

You could send some feedback to Apple suggesting that they adapt Contacts for home sharing: Feedback - Contacts - Apple

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Answer 2

Sep 1, 2024 10:05 PM in response to David McKinlay

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I've used the system that the link describes for quite some time now (5 or 6 years) and it works. It's true what you said: sharing Contacts is not what the system is designed for. But it's still a need for me and this is a 'hack' to try to get it to work as I need it to work.

In our household, our lives overlap to a high degree and I function as the IT manager for everyone. It's too difficult for me to expect that copied contacts propagate to all available devices and this "hack" is what I need. In response to your answer: this is not the way it has always been. In the past, the Contacts book just had one My Card entry regardless of the iCloud linkage. I just noticed the change recently. Thank you for your time!

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