Cannot add or edit contacts in Apple's Address Book

Users have experienced an issue where they are unable to add contacts or edit existing contacts in Apple's contact manager, Address Book. The issue appears to be primarily linked to changed permissions in the Address Book application following an archive and install procedure, though other users experience the issue without doing an archive and install.

Apple Support Discussions user "mokarran_john" writes:

"I recently "re-installed and archived" Leopard. after re-installing I copied my library back from backups in Time Machine. For some reason, many of the folders permissions in my library were "write only" so I changed permissions to allow me to "read and write" including all subfolders. Most apps work fine now but for some reason I still cannot do anything to address book, can't add new contacts or edit current ones. I created a temporary user to see if I could edit contacts in address book for that user and I can so its got to be something to do with preferences for my account."

Possible solutions
Since "mokarran_john" has determined that the issue exists within his account (not system-wide) the troubleshooting can be directed easier. The following are the troubleshooting attempts listed in the Apple Support Discussions thread:

1. Open Disk Utility and Repair Permissions. This action was tried and produced no results.

2. Navigate to (username > Library > Preferences) and move the "com.apple.AddressBook.plist to the Desktop. Open Address Book and attempt to add or edit a contact. This action was tried and produced no results.

3. Post your error message (by running Console.app and attempting to change Address Book values) to an Apple Support Discussions, MacFixIt, or other support forum. This will allow other users to analyze your report and help determine where the issue may lie. This action was tried and produced new suggestions for forum users.

4. Shut down the Address Book widget (if it is running). This action was tried and produced no results.

5. Run Terminal commands from an Administrator account:

1. sudo chown -R username ~username/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

2. sudo chmod -R u rwX ~username/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

This action was tried and was successful. If you are attempting this solution, substitute your account name for username. Be sure to type the code exactly as it appears otherwise. This command changes the folder ownership in Address Book to the user and then makes them editable by the same user.

Please note that using Terminal for any solution can be dangerous if not used correctly. If you are a novice computer user, please seek the assistance of a user experienced using Terminal to repair issues. As always, be sure to have a stable backup before attempting solutions listed above.

Resources
Read this Apple Support Discussions thread regarding issues adding and editing contacts using Apple?s Address Book.

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Resources

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