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Address Book: 'Last Import' showing too many entries

Some users are experiencing an issue with Address Book where after importing new entries into their database, the older entries remain in the 'Last Import' list.

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Joe Aimonetti
2 min read
Some users are experiencing an issue with Address Book where after importing new entries into their database, the older entries remain in the 'Last Import' list. This issue seems to primarily affect users importing contacts from other applications.

Apple Support Discussions user "biggerfish" reports:

I get VCF files (vcards) from individuals all day. Clicking on each imports automatically into Address Book.
I used to be able to click on the "Last Import" group and see the very last one I did. Now it shows all previous imports.

I exported a vcard of all addresses, then deleted the LAST IMPORT group and exported again.
I deleted all contacts.
I trashed prefs.
I opened address book, imported the No Last Import group of all addresses, and they magically re appeared. Now I have about 30 in last import, and any new single vcards are simply added to that group.

I live and die by this thing, and it's totally unusable in it's current state.

The problem seems to be mostly affecting users who are bringing contacts from another application. Though the issue does not seem to have an official fix from Apple, nor is the issue easily duplicated, there are some workarounds. ASD user "buzzp" suggests:
In "All Contacts" select any of the contacts that is also in "Last Import" - hit "edit" button and make an edit in a data field (notes are not a data field for this purpose) - hit "edit" to save - the record will now no longer be in "Last Import"

I found this because I needed to change 3 imported records from Person to Company - and when I next went to "Last Import" the number of records had gone down by 3 - I then tried it on a few more, and it works - sure, it isn't fixed, but for those of you who import one or two records per time, just an edit toggle (do edit, undo edit) will clear the new import from the "Last"

This does not seem to work on a "Select All" change - tried it, no go

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