Cannot Drag Contacts Into Numbers app

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Cannot Drag Contacts Into Numbers app

Just like found by another user at Cannot drag Contacts into Numbers - Apple Community

Contacts on Mac won't drag into Apple Numbers app, even though Apple says it will work (Export or archive contacts in Contacts on Mac - Apple Support).

At first, it would allow only 350 contacts to be dragged, then successively smaller batches, eventually to nothing more than 20 contacts, and then none, and this limit persisted even when I closed the receiving spreadsheet, removed Numbers from memory, and opened a new blank spreadsheet in Numbers. As sandcruz described in the link above, the icon (containing the number of contacts attempting to transfer) bounced back to Contacts, with nothing pasted in Numbers.

It's frustrating that Apple software doesn't function as promised. Apple, please fix.

Running Sequoia MacOS 15.2 on M1 Pro MacBook Pro, freshly rebooted, because only then is the MacBook mostly reliable. I've experience a growing number of issues with Apple apps not releasing cache between closing and opening instances, including between MacBook reboots, and this failure by Apple programmers to clear cache leads to all kinds of problems. I suspect the behavior above is one more example, where cache fills and isn't cleared through normal means of closing and reopening the Numbers app, rebooting, etc.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Dec 22, 2024 1:46 PM

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Answer 1

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Camelot

Level 9

58,329 points

Dec 23, 2024 12:41 PM in response to MusicLover et al

I am generally able to drag contacts from Contacts to Numbers, but there is an intermittent problem I can't quite tie down.

I have lots of contacts (several thousand, partly due to a failed import that I've yet to clear up :) ). I also have three separate internet accounts configured with their own associated contact lists, as well as numerous logical groups.

I've found two cases where I cannot drag-and-drop into Numbers.

The first is one specific account that was auto-created by Siri based on email activity. No matter what I do, if this contact is selected, I cannot drag-and-drop to Numbers.

There's nothing obviously unusual about this contact, but as long as it's not selected, everything's fine.

The second case only occurs with large numbers of contacts on a shared directory... in playing more, it seems there's a delay (up to about 6 seconds OMM) between when you click and when the icon pops up that you can drag to Numbers.

If I start dragging before this time, the drag fails.

I posit this is because the contacts are not local and Contacts has to download all their details from the server, but this is only a guess. Either way, if could explain your experience if you're trying to drag a large number of contacts at a time.

My suggestion is to start small... try your own card first (Card -> Go To My Card).

If that works, try adding a few accounts via either shift-clicking or cmd-clicking. if that fails, check the contacts individually to see if one of them falls into the same category I had that Contacts refuses to drag.

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Cannot Drag Contacts Into Numbers app

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