Contacts for Mac: Dragging contact to list

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brianp55 Author

Level 1

11 points

Contacts for Mac: Dragging contact to list

I created a contact on my Mac in the Contacts app.

Within the same account (iCloud) I have a list. It is not a smart list.

I try adding the contact to the list as follows:

I click the card in the middle pane. It turns green.

I drag the cards from the middle pane onto the list-name. The list-name turns green.

I release the card. The card fails to appear in the list...

Oh Wait. After the above procedure resulted in a failure about TEN TIMES, the last time it worked.

This procedure is not complex so I was not doing it differently all but the last time.

The same procedure resulted in two different outcomes.

What is going on?

iMac 24″, macOS 15.7

Posted on Dec 5, 2025 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

barbra294

Level 1

20 points

Dec 5, 2025 3:38 PM in response to brianp55

It sounds like you were doing everything correctly — dragging the contact onto the list is exactly how it’s supposed to work. When it finally worked after several tries, that usually points to a temporary glitch rather than anything you were doing wrong.

A few things that can cause this kind of inconsistent behavior:

• iCloud syncing lag: Sometimes Contacts takes a moment to sync changes with iCloud, and the list won’t update right away.

• App hiccup: The Contacts app can occasionally hang or not register a drag-and-drop action.

• Background updates: If the app is updating or syncing in the background, the list might not react immediately.

If it happens again, a quick restart of the Contacts app (or even the Mac) usually clears it up. But dragging to a list should definitely work normally, just like it did on your last try.

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