Ny way to nest groups hierarchically in Apple Contacts

contacts

I have a huge number of contacts. If there is absolutely no better way to organize them than a "flat file" list of groups, I may be forced to export each card individually just so I can have them in a directory structure.

The things I love about Apple Contacts are:

Integration with Mail.app.
Integration with Alfred PowerPack.
Pretty UI.

So this is really a two part question.

Is there any way to have hierarchically nested groups in Contacts.app? And,
If not, is there any other application I could use that would give me this functionality without sacrificing other usability too much?

I have one possible not-so-great workaround myself, which I will post as a self-answer. I'm hoping someone else has something better.

P.S.: Using El Capitan 10.11.6.

Best Answer

The only possible "solution" I have (which isn't really a solution but it's what I will do if nothing better is suggested), is:

Take everyone I don't routinely contact, export their vCards individually (not in batches) (this is so that quicklook will work), and delete them from Address Book (a.k.a. Contacts).
Use Contacts for my every day common contacts, and use either a directory structure and Quick Look, or some third party app, to organize all the rest of my contacts.

This compromise preserves integration with Afred and Mail.app for common contacts, and allows me to better organize unusual contacts. But I'd prefer nested contact groups directly in Contacts.app.

Related Solutions

IOS – Any way to move contacts between groups on iPhone

This cannot be done on the phone. You can sync your contacts to a Mac and do the changes from Address Book on the Mac.

You can also do this via iCloud.com.

MacOS – Script to delete all groups in contacts

The reason that script doesn't delete all the bogus groups is that it only repeats 50 times, so it will only delete 50 in one go.

This script will delete every group with the name that you input (it asks you with a dialog box) until it can't find any more:

set counter to 0
display dialog "Name of group to delete?" default answer ""
set theGroupName to text returned of result
tell application "Contacts"
    repeat
        try
            set theGroup to group theGroupName
            delete theGroup
            set counter to counter + 1
        on error
            exit repeat
        end try
    end repeat
    save
    display dialog "Removed " & counter & " instances of the group" with icon caution buttons {"OK"} default button "OK"
end tell

Best Answer

Related Solutions

IOS – Any way to move contacts between groups on iPhone

MacOS – Script to delete all groups in contacts

Related Question