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Address Books

BusyContacts supports multiple address books and syncs with multiple services.

Address Book Source List​

The Source List displays your Address Books grouped by server.

Address Book Color

  • On My Mac — Address Books stored locally on your Mac.
  • iCloud — Address Book hosted on iCloud.
  • Google — Address Book hosted on Google.
  • Exchange — Address Books hosted on Exchange.
  • CardDAV — Address Books hosted on other CardDAV servers (e.g. Fruux, macOS Server, Kerio, Zimbra, etc.).

Privileges​

  • Read-only icon Read-only address books will display a read-only icon next to them that looks like a pencil with a slash through it.
  • Shared icon Address books that you are sharing with others will appear with a publish icon next to them that looks like a broadcast signal. For more info, see Sharing Address Books

Address Book Colors​

You may change the color of an address book (and the color of all of its contacts) by control-clicking on it and choosing a color, or double-clicking on it to open the Address Book Info dialog. Note: You can also colorize Tags.

Address Book Color

Expanding and Collapsing Accounts​

You can expand or collapse an Account in the source list by hovering to the right of the Account name and clicking Show or Hide link.

Address Book Color

Creating Address Books​

Some servers (iCloud and Google) allow only one address book, while others (Exchange, Fruux, and Zimbra) allow multiple address books. If you're using a server that supports multiple address books, you can create an address book by selecting File > New Address Book.

Address Book Color

Creating an "On My Mac" Address Book​

You can also create local address books that are stored only on your Mac by selecting "On My Mac" as the location when creating a new address book. These local address books will not sync with any online service or other devices.

Use cases for "On My Mac" address books:

  • Archiving contacts: Keep a permanent backup of contacts you no longer actively use but want to preserve
  • Privacy-sensitive contacts: Store personal or confidential contacts that you don't want stored on cloud services
  • Temporary projects: Maintain contacts for short-term projects without cluttering your main synced address books
  • Testing and organization: Create test contacts or reorganize contacts before moving them to a synced address book
  • Offline access: Ensure certain contacts are always available even without internet connectivity

Once the address book is created, you can rename it, colorize it, and optionally nest it in an Address Book Group (see next).

Address Book Groups​

If you have multiple address books on a server, you can arrange them into nested Group folders by selecting File > New Address Book Group.

Address Book Color

Once a Group is created, you drag address books into the Group folder and re-order them. You can then expand/collapse a Group by clicking on the triangle icon next to its name, or show/hide all address books within the group by clicking its checkbox.

Address Book Color

In the example above, there are two groups, John and Fred, with address books nested below them.

Note: Address Book Groups in BusyContacts are for grouping address books into a nested folder. They are not the same as the Groups in macOS Contacts, which map to Tags in BusyContacts. For more info, see Tags.

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