Sync Contacts on macOS

Mac Contact Sync Plugin for Obsidian

If your are updating this plugin from any version <2.0.0: BACKUP your previous contact notes: !! THEY WILL BE OVERWRITTEN !!

Features

• Sync contacts from your Mac's Contacts app to Obsidian
• Contacts to sync can be filtered directly in the Contacts App
• Creates contact files from a configurable template

Usage

1. Install the plugin
2. Create the specified ´Smart List´ in the your Contacts App (See Creating a Smart List)
3. Disable 'Export photos in vcard' by going to the settings of your Contacts App.
4. Configure the Plugin Settings:
   • Set the name of your created Smart List
   • Select a folder for the created Notes
   • Configure a custom template (See Templates)
5. Run the command Sync Contacts on macOS: Syncs contacts to sync your contacts
6. After syncing, you will see a notification stating how many Contacts have been synced

Creating a Smart List

Smart Lists are a native feature of your Contacts App. To create a new Smart List open your Contacts application and use the menu bar to navigate to: File > Smart Lists > New Smart List. Give it a name (default plugin setting is 'Obsidian'), and configure which of your contacts should be included.

Templates

The default template can be found at https://github.com/motschel123/Mac-Contact-Sync-Obsidian/blob/main/src/consts.ts.

You can use a custom template to define how the data will be saved in your notes. Tags in the form of {{tag}} will be replaced with the corresponding data. The following tags are available:

{{Name}}
{{Nickname}}
{{FirstName}}
{{MiddleName}}
{{LastName}}
{{MaidenName}}
{{Title}}
{{JobTitle}}
{{Department}}
{{Organization}}
{{Suffix}}
{{HomePage}}
{{BirthDate}}
{{PhoneticFirstName}}
{{PhoneticMiddleName}}
{{PhoneticLastName}}
{{Note}}

Regenerating Notes

When a Note for a given Contact already exists, it's contents will be overwritten. To keep certain content in your contact notes accross multiple runs of the sync command you can use the delimiter string: %%==MACOS_CONTACT_SYNC_KEEP==%% Everything after this will not be replaces when re-running the command.

Notes

• In order to communicate with the Contacts app this plugin runs an AppleScript: when asked for permission, allow Obsidian to access the Contacts app or this Plugin won't work.
• If you experience issues with the sychronization of contacts please make sure you have disabled 'export photos in vcard' in your Contacts App before creating an Issue.
• This plugin is not affiliated with Apple in any way.