How to configure multiple CardDAV address books on macOS (native Contacts.app)

[Comet1903]

Hi there 👋

I’m running Stalwart and I’m currently trying to migrate my contacts onto it. The contacts are organized into multiple address books, shared to different users. Everything works perfectly when using Thunderbird or the Contacts app on iPhone/iPad (iOS 18/26), but on macOS (15.6/26.0) it’s a real pain to set things up.

The server connection works in general. I can sync contacts successfully. However, on macOS I always see only one address book in the Contacts app.

After some research, it seems that the macOS Contacts app can't handle multiple CardDAV address books over a single connection. It always selects the first address book returned by the server (probably the first in lexicographical order). That’s unfortunate, but something I could work with (I thought…).

Workaround I tried (without success):

According to the documentation:

“Alternatively, CardDAV address books can be accessed directly via the path /dav/card/<account_name> […]”

Since each account only has one address book (the default one), I expected that connecting to this path directly would always select the correct one.

In the macOS Internet Accounts settings, the Contacts app allows setting a custom path for CardDAV collections, so I tried using the path from above. Unfortunately, it didn’t work... I ended up with an empty address book, and any new contacts created in the app would not sync back to Stalwart.

Now my questions are:

• How should I setup my contacts on MacOS when I have multiple contacts books?
• What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your work on Stalwart.

[mdecimus]

Hi,

How should I setup my contacts on MacOS when I have multiple contacts books?

The only way is to use CardDAV app not made by Apple.

What am I doing wrong?

Nothing, Apple Contacts and Calendar are probably the worst pieces of software ever made by Apple.

[denschub]

For a bit of added context: @mdecimus is right, Contacts.app on macOS is a total dumpsterfire. (Calendar.app works fine tho in newer versions)

You can set the "Server Path", but you can't use that to force macOS to a specific address book. macOS fires a PROPFIND against that URL, and it expects to find a list of address books. If you point it to a specific address book, it doesn't get a list of address books, so it doesn't do anything.

But what's even funnier is that even if it sees a list of address books, it only ever syncs one of them. I think it's always the last one provided, but either way, it's broken.

But it gets even worse! When it found an address book, it runs a REPORT against hat address book to get all the VCards. That makes sense - but... Contacts.app, for whatever reason, does not know VCard v4. iOS does, and even the VCard deserialization in the system SDK does support it, but Contacts.app doesn't. Lots of applications, including Thunderbird, default to v4, so you end up in a state where macOS' Contacts.app is not syncing anything at all.

As far as I can tell, SOGo kinda hacked around that and only ever shows one address book to macOS, but that only solves part of the issue, and there really isn't anything Stalwart could do to make this reliable. I just gave up. :(