How to Stop Exchange From Saving Emails in Contacts

[beingbenjamin]

Good morning! I've reached out to various Apple tech sites, hoping to find some help. I'm a newish iMore reader so crossing my fingers a writer or a fellow reader can help.

My college uses Exchange, which I have set up on my Mac's internet accounts in system prefs. I use Mail, Contacts, and Calendar apps. The problem is, Exchange is saving every single email address I send to. Which, as an administrator, is a LOT of people... students and colleagues. It even does this in duplication! Let's say I have a contact card for Joe Smith with his email. It will save a new contact card as his email (and no other info). I even tried the merge feature, thinking maybe it wasn't connecting the dots somehow. Waste of time. New cards are still being saved.

I'm constantly cleaning out my "All Exchange" contacts folder of hundreds of addresses weekly.

Is there any way to turn this off? I've looked everywhere for a setting. Please help!

 

[nikkisharif]

Usually when that happens, it means you have a person saved in two different contact files. I noticed that issue when I had my phone setup to sync yahoo & gmail contacts. I ended up turning one off so it wouldn't duplicate. In not sure if that's an option for you but it worked for me.

 

[beingbenjamin]

No that is not the issue in this case. Like I said, I tried the merge feature. But it continues to save a new card with every email I send to, whether the email is in a legit contact card already or not.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Good morning! I've reached out to various Apple tech sites, hoping to find some help. I'm a newish iMore reader so crossing my fingers a writer or a fellow reader can help.

Welcome to iMore, and we will try to assist you.

My college uses Exchange, which I have set up on my Mac's internet accounts in system prefs.

Okay

I use Mail, Contacts, and Calendar apps.

Are you saying that Mail, Contacts and Calendars are what you have set to sync via your Exchange email to your Mac?

The problem is, Exchange is saving every single email address I send to. Which, as an administrator, is a LOT of people... students and colleagues.

This is confusing. "Send to" where?

It even does this in duplication! Let's say I have a contact card for Joe Smith with his email. It will save a new contact card as his email (and no other info). I even tried the merge feature, thinking maybe it wasn't connecting the dots somehow. Waste of time. New cards are still being saved.

I'm constantly cleaning out my "All Exchange" contacts folder of hundreds of addresses weekly.

Is there any way to turn this off? I've looked everywhere for a setting. Please help!

Can you not delete the account and then set it back up on your Mac? Maybe that will fix the problem you are having. Let us know either way, please...

 

[beingbenjamin]

Yes, those are the apps that are syncing with Exchange.

Send to... it saves every email address that I send an email to.

Deleting and re-setting up is not a solution. After wiping out all my contacts--the legitimate ones--it will just start having the issue again when I set it back up.

 

[xcsdm]

Did you ever find a solution? I'm having the same trouble.
Under Exchange (in Contacts.app) i have:
Contacts, which is Contacts I want
Emailed Contacts, which is empty
Suggested Contacts, which is empty
Yet All Contacts has every e-mail address that I have sent an e-mail.

It makes it nearly unusable.

 

[beingbenjamin]

Unfortunately, no I did not, so I ended up copying all my legitimate contact cards from Exchange into my iCloud account in a "Work" folder and turned off Exchange Contacts. Going to lose the Exchange universal address book, but that's a small price to pay for cleaning up this mess.