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Asked: 2026-06-08T00:43:59+00:00

The problem When I attempt to create an ABPerson with ABPersonCreatePeopleInSourceWithVCardRepresentation() using corrupt vCard

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The problem

When I attempt to create an ABPerson with ABPersonCreatePeopleInSourceWithVCardRepresentation() using corrupt vCard data my app crashes. This is the console output:

2012-07-14 20:20:37.530 vCardTest[4418:707] vCard Syntax Error, character: 7 : /
2012-07-14 20:20:37.531 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN
2012-07-14 20:20:37.534 vCardTest[4418:707] vCard Syntax Error, character: 14 : n
2012-07-14 20:20:37.536 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN
2012-07-14 20:20:37.539 vCardTest[4418:707] vCard Syntax Error, character: 21 : i
2012-07-14 20:20:37.543 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN
2012-07-14 20:20:37.546 vCardTest[4418:707] vCard Syntax Error, character: 28 : o
2012-07-14 20:20:37.548 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN
2012-07-14 20:20:37.550 vCardTest[4418:707] vCard Syntax Error, character: 35 : s
2012-07-14 20:20:37.553 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN
2012-07-14 20:20:37.555 vCardTest[4418:707] vCard Syntax Error, character: 42 : g
2012-07-14 20:20:37.556 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN
2012-07-14 20:20:37.559 vCardTest[4418:707] Malformed BEGIN

What I tried to do to solve it

  • Apple’s docs don’t mention what happens when the data is corrupt.
  • I tried @try and @catch but no exception is really thrown.
  • Since the framework is logging all these syntax errors, I’m sure it knows that something is going on. I just don’t know how to catch that.

Why I care about corrupted data

The input string that generates the vCard comes from different sources which I do not control, so a lot of the times the input data won’t even be a vCard at all. I’m only concerned about parsing valid vCards that’s why it is important to be able to detect non-vCard data and discard it.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I faced exactly the same problem, did a lot of research, but couldn’t find any way to catch the exception either.

    Since the errors don’t seem to influence my app, I simply ignore them and check how many valid vCards were found in the scanned data – in my case the vCard comes from a QR code and I expect it to contain exactly one vCard.

    CFArrayRef vCardPeople = ABPersonCreatePeopleInSourceWithVCardRepresentation(defaultSource, scannedVCard);

if(vCardPeople != NULL && CFArrayGetCount(vCardPeople) == 1) {
    // Successfully read one vCard, save it to contacts
    ABRecordRef person = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(vCardPeople, 0);
    // ...
}
else {
    // Display an alert view to inform the user about malformed input data
}

    You said your app crashes – I think this is only indirectly related to the malformed vCard. Maybe it doesn’t crash until a few lines later when your code is not prepared to handle the empty array.

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