This is now all much simpler. The chief thing to watch out for is that if you create an ABAddressBook without authorization, you get an evil address book – it isn’t nil but it isn’t good for anything either. Here’s how I currently recommend that you set up authorization status and request authorization if necessary: … Read more
I’ve seen this in my own app. And I’ve seen others report this as well. I’m pretty sure this is deliberate behavior. The OS kills any background apps that react to changes in privacy permissions. Apple appears to have taken a sledgehammer approach to this. It’s not a crash (though it may appear so when … Read more
the OS sends a SIGKILL which is not a crash – Apple session on privacy in iOS6 says: If permissions changes, app is quit. Background task expiration handler is called, if registered iOS then kills the application. WWDC 2012 Session Videos: Privacy Support in iOS and OS X Expiration handler: beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler There is no way … Read more
In my original answer, at the end of this answer, I show how to retrieve contacts in iOS versions prior to 9.0 in a manner that addresses some of the problems entailed by other answers here. But, if only supporting iOS 9 and later, one should use the Contacts framework, avoiding some of the annoying … Read more