Does that mean that you can solve the problem when you use tie constraints instead? Tie constraints are linear whereas contact is not, so it is no surprise that it does not converge sometimes. In that case, there are many things to check.
I would start with looking at the Abaqus .msg file to search for clues on why it is not converging (there is a lot of useful information there but it is sometimes hard to decipher). One possibility for example is that the bolt has insufficient boundary condition to eliminate rigid body rotation about itself. In true then friction should help. Another possibility is that there is too much initial penetration between the bolt and hole resulting from coarse elements in that region. In general, Automatic Stabilization helps with contact, and so does using small increment sizes.
I hope this helps.
Nagi Elabbasi
Veryst Engineering