zman999

Q: iOS 8 family sharing - sync contacts

Hi, we previously shared one Apple ID across multiple devices in our family. With iOS 8, we enabled family sharing and set everyone up with their own Apple ID. Everything seems to be working fine now except for one problem. Our contacts were previously shared via iCloud on all devices, but that doesn't seem to be happening now. Am I missing a step to enable contact syncing?

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Sep 20, 2014 12:52 PM

Close

Q: iOS 8 family sharing - sync contacts

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 4 of 5 last Next
  • by Aggertroll,

    Aggertroll Aggertroll Feb 2, 2015 2:13 AM in response to agsmith87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2015 2:13 AM in response to agsmith87

    We are having exactly the problem HF2014 and others describe.

    - We have individual primary icloud accounts with Contacts unchecked.

    - We have a separate icloud account only for sharing contacts.

    - This separate account apparently has one specific "My card".

    - As soon as these contacts are synced, "My card" is synced. If "My card" is set to A, everybody's "My card" becomes A.

    (This is for instance a problem when I receive a calendar invitation and accept - the "My card" info is used as the sender info.)

     

    I do not understand what agsmith87 means by this sentence in the jan 14 post:

    *I think the critical step in all of this, is to sign into the devices with each person's personal account FIRST. Then sign into the additional account.*

    I don't sign in or out of any accounts. I have a primary icloud account. And I have a secondary iCloud accout to share contacts. How would I sign in and out of those in a certain order?

     

    I have been trying to stop these "My card" switches - without success. I would really appreciate a solution.

    Is there a contact app that works accross Macs, iPhones and iPads and can be shared that does not have the "This is me" function?

  • by HF2014,

    HF2014 HF2014 Feb 2, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Aggertroll
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2015 5:29 AM in response to Aggertroll

    There is a simple solution to the 'My card' switching.  Dont share an iCloud account.  Share a gmail, yahoo, aol, or an exchange account instead.  Same concept, only share the contacts of that account.

  • by Aggertroll,

    Aggertroll Aggertroll Feb 2, 2015 7:22 AM in response to HF2014
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2015 7:22 AM in response to HF2014

    Thank you for the reply.

  • by aeropharma,

    aeropharma aeropharma Mar 7, 2015 8:08 AM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2015 8:08 AM in response to randers4

    Thanks for your workaround, but honestly this Family Share thing is sounding like the ill-fated MobileMe. Yesterday I spent over two hours talking with two levels of technical support just to get calendars to synch like they did before the system was "improved." Silly me, I expected the Family Share to then be synching Contacts, just like it did without Family Share. I was wrong, but I didn't have the time nor energy to pursue any more problems on that call.

     

    The users should have the option to check on/off the apps they want to synch, and then, in traditional Apple style, it just happens. Having to jump through so many cryptic hoops to do what the system did before sounds more like a Windows feature than Apple.

  • by kizo20,

    kizo20 kizo20 Apr 19, 2015 2:23 PM in response to zman999
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2015 2:23 PM in response to zman999

    Had the same question.  Family share does not allow you to share contacts,

    HOWEVER, here's an easy work around...

     

    I just highlighted all of my contacts.  Right click on them and create large v-card.  Save it to your computer.  Then just airdrop that sucker onto your other apple devices.  Boom and boom!

  • by Daddyo21,

    Daddyo21 Daddyo21 May 17, 2015 8:20 PM in response to aeropharma
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 17, 2015 8:20 PM in response to aeropharma

    i agree. Apple support is not helpful in solving the iMessage issue. Kinda like to old arrogant Microsoft of a decade ago.

  • by Simon Kemp,

    Simon Kemp Simon Kemp Jun 14, 2015 12:09 AM in response to zman999
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 14, 2015 12:09 AM in response to zman999

    Your families is not unique.  We had the same experience with all sharing on Apple ID and then moving to individual ID's. Very vexing.  Did you get the synchronising to work by signing out and back in to a shared account etc?

  • by Simon Kemp,

    Simon Kemp Simon Kemp Jun 14, 2015 12:21 AM in response to Aggertroll
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 14, 2015 12:21 AM in response to Aggertroll

    Aggertroll, Did you get any further with your family sharing?  Your instructions need some refining if possible and if they work.  We use a Mac only business app called Daylite for our business and that can automatically synch to Contacts/calendars/Mail but we don't do it because we prefer to keep them separate for a number of reasons.  Problem is of course you can call from Daylite but when you rec a call it dose not look up daylite to tell you who it is.  With contacts we want to synch personal contacts and not business ones.

  • by Thierry.,

    Thierry. Thierry. Jun 25, 2015 12:43 AM in response to Simon Kemp
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Jun 25, 2015 12:43 AM in response to Simon Kemp

    I really wish Apple make some change in iOS9 family sharing.

    It's obvious that we are many families, where we share the contacts.

     

    The best would be to have groups of contacts, like in the calendar, that could be shared or not.

    For example, I don't want my business contact to be on my son iPhone. But I want our family contacts to be on mine, my wife's and my son's. And I don't need to have his friends contacts on mine.

     

    I don't see where is the technical difficulty, when we know all the Apple "power"...

  • by Simon Kemp,

    Simon Kemp Simon Kemp Jun 25, 2015 1:38 AM in response to Thierry.
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 25, 2015 1:38 AM in response to Thierry.

    Thank you.  My sentiments exactly

  • by Phil1307,

    Phil1307 Phil1307 Jun 28, 2015 5:11 PM in response to randers4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2015 5:11 PM in response to randers4

    I love you! :-) This description made my day. Account added - sync worked - got all my contacts!!!!

     

    Did I mention that Apple is great? :-) Guys you are doing a wonderful job!

  • by Simon Kemp,

    Simon Kemp Simon Kemp Jun 29, 2015 6:28 AM in response to Phil1307
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 29, 2015 6:28 AM in response to Phil1307

    PHil1307,

    Could you carefully explain what you achieved and how you did it please.

  • by Phil1307,

    Phil1307 Phil1307 Jun 29, 2015 7:51 AM in response to Simon Kemp
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 29, 2015 7:51 AM in response to Simon Kemp

    My wife and me used the same cloud. After she took over her own cloud the contacts were gone.

    So I took her phone went to settings-mail/contacts and added my iCloud account. After that I switched on sync notes, calendar and contacts.

    That's it. All contacts appeared.

     

    I Hope that helps you.

    Phil

  • by Sydney's Mommy,

    Sydney's Mommy Sydney's Mommy Oct 24, 2015 3:43 AM in response to agsmith87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2015 3:43 AM in response to agsmith87

    I followed your instructions specifically and this worked for us right out the gate!

     

    So pleased with this solution and now everything is working as it should!

     

    Thank you so much!

  • by joyfromburr ridge,

    joyfromburr ridge joyfromburr ridge Oct 30, 2015 8:39 AM in response to Sydney's Mommy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 30, 2015 8:39 AM in response to Sydney's Mommy

    Terrific (and simple) instructions.  The only step I added was that I first turned off Calendar and Contacts from the secondary phone's iCloud account and deleted both from that phone.  Then I followed your suggestion and added my iCloud account and turned on Mail and Contacts.  Magically we can now share our Contacts and Calendar between computers, iPhones (we both have 6's on version 9.1) and iPad.  That makes life a lot easier!  Thanks again for your insight.

first Previous Page 4 of 5 last Next