Contact Sync Issue

So finally resolved the sync. Signed out again and re-signed in once again finally kickstarted the sync. Only issue was I had locally stored contacts from the iCloud for fear of losing everything. So duplicate contacts. Determined first by manual inspection the locally stored contacts contained my most recent edits. Went thru and exported all the locally stored v-cards and imported them to the iCloud, then they eventually resynced with the Mac. After which I was able to just delete the locally stored ones to get back to having only the iCloud as the source for my contacts across all devices. No one has been able to explain why High Sierra stop syncing only the Contacts in the first place, but at least I finally recovered. Need to keep an eye on this for a while. It’s a shame I can’t trust the OS after I make edits to make sure it’s still correctly putting contents in the cloud.

Had done that once already. It resolves the duplicates but I still have an issue of not ALL fields in SOME contacts will update. If I edit them, then they sync properly so that’s the obvious workaround. Manually inspect hundreds of contacts and compare with ones in the iCloud and touch the discrepancies to force a sync. Until the next time Contacts decides to stop syncing with iCloud. Seems broke. Worked fine in El Capitan for last few years. Updated to High Sierra two weeks ago and suddenly Contacts stop working in the other day! Notes and Calendar continue to sync properly with all iOS devices.

If edit a contact on Mac that’s not in sync with what’s on the iPad or in the cloud, it correctly syncs. But that means I have to inspect and touch it. Why didn’t last signout and signin correctly Sync everything?

Yes. Mac, and all iOS use iCloud for Contacts, Calendar, and Notes to keep everything up to date and in sync. That is the only thing I use the cloud for.