I have multiple MacOS/iOS devices. Some contain Contacts reside on the device and others on iCloud (I notice this mostly on my MacOS devices because they call out the differences between local and "on iCloud"). Is there a way to merge everything onto iCloud and have them all sync across all devices? Is this even a good idea? Are there any pit-falls? Cheers.
iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.14
If you have signed in with same Apple ID and password on the same network in Mac and iPhone or other apple devices the contacts on each device will get synced , if the same contacts are in devices they will be seen as duplicates ( as if you had already created contacts in Mac and the same are in iPhone ) .
To avoid it , disconnect the desired device by just signing out from Apple ID account , then delete the duplicate contacts in each device see this https://shttps://support.apple.com/en-bw/HT205754
See this article also https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT203565
Then again sign in with same Apple ID and password on apple devices then merge the contacts see this article https://support.apple.com/en-bw/HT205754
If you have signed in with same Apple ID and password on the same network in Mac and iPhone or other apple devices the contacts on each device will get synced , if the same contacts are in devices they will be seen as duplicates ( as if you had already created contacts in Mac and the same are in iPhone ) .
To avoid it , disconnect the desired device by just signing out from Apple ID account , then delete the duplicate contacts in each device see this https://shttps://support.apple.com/en-bw/HT205754
See this article also https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT203565
Then again sign in with same Apple ID and password on apple devices then merge the contacts see this article https://support.apple.com/en-bw/HT205754
Perhaps I should be a little more specific. It appears that I have contacts (duplicates) in both places. Is there a way to put EVERYTHING on iCloud to avoid duplicates in the future across all devices. If I look in each of these categories below they are mostly the same however a few contacts when I open them on my Mac I see double entries for addresses and phone numbers... the card will show one contact information and label it as "on iCloud" and then below it show the other and say "on my Mac". Sometimes the information is identical and it still separates the two as being different.
Contacts from imported vCards as suggested appears to be a one time per instance solution. Is there are way to put everything on iCloud exclusively? Or is the "on my Mac" a local residence of the contacts that is constantly synced with iCloud. If the latter then when I get a duplicated contact or a contact the differs in one location or the other is it because the iCloud sync cannot resolve it?
Cheers.
If you have all your contacts in iCloud, you can delete your On My Mac contacts to avoid duplicates. If there are contacts in On My Mac that aren't in iCloud, export them, and then import them to iCloud.
Moving all contacts across all devices to iCloud?
