You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Syncing contacts across devices - best practice

Hi


My contacts have been out of sync for a while, and I've been procrastinating sorting them out...


Essentially, I have 660 contacts in iCloud, 835 on my iPhone XS and 1'466 on my MacBook. I think my iPhone has the most up-to-date, I'm not bothered if I lose some the other contacts, a lot of them are duplicates on the other devices anyway but I want to have 835 contacts in iCloud and across all my devices.


They're not syncing automatically - at least haven't for a while - but that's the next issue. To start with, I want to bring them into sync and in line across all mechanisms.


Does anyone know best practice / rules & guidelines for doing this sensibly, and in the correct sequence of events - I don't want to lose them altogether.


Thanks for your reply

iPhone XS Max, iOS 12

Posted on Jul 9, 2019 5:53 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 9, 2019 8:28 AM


Take help of a web browser and enter in www.icloud.com with the apple id and password used in an iPhone , the contacts that were saved in will be visible select the desired contacts and click on gear icon in the left bottom corner and click on export as v card .

 

Open finder , click on downloads , right click on .vcf file and open with contacts .app( default ) .

 

The address book will get opened , a pop up window will appear stating are you sure you want to add number of cards , click on add .

 

Again open your address book the contacts that were in the iPhone will be transferred under the section “ All contacts “ in the Mac address book .

 

Sign out from www.icloud.com used with Apple ID and password for an iPhone .

 

Then enter in www.icloud.com with the apple id and password used in the Mac , click on gear icon and click on import as v card all the contacts will be transferred in the iCloud server , click on create group on the bottom right corner an untitled folder will be created in the side bar and the contacts from iPhone are all transferred to the iCloud server account .

See some articles iCloud: Export a contact as a vCard from iCloud Contacts

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph3605?locale=en_US

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph2667?locale=en_US


See this old thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250414800?answerId=250796057022#250796057022




Similar questions

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 9, 2019 8:28 AM in response to SwissVirtuosity


Take help of a web browser and enter in www.icloud.com with the apple id and password used in an iPhone , the contacts that were saved in will be visible select the desired contacts and click on gear icon in the left bottom corner and click on export as v card .

 

Open finder , click on downloads , right click on .vcf file and open with contacts .app( default ) .

 

The address book will get opened , a pop up window will appear stating are you sure you want to add number of cards , click on add .

 

Again open your address book the contacts that were in the iPhone will be transferred under the section “ All contacts “ in the Mac address book .

 

Sign out from www.icloud.com used with Apple ID and password for an iPhone .

 

Then enter in www.icloud.com with the apple id and password used in the Mac , click on gear icon and click on import as v card all the contacts will be transferred in the iCloud server , click on create group on the bottom right corner an untitled folder will be created in the side bar and the contacts from iPhone are all transferred to the iCloud server account .

See some articles iCloud: Export a contact as a vCard from iCloud Contacts

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph3605?locale=en_US

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph2667?locale=en_US


See this old thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250414800?answerId=250796057022#250796057022




Jul 9, 2019 7:04 AM in response to SwissVirtuosity

The simplest method is to sign all devices into the same iCloud account with the same AppleID and then enable "contacts" in the iCloud settings. Your contacts will then sync via iCloud across all your connected devices.


However, if you're using different services on different devices (e.g. sync'ing with Gmail, yahoo, MS exchange or some other email service that offers contact sync) you may want to instead ensure all devices are using that same account and service instead, if it holds your "master" contacts list.

Jul 9, 2019 8:48 AM in response to tygb

Thanks to everyone.


Actually, I managed to bring them all in sync, and I still have different numbers on my devices, mainly because I also have a corporate exchange service running where contacts only exist there and nowhere else. Frustrating. But at least they are all closer now, I know why, and I've used the opportunity to flush out a lot of my old contacts...


Appreciate your support

Syncing contacts across devices - best practice

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.